FUTURE OF FINANCIAL SERVICES
“ As we continue to see branch closures taking place , the focus increasingly shifts towards banks ’ overall service proposition ”
ORIANA ASCIANO CLIENT DEVELOPMENT MANAGER FOR THE UK & IRELAND , FOUNDEVER
( LLMs ) to keep operational costs down . Those that do will have increased scope ( depending on size , assets and revenue ) to innovate the products and services their customers desire .
Asciano , too , feels the need to drive efficiencies will be crucial to banking success : “ Back-office efficiency , seamless integration , and automation have never been more important ,” she says .
“ When implemented properly , integrated systems and task automation both bring myriad benefits to the bank , its customers and employees alike .
“ For the customer , they bring timesavings and usually higher levels of personalisation and satisfaction . For the agent , they bring higher accuracy and by removing some of the more repetitive tasks , they give them the time to really focus on the human connection with the customer .” Furthermore , for O ’ Neill , banks behind the curve on efficiencies need desperately to implement the right digital strategies to improve cost reduction processes . He notes : “ Advancing on the digital maturity scale requires financial institutions to digitise across their value chain , the heart of which is in the back-office .
“ Progression along the curve and reaping the benefits of digitisation is underscored by a well-defined digital strategy that spans across the value chain , has executive buy-in , a talent pool aligned to the capabilities required and a dedicated flow of capital .
“ The winning financial institutions won ’ t fall prey to the lure of short-term profit and will , rather , see the transformation as a way to strategically position themselves to be market leaders – being laser-focused on delivering customer outcomes and truly understanding the customer intent over delivering projects is at the heart of this .
“ Aligning initiatives with a robust digital strategy centred around supporting the customer will inadvertently prioritise backoffice efficiency as a way to help those winning front-office initiatives .”
Playing hand-in-hand , innovations across the front and back office are critical to driving a holistic digital approach , cutting costs all the while .
Of course , this is an area where neobanks have the upper hand . But , as legacy banks continue to realise the significance of digital transformation , they will leverage their greater scale and brand entrenchment to catch up with their neobank counterparts .
As for neobanks , the mission in 2024 will be to continue offering new products and services to stay one step ahead – taking as large a share of customer and market share from their traditional rivals as possible .
In 2024 , the race between neobanks and legacy banks for success is on .
fintechmagazine . com 111