HOW EMBRACING COLLABORATION CAN DRIVE INNOVATION FOR SMALLER BANKS AND BUILDING SOCIETIES

– Simon Healy

 

Consumer demand for digital banking products is high. As recent Unisys research shows, half of potential customers say the freedom to open and manage accounts online is a key driver of choice – while a third want a mobile app. So, if banks want to keep attracting and retaining customers, digital has to be on the agenda.

Unfortunately, smaller banks and building societies are facing some serious challenges when it comes to delivering the necessary level of digital innovation. At the same time, competition in the banking sector is fierce, increasing the pressure even further. Something has to change.

 

Understanding the competition

Digital-first neobanks have taken the market by storm in recent years, reimagining how current accounts function and offering innovative services through app-only banking. Customer expectation around digital banking has broadly risen as a result, with these capabilities felt to be a ‘standard’, rather than something that sets a bank apart.

Well-established high street banks – most of whom have a significant number of customers, as well as deeper pockets than your average building society – are also investing heavily in digital capabilities. And all the while, non-bank brands are circling the sector, with many big-name retail technology players expecting to enter the market over the next few years.

Combined, this places serious pressure on building societies and smaller banks, many of whom have limited investment budgets, a smaller pool of innovation resource, and a historical reliance on manual processes.

 

The value of trust

But – as Unisys research reveals – it’s not all doom and gloom for these institutions. While smaller banks and building societies might not have the large investment pots or the internal resource to accelerate digital innovation, they do seem to have strong reserves of customer trust to build on. In the building society sector, for example, nine out of 10 current customers still expect to be a building society customer in the next five years, citing trust in the brand as a key driver.

Meanwhile, customers are more likely to want a digital account offering from a building society than a neobank, highlighting a clear opportunity for building societies to seize – if only they can find the digital fuel to drive their innovation forward.

 

Embracing Open Banking to drive innovation

Once upon a time, product innovation in the banking sector was an inward-looking and investment-heavy process. But now, with the introduction of Open Banking, that could change. Over 60% of consumers who know what Open Banking is believe it’s key to attracting new customers. And with its introduction, there’s a real opportunity for smaller players to develop their products in a new way, delivering fresh customer experiences by integrating with other providers and technologies.

The beauty of this approach is that better customer service (and a broader product offering) can be achieved by collaborating and integrating with other providers, rather than developing the technology in house. As such, smaller banks and building societies won’t be restrained by their limited budgets – instead, they can simply focus on delivering the products their customers need, and the high-quality services they expect.

Although we’ve only seen fairly limited account aggregation so far, this could be taken much further in order to drive significant customer revenues. For example, Open Banking can provide the framework and the safe transmission of data for Embedded Banking, in which banking services are an integrated part of a broader customer service journey.

Most consumers already have some experience of this – just think about how payments function seamlessly in a service like Uber. But this functionality could be pushed much further. Applied in the right way, consumers could be granted the ability to take out a car loan as part of their search for the perfect vehicle. They could even secure a mortgage with minimal hassle during an integrated, online house purchase.

The appeal of this is clear. Embedding banking could significantly reduce friction and empower customers to receive the services they want, where they want them, and how they want them. And this could serve as a valuable distribution opportunity for banks and Building Societies struggling to find the investments needed to keep up with the digital innovators.

 

Exploring the possibilities of collaborative harmony

It’s an exciting opportunity that doesn’t only apply to personal finance: Unisys research shows that consumers would like to see building societies offer more business banking products. With an Embedded Banking approach, businesses could benefit from the ability to access an integrated bank account and accountancy solution, for example. It’s an area smaller banks and building societies could seek to develop.

Of course, this requires a degree of collaborative harmony, with different organisations working in tandem. Yet the general sense in the industry does seem to be a move towards this, in recognition of the fact that outcomes can be improved across the industry by taking a collaborative approach. Ultimately, nearly all financial services know that digital transformation is a vital undertaking to remain competitive – and this can be achieved more effectively by working in tandem with one another.

However, this isn’t a one-off assessment – smaller banks and building societies should keep one eye on the horizon, and reflect on how emerging capabilities like Open and Embedded Banking can help to ensure they don’t lose ground in the future. Customer sentiment is clear, and it’s apparent that consumers want smaller banks and societies to do well – it’s simply a case of embracing the right digital drivers to succeed.

 

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