By Jayne Zhang, Lead Digital Transformation and Commercialisation consultant, FPT Software
The financial services industry has been pivoting towards digital transformation for the last decade or so. The onset of COVID-19 pandemic has only heightened the importance of this transformation as the demand for digital solutions has rapidly grown. The rise of fintechs and brands has also fostered the maturing digital landscape and changed customer expectations.
As competition increases, it’s no longer enough to only offer financial products through digital channels. Surveys show that the main drivers for customer attrition are poor banking apps and a lack of digital services, so the financial services industry needs to embrace new strategies and technologies with a renewed focus on the customer context (experience and engagement) and provide enhanced digital experiences to retain and acquire new customers. Here are seven trend predictions for 2022 and beyond:
Increased investments in digital platforms, composable banking options and innovation
According to Forrester Research, in 2022, it’s predicted that a quarter of banks will increase their tech spending by 10% or more. Banks must invest in and build an infrastructure that facilitates their digital transformation and helps them provide an exceptional customer experience with digital intelligence and automated decisioning. This includes increased investment into the adoption of the micro-service and API layers that allow for seamless integration into digital platforms and ecosystems.
Creating a unified customer experience and journey
The digital experience is now the primary driver of customer attrition and it’s a major factor for consumers when it comes to choosing a bank. To stay competitive, banks need to deliver an attractive and comprehensive digital experience that works in parallel with their physical branch and call centre services. Business must look at the entire customer journey from end to end – from fast and seamless onboarding to real-time notifications with personal and relevant messaging, offering products relevant to the customer life cycle, well integrated self-service tools, enhanced security and fraud protection, and also offer insights for customers.
Increased focus on creating an AI structure which enables contextual and connected decision making
In order to leverage the digital decision platforms and logic that helps with decision making, there must be an increased focus on data-driven decision intelligence technologies, such as machine learning and AI. Many institutions are moving to a hybrid human and AI decision-making model to compose a full view of the customer, which enables customer life cycle management with intelligent, relevant and timely decisions. According to the International Data Corporation, global spending on AI systems is forecast to jump from $85.3 billion in 2021 to more than $204 billion in 2025. The compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for the 2021-2025 period will be 24.5%.
The power of data
To leverage the vast amount of data available, companies must be able to define, map, analyse, and use this data to create customised digital experiences with personal and relevant messaging and offers that customers want. Data responsibility will become increasingly important with the rise of data aggregation. Banks must balance the power of data with responsible AI, keeping in mind the importance of ethics, transparency, and security. Consumers are also more data aware with a maturing understanding of how their data could be exposed and used. This causes them to be more risk averse when it comes to giving out their data without a clear return. Banks will need to provide data value such as data insights for enhanced risk assessment or fraud protection, to empower customers with their own data, which in turn could give them better engagement and personalisation.
Financial wellness and education – humanising the digital experience and rethinking what it means to be customer-centric
A bank’s bottom line relies on the financial wellness of its customers, thus a focus on the financial health of customer should be a primary strategic goal. Having access to financial services does not necessarily mean they’re financially healthy. The younger generations may be more digitally savvy, but they aren’t financially savvy. What this means for banks is that there’s a renewed need to understand their customers’ life cycles, and their journey, be able to empathise with them, anticipate their needs, and deliver products/services to help them improve their financial wellbeing at the point of need – allowing their customers to feel financially secure. Studies show that putting their customers’ financial wellness at the centre will help banks grow profitable portfolios and increase long-term shareholder value.
Expand their line-up of sustainable finance products
Environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations are gaining importance. Some regulators are proposing that climate reporting by banks be made mandatory. The ESG transition will need banks to balance business while embracing and implementing ESG-related policies and standards. Financial services firms will be keen to accelerate their speed to market for ESG products and services, such as green loans and mortgages, and checking accounts with sustainability and carbon-tracking features.
Open banking and embedded finance
With regulators in the EU and UK proposing measures to extend data sharing principles across financial and nonfinancial products, 2022 will see a growing number of banks experimenting and pivoting their business models toward a more open, collaborative platform approach. Leveraging this open-banking connectivity and focusing their efforts on delivering select capabilities as a service, powering the growth of embedded finance. This all goes back to the focus on the customer, and being able to provide financial products, features, services and education at the point of the customer need, and not through a separate journey.
