Future of Banking: COVID-19 – Digitalizing in the New Normal

“Digital is fundamental to our business and to the future of the entire financial services industry.”

—Dennis Hudson, Seacoast Bank

The novel coronavirus seems to have taken all by surprise and exposed vulnerabilities that were never anticipated across all sectors of the various economies including banking. Obviously in our lifetime, we have not had to deal with anything remotely to the magnitude of this pandemic. Until now, the world seems to have become more adept in responding to the ever-increasing natural disasters. Significantly, governments so far have tried to flatten the curve to slow the spread of the disease by introducing several “WHO certified protocols”. However, the gravity and speed of this pandemic, is significant enough to change future individual and institutional behaviours.

One such change is expected in the area of digital transformation by banks. Digital technology has existed for some time now but sadly, majority of banks have been slow to move in this direction and many have barely even started this journey. This is about to change dramatically and urgently because the COVID-19 experiences have significantly changed the dynamics with a “no turning back” option. It is time to reinvent the digital transformation wheel to propel banks to become more efficient in delivery and significantly creating added value to customer service.

A departure from legacy banking.

The digitalization journey is propelled by easily accessible technologies, stable economic fundamentals and a good regulatory climate. Some research showed that 82% of global banks are already implementing a digital transformation program and 62% expect to be digitally mature in 2020, compared with just 19% in 2018. Transformation is no longer an option but a must.

Digital transformation is certainly not solving single business needs with individual, disconnected digital technologies but the need to transform all processes, functions and interactions, while delivering a compelling customer experience and distinguished engagement. A bank`s digital transformation strategy should respond to its business strategy requiring a fundamental change in culture from analog to digital. This can be carried out in many ways:

1. Digitalization should be an ongoing process

Banks need to be able to move fast to stay ahead of the competition. Rapid innovation is only possible if you can leverage on flexible, modular and reusable digital banking capabilities. Opening up to a bank`s ecosystem is another key differentiation factor. Open Banking enables strategic partnerships with Fintechs, Telco’s, Insurance providers. Such partnerships allow financial institutions to offer value-adding 3rd-party services which can unlock new revenue opportunities.

2. End-to-end Operations should be digitalized

Addressing integration challenges is one of the first items on CIO’s digital transformation agenda. Institutions have to streamline operational processes with automated workflows.

Once optimized and connected, a business is ready to embrace future-proof digital banking capabilities such as instant payments, digital customer onboarding, origination and servicing and next-level technologies, like artificial intelligence (AI) and robotic process automation (RPA).

3. Omnichannel Customer Experience

It is high time financial service providers shifted their viewpoint from bank-centric to customer-centric. The modern customer lifestyle is a harmonic blend of the physical and digital worlds. Exceptional digital experiences, in turn, are key for expanding a bank`s customer base and share of wallet.

4. Future-proof microservice architecture

In a digital world, being “customer-first” goes all the way back to a bank’s technology stack and the ability to quickly roll out new customer-centric initiatives. Microservice architecture plays a beneficial role in the business of digital banking because it adds flexibility to a bank’s digital transformation journey. A digital banking platform with a microservice architecture will allow the continuous delivery of software applications, regardless of the size and complexity of the project.

5. Integrations should be seamless

A digital banking platform shouldn’t turn into the next legacy technology in a bank`s IT landscape. Instead, it should seamlessly integrate with the core banking system and with the other existing and future systems, modernizing the institution`s infrastructure.

A robust Integration Framework is a key advantage of a digital banking platform, enabling process, channel and system integrations, unified customer data, central monitoring, business continuity, IT asset reusability, and more. With the help of an Integration Framework, a bank can connect the business end-to-end to increase its efficiency and focus on what really matters, which is growth.

The Future of Banking is now

Undoubtedly experts can only predict but nobody can be certain about what the post-coronavirus world will look like. However, there is one reality that has been proven without a doubt; Change can happen in an instant. The key is to imagine possible outcomes and set in motion those initiatives that can position your organization most advantageously. The most likely outcomes include:

Being ‘digital’ is not optional.
Working remotely will become much more common, it`s the new normal.
Innovation is imperious; “Stay ahead of the pace of change or you`re toast.”
Personal development will protect people from unforeseen circumstances
Sustainability will be valued by consumers and shareholder

About the Writer:

Ebenezer ASUMANG (CGIA) worked extensively in mainstream Banking & NBFIs. He is a Chartered member of the CGIA Institute, USA, a Google Certified Digital Marketer and an Author.