As mobile banking apps become more prevalent, institutions need to take advantage of the mobile platform as a marketing opportunity. The best way to do this is by producing an app that delivers a useful, personalized experience. And that means going beyond delivering generic push notifications. For example, if you know that a customer is looking to Read More
With the advent of Apple Pay and Android Pay, Bitcoin and EBay spinning off PayPal, payments are in the spotlight. But you’ve probably noticed that nonbanks have spearheaded most of this innovation, which wasn’t the case historically. Why is that? Banks in the modern form have existed since Renaissance Italy, when they evolved to play the central Read More
One of the most nebulous challenges in leading a bank innovation program is developing a measurement system that satisfies the institutional need for measurable results without stifling the creative spirit. Having spent years fine-tuning a measurement approach to capture and improve the performance of my former employer’s innovation platform, I can tell you that it can be Read More
Innovation in financial services has become a worldwide phenomenon, as showcased in the annual BAI-Infosys Finacle Global Banking Innovation Awards. Having spent a good part of my career in designing new financial services and products, it has been a great privilege for me to serve as a judge on these awards for the last two years. You Read More
The banks most successful at creating break-through innovations aren’t one-shot wonders; they’re reshaping their organizations to cultivate and sustain employees and their ideas for creating new sources of revenue and customer loyalty year after year. That’s certainly been the experience of bankers whose institutions were winners in past iterations of the BAI-Infosys Finacle Global Banking Innovation Awards, Read More
Cloud technology has been in the spotlight recently due to the infamous iCloud hacking scandals. These isolated instances have cast a shadow over the technology and even generated several misconceptions that have stymied its acceptance by the banking industry. The good news about the Cloud is that it offers better service through smoother workflow processes because it Read More
For those who have been in the banking industry for a while, the pace of change has picked up noticeably. Previously, change happened so slowly that minor modifications to how we did business, implemented through the budgeting process, were sufficient to keep our bank relevant. Those days are long gone. Gone are the rigid regulatory restrictions on Read More
The heightened use of customer insight for the delivery of financial services and the continued impact of digital channel development dominated the list of predictions that I gathered for the fourth edition of my annual banking trends study. The contributors also agreed that customers will continue to demand more from their financial institutions and that competition will Read More
After years of debate the battle lines have been drawn and it is clear what financial services institutions must do to succeed. In the new world order, the winners will be tech-savvy institutions that constantly innovate while managing expenses carefully. However, executing on these objectives is easier said than done. We predict ten trends for 2015, with Read More
Financial institutions are constantly challenged to remain relevant in a fast-paced digital world, differentiate themselves from the competition and develop new revenue streams. As if that isn’t challenging enough, today’s young professionals don’t have the loyalty to banks and businesses that their parents and grandparents did. This is not a bad thing. The needs and transient nature Read More
What’s it going to take for retail banks to survive in this post-financial crisis, increasingly digital world? “The dual strategy of ‘New and Renew’ will be critical,” says Michael Reh, senior vice president and global head of Infosys Finacle. “Banks must look to infuse new life into existing lines of business, while innovating into new ones.” Innovation Read More
What does it mean to be an innovator in today’s global banking industry? It’s no longer just about digital but more about connecting customers with their banks in a seamless, omnichannel fashion in order to solve specific problems and issues, according to judges in the BAI-Finacle Global Banking Innovation Awards 2014. “In prior years, we saw many Read More
What banker wouldn’t love to have the enthusiastic and friendly employees typically found at Whole Foods Market? Building such a committed service and sales culture can be done but it certainly doesn’t happen overnight, according to Whole Foods co-founder and co-CEO John Mackey. Specific steps described by Mackey in a recent interview with BAI Banking Strategies include Read More
Innovation today means redefining traditional banking with products and services that improve the customer experience, whether it’s a mobile app that enables customers to better comprehend and manage their bills; a hands-free payment system utilizing Bluetooth; a personal finance manager that automatically tracks all transactions, spending and cash flow across customer accounts; or a voice biometrics system Read More
The long awaited announcement of Apple Pay, on September 9, promises to scramble the existing payments system in the same way that Apple’s Macintosh, ipod, iphone and ipad products upended the computing, music and telecommunications industries. The full ramifications of these changes won’t be apparent for months, even years, as Apple’s strategic move into mobile payments incorporates Read More
Innovation is hard to do and financial institutions can always come up with a long list of reasons why they hold back from major changes in the way they do business, including increasing regulatory constraints, earnings pressures and overburdened technology departments. However, as the annual BAI-Finacle Global Banking Innovation Awards demonstrates, some financial institutions have the vision Read More
Looking across the banking industry today, it is increasingly apparent that strategic planning is broken. Given the economic challenges of the times, one would hope that we would be seeing some true innovation and differentiation in the strategies being pursued by banks. Instead, disruption and innovation have been left to niche providers such as Simple, Lending Club Read More
The combination of increasing regulation, continuing sluggish economic conditions and rapidly changing consumer expectations is shrinking the revenue potential of the demand deposit account. This stark reality is leading retail banks to focus more on business customers. Deeper market segmentation, bundling of service offerings, understanding the needs of businesses and strong relationships are the keys to growing Read More
Nobody believed David would beat Goliath until he did. Today, with an innovative strategy, the right timing and strong execution, nearly any upstart company has the potential to be David and de-throne the giant in their market. For banks, the long-standing Goliaths of the financial world, responding to small, scrappy startups and to the needs of an Read More
As today’s early-stage technologies evolve into mainstream offerings, retail banks will have to reshape their customer experiences to match. The prerequisite infrastructure is a core banking platform that supports customer data consolidation, real-time channel interfaces and rapid creation of new products and services. Think back to the early days of self-service ATMs, internet banking and mobile banking. Read More
