Forecast was, come 2017, the ‘challenger’ banks will take-over their space in the UK’s banking industry. The time is here and now.
Loaded with information infrastructure and digital transmission gateways across continents and the blistering pace at which IT/ITeS has supported fintech operations worldwide, global banking has been witness to a sea-change in product development and service standards over the past decade and more. There are no two opinions on that.
As innovation gets the upper hand continuously in banking services delivery, traditional gimmicks and carrots that attract customer confidence will come unstuck in a competitive marketplace.
The days of ‘cash-back’ offers, minimum deposits or the waiver of it, etc., shall be relegated to the back-burner, sooner than later.
The name of the game would be ‘problem-solving money management’.
The open banking model that is fast sweeping the United Kingdom as the new and exciting consumer and business banking type, is specific to the region.
In the US market, the concept will adapt itself to a different dimension, foresees the financial pundits of a leading banking advisory, that has been monitoring change and innovation in the industry for years.
Yet, peculiar to the US industry is the constant demand for customisation of financial solutions. This trend shall find a large number of institutions fighting with its back to the wall, to maintain the balancing act of offering traditional products and services and simultaneously addressing the growing niche markets which the consumer of the modern age has come to expect as a part of life.
Flexibity within the processes. Accommodation of customer requests. Collaboration with fintech partners. These are fast becoming the call of duty for bank managers willing to take up the challenge of changing to the times. A difficult but possible task, as the goal set before them has already getting captioned, ‘perform or perish’.
At the end of the day, the message is that the man-on-the-street customer better watch out to know which player in the industry is winning or losing in this game of competitive balance.
