Digital technology is powering next-gen banking experience

Digital Technology is Powering Next-Gen Banking Experience

Sanjib Dutta

Digital technology is all pervasive in our day-to-day transactions including banking and financial services transactions. As customers display increasing appetite for adopting financial services and products offered by technology companies, banks have to be at the forefront in adopting digital technologies. Global leaders in banking industry are ensuring that technology is at the core of banking. They are using digital technologies such as Big Data, Cloud, AI, ML, Blockchain, Robotics, Mobile and electronic payments, and Cyber security to power customers’ banking experience.

A leader in the global banking landscape and also one of the first banks to make a giant leap toward digital is JPMC. The bank is a leader in the US in terms of the number of digital banking customers. JPMC had seen its active digital customers increase from 43.8 million in 2016 to 51 million till the second quarter of 2019, a year-on-year (YoY) growth of 6%. Also, the number of active mobile customers had gone up from 26.5 million in 2016 to 35.4 million till the second quarter of 2019, a YoY growth of 12 % (Source: Company 10K). The bank had opened two million digital accounts as of July 2019.

Another player in the US which is changing the way banking and financial transactions are done, more so by millennials, is Venmo. Observing the spending habits of millennials and their quick adoption of digital technology (mobile payments) compared to other generations, Venmo has launched a variety of products aimed at catering to the needs of the millennials. Unlike banking apps that never disclosed information publicly (about who’s paying who), Venmo allowed users to see who their friends were paying and for what.

One can see how digital technology is changing the face of banking in Europe too! In mid-2015, UK’s Monzo Bank Ltd. (Monzo) launched its mobile application (App) and by 2018, it became the UK’s startup Unicorn. UK-based mobile banking player Atom Bank plc. (Atom Bank) has emerged as the UK’s leading mobile banking service provider. Launched in 2016, Atom Bank became the UK’s first digital bank to offer easy and convenient banking, along with unique and engaging ways to manage money.

In Asia, China is the clear leader when it comes to adopting digital technology. However, traditional banks are far behind the tech companies which are driving digital adoption in banking and financial services industry. Chinese Tech giants such as Alibaba, Tencent, Baidu, are at the forefront of providing the next-gen customer experience across industries including banking and financial services.

The banking industry in India is slowly but surely adopting digital technology. Indian banks, including public sector banks have started the transformation journey toward technology-driven banking. The most visible element in this journey is mobile banking. Some of the big players which have launched mobile apps to transform customers’ banking experience are Kotak Bank (Kotak 811 & Mobile Banking); ICICI Bank (iMobile); SBI (Yono Lite); Axis Bank (Axis Mobile); and Bank of Baroda (M-Connect Plus).

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