Customer expectations have risen; businesses need more capabilities, flexibility, and insights; comfort with technology has increased; the definition of banking is expanding; and there’s a greater desire for tighter integration and connectivity.
It’s the perfect post-pandemic storm, and one that requires bankers to navigate the disruption of a decades-long status quo. Are you ready?
To guide you, Christine Barry, Head of Banking and Payments Insights and Advisory at Aite-Novarica Group, recently hosted a webinar on the topic. I had the opportunity to join her and Katherine Weislogel, EVP and Head of Treasury and Payment Solutions at Synovus, to discuss the ways FIs have already started embracing disruption, engaging deeply with commercial customers in the digital channel, and transforming commercial banking.
Here are the top trends we covered:
Trend 1: Tightening Integration Across Processes
Customers want seamless navigation and consistent look and feel across their bank products. And they want easy data exchange with clients’ external systems. Having a more “platform” instead of “portal” mentality can result in higher customer satisfaction, more multi-product relationships, better alignment of the bank and client workflows, and the potential for new capabilities.
Trend 2: Providing More Actionable Insights
Most banks report, but should instead be advising, with the help of available analytics. Analytics better position banks to offer products at the point of need.
Trend 3: Expanding Payment Capabilities
Businesses desire greater payment flexibility/options, they’re seeing a decline in check volume, and an increase in ACH and card usage, as well as an increased need for international payments.
Trend 4: Bringing Non-Traditional Financial Capabilities Into the Bank Portal
More than 60% of businesses are going beyond their bank to meet at least on financial need, such as receivables, forecasting, payments, and money management. By bringing in these capabilities, banks can build out their own fintech ecosystem, giving customers a one-stop shop.
Trend 5: Prioritizing Improvements to Onboarding Processes
Providing transparency, communications, and a seamless onboarding process are all key to growth. However, some 40% of banks admit their treasury onboarding experience falls short of client expectations, according to an Aite-Novarica survey.
The webinar’s closing message is this: Digital is bigger than a channel. It’s about digitizing the entire bank. It’s thinking about the end-to-end journey, the lifecycle of your customers, the wholistic view. It’s a transformation from digital banking to digitizing the bank from end to end.
For a deep dive into the trends discussed, download the “Is Your Institution Ready for the Imminent Disruption of Commercial Banking?” webinar.
