Fintech

There are really exciting times ahead for the Financial Services industry as new business models, will present themselves on the back of cutting-edge technology, but it’s necessary for executives to keep abreast of these developments, to understand their capabilities and to consider how they can be implemented in their organisations, in line with the firm’s risk appetite.

Firms will need to employ innovation and development that lies in delivering a deeper customer understanding and experience necessary to acquire, engage and retain customers in a digitalised world. Successful models will focus on transparency, empowerment and rewarding customers as opposed to penalisation and disengagement, to provide enhanced UX and UI.

Use of smart technologies and innovative products and services are not without their risks. This includes existing risks that the firms face that are enhanced by the new additions, but also include new and emerging risks. Firms will need to ensure that their risk appetite and frameworks are considered as part of any material business change.

New technologies enable companies to leverage data and insights in a very seamless manner. The ability in the future, to provide a transformative experience by leveraging enhanced data sets to allow a Financial Services provider to tailor an experience to a customer’s wants, needs and desires. Firms needs to ensure that they have appropriate data strategies, availability and processes around these strategies to benefit from these new capabilities.

Use of RPA will drive down the cost of manual tasks, to free up individuals for value add support in the back and middle offices of financial institutions. Firms need to identify the optimal opportunities to employ these techniques in the most effective and efficient manner.

Use of ML & AI in a firms processes can provide varied benefits across ensuring uptime for customers 24/7, enhanced reduction of manual tasks, deep understanding of behaviours and root-causes of issues and increased productivity. Firms will need to consider a roadmap for the identification of use-cases, testing, implementation and enhancement of the technology over long periods.

Industry wide use cases for DLTs and Blockchain are becoming more focused this year, with an emphasis on resolution of cross industry issues. Firms should consider participation or co-ordination with these use cases, to ensure that they have visibility of the benefits, pitfalls and outcomes to inform their own strategies.