One of the consequences of the pandemic has been the acceleration of digital transformation in industries, including finance, and the leading trends in online banking are here to stay.
We learn from everything, even from the bad, right? One of the lessons from the COVID-19 era is that we can speed up almost anything. Banks and fintechs squeezed nearly a decade of ecommerce innovation into just that period.
As expected, users have adapted and their expectations have evolved, so it represents a new challenge for companies. Now customers are embracing digital services, including many who have never previously completed financial transactions online.
So, what is the future of online banking? What progress have you had since the days of confinement? Why have we incurred in the progressive disuse of physical offices?
Read this content to the end and you will find all the answers.
Online banking, what was the outlook for improving digital experiences?
It cannot be denied: COVID-19 has changed our landscape. It has also determined the importance of digital disruption and has expedited the need for digital technology in all industries, but perhaps none more than financial services.
In early 2020, Financial Brand published a report stating that the top strategic priority for financial institutions was to improve the digital experience for consumers. Check out how Docbyte’s helping banks in providing online services.
This was largely due to changing trends in customer tastes and preferences; consumers had grown accustomed to personalized and optimized digital services such as Google, Amazon, and Netflix, and wanted the same level of service from their banks and fintechs.
After all, according to a McKinsey report, 75% of people who are new to using online channels indicated that they will continue to use them when things return to “normal”; this means that these changes tend to be permanent throughout the world.
Why is it said that the future will be experience banking?
We say the future is experiential banking because COVID-19 forced consumers, even those who were resistant to technology, to adapt immediately. Something that no one had thought of!
Most of the people who started using online banking , mobile applications, online services, and digital tools now that they have experienced the benefits of these innovations, will not want to give them up.
A digital business transformation strategy that improves the way employees interact with and serve their customers will be essential for all banks.
Tools such as the management of digital documents that provide instant access to contracts and files or electronic signatures that expedite the contracting of banking services, such as opening accounts; All of this frees people from physically going to the branch, saving both them and the company a lot of time.
Customer portals are a secure space that allows direct interaction in a secure cyberspace under full transparency.
Now, what do you think if we go on to talk about the innovations that should be included in any banking institution?
5 technological advances in online banking
Next, we are going to detail which are five technological advances in online banking that every institution should evaluate and invest:
1. Expansion of digitization in all service verticals
Traditional banks offer a wide range of financial services, but sadly some are not equipped for digitization. For example, consumers had to visit a branch to perform KYC or apply for a loan.
Currently, with online banking this is not necessary; This is because Fintechs now offer remote services to customers from any device with access to their online banking.
2. Moving from functional quantity to design quality
The emergence of feature-rich platforms at the expense of an intuitive, clean interface, and ease of use has emerged especially thanks to mobile banking apps.
In this sense, there are 3 options available to financial institutions to solve design problems in Apps:
- Launch an online and/or mobile application.
- New interface functionality in standalone applications.
- New navigation and interaction tools —chatbots, voice, online assistance, etc.
3. Multi-Channel Experience:
The banking industry must go beyond finding the optimal channel mix to determine what works best for each individual customer.
It is also about a seamless integration between the touch points where the start of a journey in one channel and its completion in another are supported.
4. Provide end-to-end digital onboarding
The new customer onboarding journey begins with a request for a new account or service and continues until you have a high level of commitment to this relationship.
However, given the change in tastes and preferences, it is increasingly less acceptable from the consumer’s perspective to have “interrupted processes” or with a high level of friction.
Currently they expect it to be easy to complete the data filling and the ability to enjoy good cybersecurity, authentication and digital documentation that simplify and optimize the processes more and more.
5. Combine Artificial Intelligence with IoT
With increasingly advanced big data analytics and electronic devices, the way consumers bank will forever change.
This new combination of Artificial Intelligence and the Internet of Things —IoT— may result in making life easier for consumers, for example, there are already possibilities of carrying out basic banking procedures by voice or a simple click on the platform to take a loan because the analyzes of our data were already done automatically.
For everything that is remote acceptance, electronic signature tools can add additional levels of verification of the signatory, which offers more reliability both in terms of legality and operability.
