Digital platform to fuel banking sector: Study

NEW DELHI: The digital platform serves a huge opportunity for banks to attract new customers, lower costs, develop new propositions and business models, as also explore customer value to its maximum, a CII-PWC study said.

The e-commerce boom has fuelled the customer’s comfort with online purchases, which is slowly filtering to the financial products space. Banks can use these channels to reach out to new customers including those in smaller cities, it added.

With the proliferation of mobile-based services and the reducing median prices of smartphones, the payment industry is also on an exponential growth trajectory.

The study titled ‘Banks taking a quantum leap through digital,’ was released at CII National Banking Tech Summit by H R Khan Dy Governor RBI, A P Hota MD& CEO, National Payments Corporation of India and M S Raghavan, Chairman and MD, IDBI Bank.

The report said that digital intervention is a reality in today’s banking business and banks need to adapt and respond to this change to stay ahead of competition.

It also mentioned about some of the topmost trends to look out for in 2015—which are innovative customer acquisition and engagement strategies, data driven innovation, disruptive solutions in the payments space, convergence of regulations, emphasis on data management and new security frameworks for combatting fraud and cyber security and disruptive innovations from non-conventional financial players.

Arun Jain, Chairman, CII Banking Tech Summit said, “The adoption of digital is challenged by the incumbent technology landscape, manifesting itself in multiple generations, as well as the multitude of business lines and geographic spread of banks. On another plane, deep dive analytics and CRM of high granularity – phenomena that are waiting to happen, hold out a promise of delivering greater value to the bank as well as its customers.”

Vivek Belgavi, Leader Financial Services Technology, PwC India, said, “With non-traditional players such as Telcos, Fintech start-ups, and niche payments companies disrupting the digital space, there will be an increased onus on traditional banks to augment their current capabilities with innovation in the ecosystem, potentially leveraging investments, to maintain their differentiation.”