Driving Growth Through Digital Innovation

Digital-first will be the new norm in banking. Over the next few years, there will be an active push to support more banking activities in a digital environment. As customer expectations for access to more banking activities rise, financial institutions will be under pressure to reduce their reliance on their branch networks and put their investment in digital capabilities.

This change will require that financial institutions flip their customer engagement model from one that uses digital as an extension of the physical distribution points– the brick-and-mortar experience– to one that is digital-first. The rapid uptake in digital technology is pushing financial institutions to innovate to keep up with rising customer expectations for better digital experiences, and that is highlighting an underlying need in the industry to build digital banking platforms of engagement.

Driving Growth Through Digital Innovation, commissioned by i2c Inc. and produced by Aite Group, explores the key trends driving innovation in banking and payments and what it takes to embrace new value-added experiences enabled by digital technology. This white paper also provides a checklist of what financial institutions need to do to be ready to innovate.

The backdrop to this paper has a number of dimensions. Digital banking adoption has reached critical mass and is now an expected part of the banking experience. Financial institutions are under great pressure to build more engaging digital experiences that provide value to their customers. The advent of COVID 19 has further accelerated the shift from branch first to digital-first for delivering banking services. This trend is not expected to reverse post COVID as customers become used to the convenience of the digital and continue to elevate their expectations of that experience.

Given this backdrop, the key takeaways include the following:

• With the mainstreaming of digital banking, financial institutions will need to move beyond the digital banking basics and drive growth through innovation.
• Consumers’ needs will continue to change in the future. Financial institutions need a flexible, agile and scalable technology platform that can take them there.
• The shift to digital offers financial institutions opportunity to engage with consumers in new ways by building experiences that meet their short and long-term financial goals. Innovations such as access to earned wages can help with cash flow between pay checks and provide great service.
• Financial institutions will need to evaluate their existing systems and determine if they meet their innovation needs. Most legacy solutions do not provide the flexibility to create these innovative products and solutions nor do they offer the ability to pivot when those expectations change.

Download the whitepaper: Driving Growth Through Digital Innovation

Podcast: Barriers to Digital Innovation and How to Overcome Them