With all the digitization efforts (PSD2 went live in January and GDPR will take effect in two days) in the banking sector, European traditional #banks still face a problem with #onboarding new retail customers: prospective customers drop out before they complete the onboarding process. The #issue has only gotten worse over the years. According to […]
Bank Innovation
#Artificial #intelligence, machine learning, and compliance were some of the topics that dominated day 1 of #fintech conference Data Disrupt, taking place in New York. The panel “Consumer Finance: Fighting #Fraud with Fire” brought together three fintech companies, who discussed different methods of combating fraud. AI and ML play undeniably large roles in fighting financial […]
Bank Innovation
For years, as financial services became increasingly digital, #credit scoring remained stubbornly unchanged, but there are indications, #from the regulators on down to startups, that this is finally changing. From machine-learning-based underwriting to #blockchain-based identity solutions, new #technology is transforming the business of borrowing money. New companies in the credit-scoring space are using AI and […]
Bank Innovation
Customer experience is the grand basis of competition in today’s business world. Unfortunately, most financial services institutions remain mired in manual, bespoke, paper-based processes—often siloed by customer, channel and product groups within a #bank. That is beginning to change.
RPA can reduce time to perform tasks by up to 90% and lower costs by up to 80%
A key theme from Accenture’s recent survey of 80 bank COOs in North America is the need for back-office #operations to become more digital and to act as the new front office. The survey report highlights several opportunities for #banks to improve their operations—such as re-skilling back-office workers, creating agility through digital decoupling and robotics process automation (RPA). Sixteen percent of bank COOs we polled are using RPA, while 63 percent plan to use it over the next year or are piloting the #technology. Half of those surveyed are looking towards straight-through processing and almost 75 percent have or plan to use analytics and data automation to truly unlock latent value in operations data.
This presents a unique opportunity for banks to accelerate the use of modern automation techniques given their fundamental ability to enhance the customer and employee experience.
Intelligent automation has the power to impact operations. Here are five key reasons why:
Banks should start their automation journey with the goal to look beyond cost savings. Five keys for success:
The power of RPA to invigorate bank operations is real—reducing time to perform tasks by up to 90 percent and lowering costs by up to 80 percent, by Accenture estimations. Before jumping on the bandwagon, however, business and IT must join together to strategically plan an optimal journey to an agile bank future.
Read our 2018 North America Banking Operations Survey for more insights.
The post Automating bank operations? Keep eyes wide open appeared first on Accenture Banking Blog.
PayPal wants to be the world’s largest open payments #platform, according to CEO Dan Schulman. At the heart of this aspiration is #PayPal’s ongoing technological evolution, which also enables the payments giant to expand into #banking #services. “We are just beginning to scratch the surface of the opportunity in front of us,” Schulman said yesterday […]
Bank Innovation
Many #banks have started using artificial intelligence to enhance customer service, whether through chatbots, customer acquisition or money management capabilities. However, when it comes to using AI in the backend of banking, those capabilities remains relatively unexplored, except for the most common use cases such as security, AML, KYC or fraud. One area where AI […]
Bank Innovation
The #payments #technology space just keeps getting hotter. Last week, U.S. payments business PayPal bought iZettle, while today Dutch payments platform #Adyen confirmed its plans to go public. These significant moves confirm that the large players in the space are getting larger. Today, Adyen confirmed plans for an initial public offering (IPO) as early as […]
Bank Innovation
Ambitious plans were unveiled today that will enable San Marino to become one of the leading #blockchain (decentralized ledger #technology) hubs in the world.
San Marino Innovation, the Republic of San Marino Innovation Institute, has confirmed the creation of a joint venture with Estonian-based Polybius, which provides for the incorporation of a new company under San Marino law aimed at developing a first of its kind blockchain ecosystem. Olympus Advisors, led by Samir Mastaki, played an instrumental role in harnessing this partnership.
Work will begin immediately on the drafting of an all-encompassing legislative framework for the blockchain industry, capitalizing on the unique intent of the Republic to become a reliable and proactive legislative partner for the industry.
The joint venture will also enable San Marino to harness Polybius’ Digital ID technology to create new and world leading identity mechanisms for authentication and verification. A move driven by ongoing European personal and private data management initiatives.
World leading blockchain ecosystem “We are the world’s oldest Republic and we are proud to begin a transformation
lead by technology. We believe this partnership will have an significant impact on the economy, growing the innovation sector which is at the core of our development strategy” said Andrea Zafferani, Secretary of State for Economic
Development. “The Republic will also acquire a state of art set of regulations to become a world-leading blockchain hub.”
“San Marino is ideally placed to become an innovator with this type of technology” said Sergio Mottola, Executive Chairman of San Marino Innovation. “We are not interested in short term or opportunistic policies to take advantage of the speculation surrounding today’s #cryptocurrency world. Rather, we are intrigued by the revolution implicit in the underlying technology: the “blockchain”, which we expect to bring an impact on the global economy greater than what the Internet has”.
“The Government of the Republic is willing to take the lead on this transformation and is superbly placed to promote digital innovation through the constitution of a forward-looking legislation and jurisdiction to favour the growing blockchain infrastructure.”
“We are also activating a direct dialogue with innovators worldwide, offering them an environment in which digital economy based businesses can thrive.”
Anton Altement, CEO & co-founder of Polybius added “we are thrilled to announce this exclusive partnership with San Marino and are hugely excited about the potential of the project. We look forward to working alongside the relevant institutions of the Republic and San Marino Innovation in particular. ”
“We were a pioneer of distributed ledger technologies through our HashCoins OÜ company. Now we are able to bring that expertise and experience to bear on a project that will position San Marino as a hub for innovation and deliver a
strong incentive for the Government to continue growing the industry in the long run,” said Ivan Turygin, co-founder of Polybius.
“Our broad experience includes development of practical solutions on multiple blockchains, most notably Emercoin. In the past, we have developed and implemented solutions ranging across password-free authorization, data storage and notary services,” stressed Sergei Potapenko, co-founder of Polybius
About Polybius – A new company, founded in 2017, yet its team boasts a combined experience of over a decade working on blockchain based projects.
Polybius will provide the new company with the know-how and technological tools necessary to develop an ecosystem of services, among them is Digital ID, an advanced verification tool.
For more details contact [email protected].
About San Marino Innovation
The Republic of San Marino Innovation Institute, San Marino Innovation, is an Institutional Organ owned 100% by the Eccelentissima Camera della Repubblica di San Marino, and its function is to drive the long term innovation strategy and
policy making in respect of innovation.
For more details contact [email protected]
#Banks today are facing stiff competition from innovative fintechs focusing on niches in the retail banking value chain. The advent of Open Banking will also facilitate the creation of new products and services that were previously impossible to imagine.
This creation of new products and services is blurring the gaps between banks’ traditional lines of business, such as payments and #credit. Fintechs and banks see the importance of linking credit and payments, self-evident for many years with credit cards, but which is an emerging theme in payments #innovation currently.
The millennials of today are uneasy carrying credit card balances, particularly as an aftermath of the struggle with debt during the financial crisis. They lend with more certain repayment terms, which helps them fund their big-ticket as well as smaller purchases while also consolidating their debts. #Point-of-#sale lending has emerged as a new category of lending to help such consumers finance new spending and to help merchants reduce basket abandonment. By partnering with merchants and embracing digital technologies, some disruptive fintechs are competing directly with credit cards and store cards to provide customers with quick and easy short-term credit at checkout.
One such disruptive #fintech in this space is Klarna, which provides a “buy now pay later” option at the checkout. When visiting a website powered by Klarna, shoppers need to simply input their email ID and shipping address, without the need to set up an account or type in credit card information. The maximum purchase limit is different on each account and is determined by a credit assessment by Klarna. For retailers, Klarna assumes all the financial risk of encouraging shoppers to close the deal without #payment. When the online retailer ships the product, Klarna pays the merchant directly, then sends a message to the consumer allowing 14 or 30 days to pay or return the item. Shoppers can also choose to pay on monthly installments with an interest component added. Behind the scenes, Klarna does checks that quickly determine if a shopper is a legitimate person and has good credit based on his or her email and shipping address.
Other companies in this space, like PayPal credit (formerly known as Bill me Later), have been steadily growing since 2008; PayPal credit offers a digital reusable line of credit to shop anywhere PayPal is accepted. Customers get up to six months to pay on purchases of $ 99 or more. Another player in this space is Affirm, which is also partnering with merchants to offer payment options, including financing as an alternative to credit cards.
Payments systems, like those offered by these players, are growing, are profitable and are encroaching more and more on traditional banking systems. The primary benefit of such a service is that removal of the payment step greatly reduces friction and shopping cart abandonment in the checkout process. The model proves to be a win-win for the customer and the retailer alike. The granting of a banking license to Klarna has enabled the fintech to move into ‘big bank’ territory and start offering its customers a larger range of financial services.
Banks such as Wells Fargo and Citigroup have been big players in point-of-sale loans historically—but these types of loans are now becoming increasingly popular. This is due to the advent of #technology that enables merchants to offer the option of a loan at the moment of purchase, where they may have previously only accepted cash or credit cards. Of late, consumer loan growth has become a top priority for banks to diversify their loan books, which historically have been over-burdened with commercial loan portfolios.
Some banks have taken the route of partnering with fintechs to have their share in the POS lending scene—e.g. banks like SunTrust, Regions Financial Corp, Fifth Third Bancorp, etc. have been offering their loans through GreenSky, a fintech which enables merchants selling furniture, home improvement and medical firms to provide POS credit to their customers. GreenSky provides loans—from $ 5,000 to $ 55,000—which are funded in minutes by any of the banks in their network.
POS lending provides the much-needed portfolio diversification which banks need in their books. Burgeoning fintechs in this space are claiming their share of these loans from customers—and banks need to ensure they have their own plans in place to either partner with them, or speed up their digital innovation processes to get their fair share of the POS lending market. With the advent of technology and regulations aimed at removing friction in the customer journey, the linkage between payments and credit are strengthening like never before, and banks need to have their strategies ready to retain their dominant foothold in this space.
The post Payment innovation extends the marketplace for credit at the point of sale appeared first on Accenture Banking Blog.
The changing #bank branch is a twofold story of innovation and closures. The physical bank branch is by no means dead, but is trending toward consolidation or closure, as in the case of Iberia Bank in Louisiana. Earlier this week, the regional bank announced the closure of 22 #branches. CEO Daryl Byrd said the move […]
Bank Innovation
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