The Royal Bank of Canada is looking at ways to implement #blockchain #technology for #payments between its Canada and U.S. #banks, using a system developed with software from the blockchain consortium #Hyperledger. The system was moved into existing RBC systems a few weeks ago to “shadow” the bank’s primary payment ledger, Martin Wildberger, the executive […]
Bank Innovation
The Royal Bank of Canada is looking at ways to implement #blockchain #technology for #payments between its Canada and U.S. #banks, using a system developed with software from the blockchain consortium #Hyperledger. The system was moved into existing RBC systems a few weeks ago to “shadow” the bank’s primary payment ledger, Martin Wildberger, the executive […]
Bank Innovation
EXCLUSIVE— With the help of APIs and other technologies, U.S. #banks are mastering the use and sharing of data, but the #next challenge is going to be even more technical. To move forward, financial institutions are going to have to take a closer look at the user experience, Eric Hazard, CEO for #fintech venture capital […]
Bank Innovation
#Pendo #Systems can find important information in millions of pages documentation. This is often called #dark #data because it has not been stored in standard database. It exists, but it has been hard to find.
Financial Technology
TransferWise had launched a Borderless Account for people and companies that do business across national baoundaries.
Financial Technology
These are exactly the sort of words that would make you launch your phone into the nearest river, if they had been uttered by Siri. Fortunately, they are the fictional words of HAL 9000, the sentient #artificial #intelligence system in the 1968 Stanley Kubrick film, A Space Odyssey: 2001. It told the story of a mission to Jupiter and the gradual realisation of the #human crew that the perfect piece of AI designed to help them, was in fact fallible, and plotting against them to preserve its existence.
We don’t appear to have come much further in our collective sentiment towards trusting AI. The term “killer robots” has been splashed across the press headlines quite a bit recently, with some heavyweight names behind them, highlighting the potential dangers of using AI #technology in warfare. Some of these warnings around the ethical usage of AI are undoubtedly justified. How do you prevent AI from learning bad characteristics as well as good? It doesn’t necessarily need to be as dramatic as the use of AI in war. It could be as simple as AI learning some of the sadly still intrinsic bias in society, such as that boys wear blue and girls wear pink. The stock archive this technology is likely to learn from has been written by humans. And humans have prejudices, fears, and ideas that they want to promote. AI may not be able to help learning some of these, and apportioning blame to the technology would be a mistake, but they could still have an impact on the service provided to us.
Ethical issues aside, nervousness around AI in the workplace is much closer to home, and again in many ways, there is justification for some jitters from employees. Technology has a history of replacing humans in the #workforce—and the initial stages of this can be painful. Printing presses, weaving machines, mechanised farming, automated production lines, to name a few that have disrupted the workforce across industries. AI in banking could undoubtedly do the same if deployed without a long-term, sustainable plan from #banks.
In our upcoming series of reports on AI in financial services, Accenture looks at the potential advantages and pitfalls of embracing AI in banking, capital markets and insurance.
“People x Process x Data = AI” is our view on the success of AI in the workplace. The process and data side we will come back to another time—but an equally important part of AI are the “people” that this technology will work alongside. Many have years of experience, most of which will not be written down for an AI colleague to pick up and assimilate into its own bank of knowledge. The importance of people is particularly significant in banking, where interaction between the bank and customer is still of vital importance to most, and must become a priority. Fifty-three percent of customers still go into their branch once a month or more. Customers like and want the reassurance of being able to speak to a person.
That is not to say that many would not be happy with a “phygital” blend of interaction with their bank. But if this is to be a success, then the workforce needs to be ready and able to use this technology. And with 30 percent of banking executives unsure that their current workforce has the necessary skills and experience to use AI technology to its optimum, there is cause for concern that the rollout of this technology could pose a problem for banks.
For it to be a success, a fully detailed proof of concept should be in place, with an inventory of the workforce skillset being of primary importance, before any decisions are made on how and where to use AI. Easier said than done? It needn’t be. Some simple “best practice” steps should help this along. To name a few:
Maybe the ethics of using AI is less around whether there is a risk it will learn our worst traits, and more around what our intentions are from using it. If it is just to slash the costs of the workforce, then employers are missing a trick, and could find themselves on the receiving end of public and regulatory disapproval. Their employees have something AI cannot learn: empathy and understanding of human nature. Both of which are vital in a customer-facing service, and which in its current format AI cannot provide on its own, meaning a combined AI/human workforce is necessary to get the best from this technology. The future is bright; the future is still human.
The post ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: AUGMENTING THE HUMAN WORKFORCE appeared first on Accenture Banking Blog.
The major #Canadian #banks have built strong #mobile platforms that can become the hub of their customers’ financial lives.
Financial Technology
While aesthetically pleasing, the distinctive V-shaped #flying #formation of migrating Canadian Geese is actually an efficiency measure. By flying in formation, the flock can be more aerodynamic and fly about 70 percent farther with the same amount of energy than if each goose flew alone. The thrust of one helps the others. With common direction and cooperation, they get to where they are going faster, easier and more efficiently.
It’s a concept that #banks and financial #technology (#fintech) companies should—and are—quickly learning.
Five years ago, industry watchers forecasted fintech to be the imminent and dramatic demise of traditional banking. It hasn’t happened, and in most geographies, the impact is being downgraded from a revolution to an evolution. Rather than displacing the incumbents, #fintechs are acting as a stimulus for incumbents to raise their game and develop better customer experiences—often in partnership with fintechs. The exceptions are markets where there were no incumbents. In China, the success of Ant Financial and Tencent is being driven at least to some degree by the lack of inertia in the banking system, and that digital technology has enabled a truly new experience rather than just a better alternative.
The picture is quite different in most mature markets. Volume migration from traditional to pure digital players continues to be in the low single digits in the US, while funding and regulatory hurdles are impeding challenger banks in the UK. Outside of a very few exceptions, like London-based TransferWise, no real killer apps that actually change the economics of banking have emerged in such markets, and many of those that show promise have been bought by incumbent banks. Reality is setting in that no matter how slick and well designed the customer experience is, conservative customers of incumbent banks need a more compelling reason to move their primary accounts.
Incumbent banks recognise that technology has the power to transform their business by making it more efficient, providing a better customer experience, and ultimately improving profit margins. Increasingly they are also recognising that flying in formation with smaller fintechs is more efficient than trying to always create their own solutions. By flying in formation, they can address the banking equivalent of air resistance like legacy system interfaces and regulatory compliance.
Likewise, fintechs are realising that flying alone can be energy sapping. In a rising rate environment in North America and Europe, some of operating cost advantages of fintechs are going to be offset by banks being able to keep their deposit costs rising slower than wholesale funding rates. As their cost advantage is eroded, fintechs may need to think about joining a banking formation to ensure that what they have that is distinctive and high value reaches the largest possible customer base. With the right partners, fintechs can explore new revenue streams, tap into different talent pools and access internal investment pools to evolve their products.
By combining their strengths under a common direction and in a strategic flying formation, banks and fintechs can deliver more compelling, hyper-relevant bank customer experiences quicker and easier than if both continue to fly alone.
To learn more, I invite you to read:
The post New “flying” formation for banks and fintechs appeared first on Accenture Banking Blog.
Fintechs are partnering with #banks, banks are using #blockchain #technology, artificial intelligence, and #cryptocurrency and financial regulation is still undergoing massive changes. Challengers to traditional #banking, payment, and loan products have all launched this year, and FIs are fighting fraud, hacks, and scams with an increasing number of biometric security measures. #2017 has been a […]
Bank Innovation
What is the #state of #banking #innovation today? Each year, we poll the industry to find out. #Fintech funding has grown tougher for startups, but #banks’ balance sheets are looking stronger– what does it mean for innovation? Talk has shifted from last year&8217;s discussions on #blockchain and chatbots to artificial intelligence and cloud-based cores. Many […]
Bank Innovation
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