#Bitcoin has reached a new low today, dropping #below the $ 7,000 mark. This drop, represents a 51-day low, marking the most well-known #cryptocurrency’s #worst #quarter yet, according to reports. In fact, a report by CNBC says this price-drop has shaved off as much as $ 114 billion off its #value. Currently, as of 10.00 AM ET […]
Bank Innovation
Silicon Valley startup #Robinhood is set to hit a $ 5.6 billion valuation #after its #newest #funding #round, expected to #reach $ 350 million, it was reported yesterday. This would represent a “fourfold increase in just one year” when it comes to the startup’s valuation, the Wall Street Journal reported, and would make Robinhood one of the …Read More
Bank Innovation
#Mobile payments may not be mainstream in the United States quite yet, but it’s growing to be a more popular payment method as new smartphones, devices, and features make their way across the consumer stage. The varied mobile payment platforms that are now vying for consumer interest will have to make sure that their platform …Read More
Bank Innovation
#Banks seen as lagging in their digital transformation program saw a decrease of 11% in #future #value
When it comes to #creating future value for shareholders, banks are lagging badly behind GAFA (Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple) companies, and they also trail financial #technology (#fintech) companies. Our analysis of Capital IQ data in 2017 indicated that future value represents 49% of the total value of GAFA companies and 40% of the total value of fintech companies, with “future value” defined as the premium investors are willing to pay beyond the value of current operations.
Future growth value of banks launching an aggressive digital transformation program was 20%, but banks seen as lagging in their digital transformation program saw a decrease of 11% in future value. Clearly, innovation is a key driver for creating future value in banking, but banks cannot simply snap their fingers and magically transform themselves into innovators.
Our experience shows that there are five key steps to creating future value through innovation:
Getting on board the digital transformation train is not easy, as the pace of change is accelerating. To capture trapped value, banks need a disciplined, systematic approach to change, acknowledging that change is a constant evolution rather than a single event. Speed is becoming the critical factor for both decision-making and transformation.
Banks need to transform their core businesses, determining what is required just to stay viable, and then what is needed to increase profits. But they should no longer be thinking in terms of moving from phase to phase. Rather, they should create an innovation architecture and work on getting the timing, scale and direction right, so that they can manage the investment process and the allocation of capital in both core and new businesses. The ultimate objective should be a circular path of growth and renewal.
It is worth keeping in mind that banks cannot succeed at digital transformation without a) identifying, training and retaining the right people and b) helping their people understand and adapt to the #challenges of the digital era. The order of magnitude of the hiring, training and adapting involved is far beyond anything banks have experienced so far. Banks, as well, have a social responsibility to deal fairly with their employees. I will discuss these and other “people” factors in my next blog.
The post European banks face challenges in creating future value appeared first on Accenture Banking Blog.
I have recently moved to Dublin for a six-month secondment, and have the pleasure of leading our small but growing Accenture Research team based at The Dock, Accenture’s state-of-the-art R&D hub.
This is an amazing space to work in, where that terrible phrase “the art of the possible” isn’t so cringingly hackneyed, and actually means something. In a room close to where I am sitting writing this, there is a team creating software for a space “cube” that will be launched into orbit to gather data for a project (I could tell you what that involved, but then it would automatically self-destruct etc., etc). In this environment, automation could almost feel old hat.
Not so intelligent automation though. This is definitely in the realm of “anything is possible”. Intelligent automation learns as it works. It isn’t just doing what it is told; it is constantly adapting to new situations. Imagine a #robo-advisor that remembers when a customer started to sound agitated during a call, and adapts the number or style of questions they ask on their next interaction, to try to improve the experience? Hyper-personalisation of services is an expectation by which customers will increasingly rank their banking experience, as they become used to having the choices available to them through Open Banking. And intelligent automation is one of the core tools available in a bank’s armoury to get them to this level of service, without (ahem) breaking the bank.
#Banks are in the perfect position to ride this wave of personalised services—if they can adapt to a platform that funnels a customer towards these slicker services. And thanks to intelligent automation, this need not come at a hyper-cost to the business, with fully automated approvals that adapt to a users’ preferences and usage of third parties. Even the potential for fraud could be reduced as a result of IA learning a customer’s patterns of use and being able to spot anomalies and potentially fraudulent transactions.
Aside #from the pure efficiency benefits available from IA, this #technology could also provide recommendations to customers for products and services available to them based on their current circumstances and financial needs, such as an overdraft facility if they are low on funds. Thanks to IA, the bank knows that based on previous spending patterns, the consumer will likely need £x amount to spend until their next bank credit payment is due.
This intelligent automation of services is heavily reliant on data, the last but by no means least part of the AI trinity: People x #Process x Data. And there are numerous ways in which banks are custodians of vast amounts of customer information, which is ripe for a reinvented approach. And they don’t even need to send a cube out into space to achieve this.
The post Artificial intelligence: Unlocking value from process appeared first on Accenture Banking Blog.
One of the key things I have learnt since recently moving to Dublin is that a little information goes a long way.
For instance, I have already learnt that Guinness tastes infinitely better here than it does anywhere else in the world. Another vital piece of information I learnt the hard way, is that you should never, NEVER, go anywhere without an umbrella. Even if it is a sparkling clear day when you step out in the morning, by the time you reach the end of the road you could easily be under attack #from a sideways-driven sheet of rain…it is not the emerald isle for nothing!
Information is the cornerstone of most of our decisions, and #banks should be no different in making use of the vast quantities of #data that they have in order to determine their next steps or provide new hereto underestimated potential revenue streams.
A slew of regulations about to be implemented, including Open Banking and GDPR, could be seen as an inconvenient obligation—or worse—a threat to the incumbency of the traditional bank. Allowing as they do, greater access to third parties, to the valuable relationship between bank and customer, and greater control to customers over their own data. Banks might take comfort from the fact that customers are currently nervous of sharing their data with anyone other than their bank—85 percent cited the potential for fraud as a key reason they would be reluctant to allow third parties to access their data—in one of our recent surveys. Yet this will only last until a critical mass of a customer’s peers start to recommend an alternative service (think Uberization), and suddenly the returns outweigh the risks.
But fortunately, banks are coming around to the idea that these regulations regarding data management and access are a beneficial catalyst to embracing the next generation of banking services. And that using the huge amount of data they possess to break down revenue siloes centred around a particular product or service, and gain greater insight into their customers, will place banks squarely in the zone to be the innovators of the future.
Banks are still in a position of trust: Most customers would prefer their data be used by the bank, rather than a third party, to provide better services. Although it would be prudent for banks to start adapting the type of service they have now, rather than waiting until they have fixed all their legacy issues, as some appear to favour.
Adopting a data-driven platform model in which a bank is the custodian of this valuable data commodity, and can channel consumers towards products and services offered by others, could create a new revenue channel for banks. They would be able to still offer their own products, but for those they cannot help—perhaps due to risk appetite or a product/service they do not offer themselves—they could conceivably charge other providers a fee for product recommendations to customers.
Providing a secure way for products to be offered and availed of by customers is also within the influence of banks. They have huge amounts of security experience, which incoming financial services providers may lack, and which a bank may also be able to monetise, based on what they know about customers’ needs and spending habits through their data.
Timing is everything though, and waiting to fix all your legacy issues before moving forward could be very costly. Digitally decoupling and adopting a two-speed development strategy to leapfrog over some of these issues, should be more than just a “would like to have” strategy—creating an environment where data can drive forward new products and services, and create multiple new revenue channels concurrently. Developing, deploying, and scaling at speed is within reach of banks, so long as they adopt and adapt to the new narrative of the industry.
As one of Ireland’s favourite sons once said, “Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative”, and while the quality of service offered must always be of a high standard, the way in which it is offered or charged for, based on new and innovative ways of interpreting data, is ripe for reimagining.
The post Artificial intelligence: Unlocking value from data appeared first on Accenture Banking Blog.
Bank payment specialists starting to use #Ripple #blockchain make clear to their own executives and regulators that this has nothing to do with #bitcoin.
Financial Technology
Over the past two years, the transaction volume in the financial #technology and information technology sectors remained relatively flat. The #value of those #deals, however, has shrunk significantly. According to the investment bank Berkery Noyes, there were 870 financial technology and information industry M&A transactions from the beginning of 2015 through to the end of 2016. The […]
Bank Innovation
#Digital #wallets are becoming more and more prevalent in the #fintech world, but according to a recent survey of 9,600 by Market Force Information, they are not gaining much ground with the average consumer. “#Consumers are actually questioning the #value [of digital wallets],” said Cheryl Flink, chief strategy officer for Market Force.Read More
Bank Innovation
Let’s get serious about this hyped #technology: the momentum is now
The buzz surrounding #Blockchain is comparable to that surrounding the #internet in the early 1990s
Do you remember the nineties? Everyone was talking about the internet and its potential, about life changing moments, about disruption, but no one could imagine what is possible? And today: our lives changed fundamentally. Everyone is communicating everywhere, new business models emerged – just to name the platform model, perfectly turned into revenue streams by AGFA &8211; Apple, Google, Facebook and Amazon. The company AGFA overslept this life changing moment: the Internet.
Some go even further to suggest that the Blockhain has the potential to reinvent key institutions. Ten years from now we will wonder how societies could have been survived without the Internet of #Value. But let’s step one step back: What’s Blockchain?
Blockchain is the technology behind the digital currency #Bitcoin, but Blockchain is unequal Bitcoin! The Blockchain is a kind of super sophisticated distributed ledger that keeps track of things on thousands or even millions of disparate computers, all coordinating with one another. Most simply, the Blockchain protocol is a cryptographically secure system of messaging and recording in a shared database.
Working in tandem, these systems enable a secure recording, verification and confirmation of transactions without the need of any single entity in charge. To write it in pictures: Today the Internet is an army with generals, we call them AGFA and the future?
The Blockchain is like the European idea &8211; each encoded and work for the good of the whole: for a common decentral network.
Using cryptography to maintain a peer-to-peer distributed, time-stamped and immutable consensus ledger of all past transactions. Each transaction is similar to a ledger item, which is aggregated with other blocks into a block of transactions, each connected to the last and needs to be agreed by consensus before adding to the chain. Transaction records cannot be forged, censored or reversed once a block is added. Transacting without trust and a third party becomes reality &8211; with three main disruptive advantages:
&8211; Trust: Less reliance on trusted third parties. Reducing or eliminating third party risk as trust is distributed over a decentral network
&8211; Immutable Record: All participants share and consensually update the record. This permanent record imparts confidence in the provenance of value being transacted and enhances fraud detection
&8211; Smart Contracts: Self-executing commitments. Obligations codified by smart contracts are easily replicable with the benefit of security, translucency and immutability of the Blockchain
As blockchain develops, instead of having an internet that puts information and content online, we will get a system that essentially automates trust and verification. Information we now rely on accountants, #banks, lawyers and governments to do. We will be able to know that anything on a Blockchain &8211; land rights, money, a deed &8211; is authentic and everyone around the world agrees on its value.
We saw over $ 1.4b in investments over the past three years &8211; just in the first quarter of 2016 VC firms invested globally $ 160m into Blockchain startups, up from $ 26 million compared to the previous quarter regarding CB Insights and KPMG. Three significant funding rounds on Blockchain Startups &8211; Circle with $ 60m (Series D), Digital Asset Holdings with $ 60m (Series A) and Blockstream with $ 55m (Series A) we have seen so far in 2016.
More than 2500+ Blockchain patents were globally filed over the last 3 years. 90+ central banks are engaged in Blockchain discussions worldwide as well as 90+ corporations have joined Blockchain consorts. Today, the pool of strategics investors in the Blockchain space has expanded from banks and VCs into insurance companies, payments and telcos.
Today use-cases are about Banking, or challenging the platform model, like Uber and AirBnB just to name a few. The Blockchain has the potential to eliminate intermediaries. Some other fascinating business concepts are about ownership and land rights or redefining the value chain of fair trade coffee. Software enabled contracts, called Smart Contracts, can verify if a job is made, and make the payment without a middleman.
Some InsurTech companies are even working to leverage Blockchain Technology as a mechanism for providing automatic payouts, particularly in the peer-to-peer insurance space where smart contracts could ensure payouts are made accurately and efficient. A song on the Blockchain could ask you to pay of it before it plays, cutting out Spotify and sending the money directly to the artist &8211; fair trade music! Disruption. Furthermore Digital Identity will be a critical enabler to broaden applications to new verticals for instance a digital system for storing and transferring identity.
Graphic: Blockchain Use-Cases (extract), by @jan_wich
Currently VCs are betting its money especially on Blockchain Startups that are focusing on middleware and services, payments/remittance and capital market solutions.
The global discussions worldwide are growing significantly, but significant hurdles remain to large-scale implementation. An uncertain and unharmonized regulatory environment, nascent collective standardization efforts as well as an absence of formal legal frameworks draw the current situation.
The technology has the potential to drive simplicity and efficiency through the establishment of new infrastructure and processes across financial services and data driven businesses. Blockchain is not a panacea, but has the potential to redefine current processes and call into question today’s business models.
Honestly to catch the real impact of the Blockchain Technology is difficult. But &8211; did we all know about TCP/IP and HTML once the internet had the breakthrough? No! Don’t struggle to understand the technology, search for the use-cases. Trial and Error. The Blockchain is more than a technology. It is a strategy.
Sources: Own research and ideas, WEF and CS
This article is first appeared on LinkedIn | Featured Image: Fotolia
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