Executive Summary

Fintech Innovation

Fintech innovation is disrupting and helping to transform all kinds of business sectors, from banking and lending to employment services and travel. Innovation is geared both to creating efficiencies and improving the customer experience.

One of the major areas for fintech innovation is to make payment processes smoother, faster and more reliable. For established banks and building societies, keeping pace with newer entrants is easier said than done. Legacy core infrastructure and entrenched ways of working can hamper the kinds of experiences they want to offer. These include payee confirmation during outbound payments; integrated payment initiation services within a single app; and immediate payment reconciliations and refreshed account balances at whatever time of the day or week.

As customer experience leaders continue to break boundaries with fresh, convenient and joined-up new services, there is a risk that traditional financial institutions will fall increasingly far behind if they allow inertia to persist. The result could be a two-speed market in which customers are forced to choose between historical reputation and a modern digital experience.

Closing the gap

But there is a way to close the gap. Even with the most complex internal systems and processes to work around, there are tools that established brands can draw on today to deliver the new experiences customers expect.

By harnessing these capabilities, banks and building societies and other established, FS-linked service providers have a chance not only to keep pace with today’s digital leaders but also to protect and grow their income, just by making it easier for customers to achieve what they need to.

With reference to the latest best practice of digital banking experience leaders, and first-hand insights into what’s possible, this first of two eBooks distils some invaluable recommendations to help established banks and building societies fast-track new customer innovation. In the second guide, we focus on wider opportunities for other digitally-ambitious businesses to do more with payment innovation.

3 issues for digitally ambitious businesses 

Key issues 1 – Legacy technology

In all sectors, established brands – both in financial services and the wider digital commerce ecosystem - face challenges from more agile, technology-enabled new entrants. These trailblazers are changing.....