Cutting through the noise around financial technology

There are more than 2000 startups offering traditional and new financial services today, the number growing more than twofold during the last year. Retail, commercial and large corporations are all implementing new financial technologies. But how are banks responding to it?

Banks have been historically very resistant to technological innovation, but they still remain uniquely and systemically important to the economy — they are the major source for deposits; they continue to be the entries to the world’s largest payment systems; and they still attract most of the requests for credit. Yet, banks should be aware of the changing environment and that they can be prone to “financial attackers” — mobility is a game changer and vast amounts of capital are now being deployed in fintechs.

In this fintech age, banks should be focused on identifying most important signals amid the fintech noise and reposition their business respectively. This would include building an extensive set of distinct digital capabilities: data driven digital insights, integrated customer experience, digital marketing, digitally enabled operations, next-gen technology.