At our recent Internet of Banking conference in London, IoB caught up with major players in the banking world to discuss how technology is changing the industry.
We hear a lot about fintech start-ups and challenger banks taking market share from the traditional, legacy banks. At the same time, new technologies are said to be disrupting the industry and changing the way banks operate.
So how is the industry responding to this wave of change and what does the future hold?
Internet of Business editor, Doug Drinkwater, caught up with Tom Blomfield, founder and CEO of the mobile-only bank Monzo, the director of digital products and propositions at Barclays, Laura Joseph, and Natasha Kyprianides, head of digital banking and innovation at Hellenic Bank, the bank behind the PayBand wearable, to find out.
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The (banking) times they are a changin’
In recent years, the banking industry has changed dramatically. The era when customers were reliant on cash payments has quickly diminished as contactless credit and debit cards made transactions much simpler and quicker. Yet that trend has already found itself behind the curve as smartphones and wearables have introduced a whole new approach to banking and payments.
So, what comes next?
Blomfield discusses how banks are in a period of transition from the old model of simply selling financial services to actually solving customer problems. With technology making it easier and cheaper to deliver the same products at a lower cost, how do traditional banks compete?
Joseph delivers a vision for what banking will look like 10 years from now. In this not too distant future, will there still be high street branches? Yes, but they won’t be the same. Customers don’t want to go in and speak to someone, it’s all about banking on mobile now.
Natasha Kyprianides says, actually, it’s not all about the customer. Banks need to digitize outside and in. Only once a bank has achieved that can it really transform its back and front end services.
Related: How is Artificial Intelligence (AI) changing our banks?