Banks can use emerging technologies to boost profit

6 min read
Apr 20, 2022 3:00:00 PM

Over the previous two decades, technological upheavals have altered how we interact, converse, shop, and conduct business. Consumers' interactions with their money, what they expect from financial institutions, and how those institutions work have all been challenged by emerging technology in the financial services business. New technologies are making operations more accessible and more efficient, reducing mistakes, improving communication, and changing how people think about and interact with money.

Most significantly, these technologies may tremendously help financial institutions. Chatbots and automation, for example, are emerging technologies in the financial services business that cut person-hours, enhance client connections, and increase profitability. While the influence of new technology on financial services may vary depending on the function, many of them are expected to be adaptable and beneficial.

Need for Innovation in Banking Sector

Banks have been hesitant to upgrade their systems for a long time, and with good reason. Due to years of continuous innovation, they employ current techniques to address instant consumer needs. However, this has led to separate plans for the transaction, savings, investment, and loan accounts. This is incompatible with the digital era when banks face competition from technology-based FinTech businesses.

Banks and other conventional financial service providers have been forced to respond with a slew of digitalization and innovation efforts. These projects use cutting-edge technology to ensure a customer-centric approach rather than a traditional product-centric approach, real-time intelligent data integration rather than post-hoc analysis, and an open platform basis. This is where tech partners like TransformHub play their roles. 

Banking Technologies Shaping The Future

  • Digital Experience Platforms For Banks

Although digital experience platforms are not new, contemporary technologies allow financial institutions to change an industry that is still relatively new. Hybrid cloud (cloud/server) solutions, for example, provide users with both privacy and accessibility. In addition, real-time intelligent data integration, such as real-time digitization, personalization, and sophisticated analytics, is also possible with hybrid systems.

The emergence of API platforms, which allow users to link their banking data to other apps and vice versa, is one of the most significant advances. More financial institutions have battled API, but now that the EU has mandated open API, many organizations in the United States are following suit. In addition, consumers may benefit from open banking by sharing data with third-party budgeting applications and utilizing money management tools, which allows tiny financial institutions that cannot afford to provide these services through third parties.

How can you take advantage of the situation? Offering clients a new digital experience platform via an online portal will entice them, provide more value, and allow them to do anything they want with their data. Hybrid systems also improve security while lowering expenses because of automation and real-time data transmission.

  • Blockchain

Blockchain is an emerging financial services technology trend that is revolutionizing the financial world as we know it, yet adoption is currently modest. Blockchain is the technology that underpins Bitcoin and has been adopted by major financial institutions such as JP Morgan Chase. It is widely recognized as one of the most promising areas for banks and other financial institutions today.

While blockchain is one of the most exciting new technologies in the financial services business, it is still not widely available. While other organizations are working on broader solutions, most banks adopt blockchain solutions (including checking, money processing, trade finance, and so on). 

Smaller financial institutions without the resources to design a solution may face significant challenges. Blockchain's rapid acceptance over the last few years will swiftly become a mainstream solution for payments, fraud reduction, loan processing, smart contracts, and other applications.

  • Chatbots and Artificial Intelligence

Chatbots and other artificial intelligence technologies are becoming an increasingly important aspect of the banking industry's digital transformation. They are widely used by financial organizations of all sizes, with everyone from giant banks to small credit unions. While chatbots are the most apparent form of artificial intelligence, AI also influences back-office operations, product delivery, risk management, marketing, and security. 

Machines use simple algorithms to handle anything from data input to risk appraisal to loan form processing, saving significant banks hundreds of thousands of staff hours. Smaller banks may take advantage of these growing financial services technologies, including solutions to automate certain operations, including paperwork, data exchange, data analysis, client communication, and more.

The biggest problem is ensuring consistent quality in external procedures like chatbots, where some organizations frequently fall short. Many firms also face challenges such as siloed data sets, regulatory compliance concerns, and the worry that AI won't be able to complete the task, which is why many combine solutions with manual regulation and management to avoid machine mistakes. This indicates that the adoption of new technologies in financial services may be delayed due to financial organizations' concerns.

Security, risk mitigation, and cyber-security are areas where AI is becoming increasingly important. Because it is hard to eradicate cyber-security threats and other dangers, AI is utilized for real-time analytics and monitoring, generating fast notifications when something is detected as a threat. 

This enables quicker reactions, lowering the risk of actual breaches. While some argue that new AI projects may create security threats in companies that aren't aware of them, long-term applications, adequate setup and onboarding, and quality control may be able to mitigate these concerns.

Why should banks employ chatbots and AI? Artificial intelligence can help banks make smarter, faster choices by decreasing person-hours and time investment. In addition, simple chatbot solutions will allow you to provide clients with increased customer security and response times. 

It also relieves pressure on first-line customer service because many clients may obtain responses from a chatbot rather than a live person. Backend automation in risk management, security, document processing, and other areas offers several advantages, but it is still a relatively new technology in the financial services business.

  • Automation in Financial Services

RPA, or robotic process automation, is the most widely utilized tool for automating fixed and repetitive procedures. Automation, unlike AI, relies on a basic set of rules (If this Equals then that) to provide predictable outcomes. For example, to manage digitalization, approval, risk flagging, and other tasks, these pre-programmed procedures might include structured data (incoming data on interest charts) or unstructured data (forms filled out by hand). Many also incorporate learning patterns, allowing them to improve over time as more data is collected.

RPAs are used to create reports, log data, automate repeated procedures, and keep track of logs. RPA, for example, may handle quick payments by employing a programmed rule to authorize a payment automatically if all circumstances are satisfied. Another RPA would then record the transaction, transfer the paperwork into a larger file, and update data across all apps and servers that use the data.

RPA and other financial technology advances help banks save money, reduce human error, and increase processing speed. Customers also benefit as they spend less time waiting for human approval.

RPAs also help financial organizations with compliance and auditing since they create paperwork and reports automatically. In addition, the audit process will be substantially simplified because RPAs will log and store all data without the difficulty of silos, human error, or variances in how teams log and gather data.

  • Relationship between FinTech & Banks

The pace of change in the financial technology sector is picking up and showing no signs of slowing down. Financial institutions must establish a clear strategy with a laser-sharp focus on consumer preferences to succeed in this quickly expanding environment, even if this involves working with FinTech businesses or adapting tactics from other sectors. Here are some ideas to get you started:

  • Reduce expenses by consolidating old systems.
  • Develop technology skills to aid in the prediction of client intent and the retrieval of behavioral patterns
  • To connect to everything, anyplace, build an integrated and user-friendly architecture

While all of these goals are essential and attainable, staying relevant is mixing short- and long-term activities connected with your overall brand strategy.

As banks become aware of the skills gap that prevents them from reforming to take advantage of the opportunities given by technology, they are beginning to spend substantial sums on banking technologies that appear to be most relevant to their business models.

Blockchain, for example, may not be a top priority for most companies right now, but banks and financial institutions see a significant benefit in using it. As a result, they are seen as a high-priority investment by the financial services sector.

Furthermore, the banking industry's transformation necessitates using technology as a "core competence" with enterprise-wide participation. Therefore, the focus on technology cannot be restricted to the top or even to a separate IT department from the rest of the business.

Finally, rather than focusing on income or cost reductions, technology deployment should prioritize the client experience. These are vital, but they will come naturally if you keep clients for a long time.

Bankers will view FinTech firms as partners rather than rivals in the coming years. Remember that a bank may be a FinTech company's largest customer and can help them expand their customer base.

This is where the development of a banking platform will help, resulting in increased client satisfaction with tech partners like TransformHub. In addition, bankers should develop new business models to hold customer connections and pool FinTech resources from across the world to maximize value for the ultimate client.

How TransformHub Can Help You Deliver the Digital Banking?

TransformHub is devoted to developing effective digital banking products that improve financial health and elevate the client experience.

We use our in-depth expertise in cutting-edge technology to assist banks and other financial institutions embrace the prospects of the digital future, from self-service banking and remote account opening to chatbots and biometric verification.

We innovate to fulfill the new decade's expectations, including unforgettable experiences, instant solutions, robust security, maximum convenience, dependability, and inspired design. Yet, we keep the end consumer at the center of all we do. So please get in touch with us right away. You can send us a mail at sales@transformhub.com or call us directly at +65 31384660.