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Tag: Digitization in Banking

Should Digital Channels Support Retail Banking Strategy?

Posted on by Imarticus

In this era of digitization and technological advancements, this question is itself answered. If you are resisting flow with the current you will vanish. Digital channels should support the retail banking strategy. Consumer banking is a synonym to retail banking in which the customers are offered services like mortgages, debit/credit card generation, savings, etc. and these services can be accessed through a bank or a nearby branch of a bank.

Now, these services are day-to-day services. I mean who doesn’t want to check his account balance and if these services are offered through digital channels, it would save time and service of an institution.

The electronic way of offering services helps in reducing the gap between customers and the bank. If you are able to communicate about any discount, bank holidays, etc through a notification, then tell me why not it is good? It happens a lot that there is not a branch nearby of our bank. In that case, retail banking services offered via a mobile app or any digital platform would be a blessing. It is not only good for the customer but will also help the financial institution.

They can find out the number of people using their digital services and can do a checksum through data analysis. They can get suggestions from consumers and can work on the loopholes. It will reduce the workload from the employees and they can contribute towards effective services. The manual way of determining things may take time sometimes, effective real-time computation thorough digital channels will not only reduce the time taken, but it will also satisfy customers to a greater length.

You can see easily how countries are shifting from cash to cashless economies and why would anyone want to be left behind. But offering retail strategy through digital channels should not affect the customer-firm relationship. There must not be any gap in the services offered at the physical locations compared to those offered at the digital platforms.

There are currently over 55 million active users on Google pay, Phonepe has already crossed the 100 million user mark. You can see that people have started shifting. In this case, the Retail Banking strategy is required to undergo a lot of changes and they must break their traditional way of working otherwise they are on the edge of being extinct. Customer problems and FAQs can be easily dealt with by online applications. Financial institutions can also increase their market share through digital transformation.

You could see that even a local vendor or a street shopkeeper accepts payments through UPI. It implies that no one is willing to lag behind in this digital age, it doesn’t take a lot of time for big firms to take a toll and fall into bankruptcy.

Everyone has a mobile phone nowadays and if they can access Retail Banking through their cells, why would they prefer going to a physical location again and again. It doesn’t matter what happened in the past, it is a new era, if you are not accepting the change, you will have to come up with something more reliable and if you cannot, then be ready to accept your downfall.

Conclusion

Look around you for a while, how many people go to a banking institution for day to day transactions? Many of them just do it through Amazon pay, Google pay or other platforms. It is not a choice anymore, it’s a compulsion, a need in this era.

Many of the financial institutions are already undergoing digital transformation to cope up with the changes. A strict yes would be the answer if the question is should digital channels support retail banking strategy. Hope this article helps you in understanding the effect of digitization in today’s era and how the financial institutions need to adapt.

Consumer Needs are at the Forefront of Digital Transformation in Banking

Posted on by Imarticus

Consumer Needs are at the Forefront of Digital Transformation in Banking

‘Going digital’ applies to so much more than just using social media or moving data to cloud devices. In the banking sector, it relates to a complete overhaul of the way banks and credit unions understand, contact and please customers– the digitization in banking as they call it.
The first step to a successful digital transformation in the banking sector starts with an understanding of the attitudes, desires, and choices of digital consumers. It then leads to major consumer-centered improvements in order to meet these needs to retain customers and stay ahead of the competition.
It may look like banking institutions are lockstep in their advancement towards goals, but consumers are continuously raising expectations, which means a complete change of approach is in order. It’s especially important to be aware of consumer needs in a time when leaving a bank and opening a new account elsewhere is an easy process– an aspect every good new age banking course will endeavour to cover.
So what does today’s financial customer want?
The top five consumer desires, according to recent surveys, are:

  • Rewards for business
  • Simplification of life with 24/7 access to balance
  • The bank’s knowledge of them as a customer and an individual
  • The bank looking out for them with wealth-building advice
  • The anticipation of needs and insights on how to spend budgets and save money

Rewards for business and transactions
Banks have become a lot more than a place to deposit your money and garner interest– they’re now a place where people come to do business, transact for loans, send and receive money and get personalized offers. A big ask of consumers today is that they want to be rewarded for their business, by way of reward programs through points, vouchers, coupons, gifts or discounts.
Mobile access to services
As explained in many a new age banking course, today’s digital customer wants to be able to access their balance and keep track of expenditure no matter where they are. To keep up with this demand, banks are releasing apps with increasingly intelligent features like chatbots and voice assistants. An added perk that banks can provide is allowing customers to look at spending patterns and make use of money management and budgeting tools.
Personalization schemes
A stand-out indication of the change in consumer mentality within the financial and banking sectors is that customers at their bank or credit union don’t want to be just a number anymore. They want to be recognized as individuals with varying needs and preferences, not even categories or target groups as was once the process of ‘personalization’.
Switch to digital channels
Gone are the days when people head to their banks to directly withdraw cash or make other monetary transactions. Today, consumers prefer digital channels like tablets, laptops, and smartphones– meeting face-to-face comes second in the list, followed by phone banking. This represents how the omnichannel need of a consumer is fast arising, regardless of the age or income.

Conclusion
Consumers today want personalization and digitization and want their hand in hand. Any level of customer dissatisfaction can be analyzed to understand the root cause and identify if there is a new age banking solution. This will help any bank gain favor among the masses, specifically the digital natives.

What Is Digital Transformation in Retail Banking and The Role of Data?

Posted on by Imarticus

Today’s financial services industry is nothing like what it was a decade ago. Changing customer behavior boosts in technology and intelligence and the general digitization of society is what’s behind this massive change. Over the past few years, banks have had to pull their socks up and get with the times to stay afloat. For many, this meant a digital transformation.

What is a digital transformation?
Digital transformation is the integration of new-age technology into all aspects of a business. It branches off into two– the fundamental changes in operations and client services, and the cultural transformation that follows in its wake.

Digital transformation in retail banking is driven by the need to speed up growth. In fact, 87% of banks have a long-term plan for digital innovation in place already. It’s just as well, seeing as online banking systems and third-party companies such as Paypal and Google Pay continue to threaten traditional banking organizations.

Investments in data analytics and the cloud are on a steady plateau, but expenditure on next-gen technologies like blockchain and Artificial Intelligence is on the rise.

Where are these technologies used in retail banking?
Customer service: Customers are increasingly choosing their primary financial service providers based on how easily they can operate and access their assets and how mobile the system is.

Digital IDs: Biometrics-based solutions enable customers to register once and be recognized each time. This increases operational efficiency and tightens security.

Voice banking: Voice authentication and banking are largely untapped, but it’s only a matter of time before AI-powered digital assistants catch on just in the retail banking sphere just as digital transformation, in general, did.

Distributed ledger technology: Traditional retail banks maintain central databases but they’re slowly making the shift to blockchain systems, where there’s no need for intermediaries or central authority.

What is the role of data in retail banking’s digital transformation?
Retail banks are inherently data-driven businesses. How well they use customer data insights is what gives one bank a competitive edge over another. Small wonder, then, that the role of data in extremely crucial in the digital transformation of retail banking.

Here is a quick breakdown of how data can be used in new-age banking:

Hyper-personalization: Too often, traditional banks have tried to target individuals based on crude segmentation that does more harm than good. With new-age technology, data analytics on consumer information can identify how to effectively target audience in an age where banking is no longer a life-long commitment.

Insight-driven services: Retail banking needs data to establish and promote insight-driven services that add value. A lot more is asked of a retail bank today than 10 years ago, and not just in terms of interest rates and lockers for valuables. Banks must come across as having customers’ best interests in mind to establish brand loyalty and drive numbers.

Personal Finance Management: with data and technology, banks can better cater to customers and assist them in managing their money efficiently. Personal and relationship managers have long been a part of the retail banking system. But with the help of data analytics and technology, banks can deliver into insights that once eluded them, thereby making the system more efficient and personalized.

The retail banking sector is in for a rough few years, but the silver lining is that banks already have a headstart on client relationships. Using digital banking to leverage these personal connections can make retail banks far more indispensable than their online competitors.

What does this mean for employees and aspirants?
Traditional methods and syllabi can only go so far in preparing you for digital disruption. New-age banking courses can effectively prepare people of all experience levels for the digital age. The better banking courses are those that will give you hands-on experiences and allow you to interact with industry professionals to see how the digitization has transformed their daily work.
Retail banking training can also be organized by the banks themselves. Introduction to these technologies is crucial to maintain stability during cultural and structural changes. To learn new-age banking is to prepare oneself for the future.

How To Change Career From Retail Banking After Working For a Few Years?

Posted on by Imarticus

Your decision to take up a career in new-age banking is after being in retail banking is not only logical and laudable but is a great career move.

You will need to do new-age banking courses to catch up with the latest trends in new-age banking which offers some great features like:

  • Job security and working in MNC environments.
  • Super salary packages topped with great benefits
  • Jobs for retired bankers and career-changers within the banking areas are never a problem.
  • Wide variety of jobs experiences and roles.
  • Banking industry jobs are prestigious and have a thriving ecosystem.
  • To update knowledge of the latest banking trends and practices New Age Banking Training can help. They also help with certifications and interview skills.
  • Excellent career progression and scope for banking jobs make this career choice great.
  • Community service goals and continued learning opportunities are satisfying and enriching.
  • The working hours are good and the environment is conducive to career progression.
  • Certifications gained to add to your resume and knowledge endorsing your skill levels.

EFFECTIVE STRATEGIES TO RIDE THE EDTECH WAVEThe variety of sectors on offer:
New-age banks have evolved which are needs and market-based. Traditionally the roles were related to customer-service and teller areas in banks. This means multi-tasking banking professionals are in high demand.

The trending opportunities in new-age banking are: 

  • Investment and Trust Banking help with investments, issuances, property, and fund management for both individual and institutional clients.
  • Operations roles deal with the everyday handling of banking operations from bookkeeping, record keeping, financial analysis, strategy meetings, client presentations, etc.
  • Personalized Consumer Banking division roles deal with customized services and financial advice to priority individual HNI customers.
  • Commercial Banking roles have clients like organizations, schools, businesses, churches, etc to cater to customized banking financial solutions.
  • IT, systems, and security cover areas that aid the banking operation accumulate technology, data, and records, store them safely and maintain the safety of the entire banking environment and assets.
  • Accounting and administration roles handle policies, routine due diligence, strategy and planning, internal operations, and such tasks.
  • HR and PR Resources are the bloodlines and while HR is employee management related the PRO is client-facing and strives to improve customer experience and feedback.
  • Regulatory and Accounting and administration roles handle policies, routine due diligence, strategy and planning, internal operations, and such tasks.
  • Marketing is an important role and helps win new customers into the fold with the bank’s product information, managing the customer database, advertising, media, and press releases, and much more.

What is new-age banking?
The term ‘new-age banking’ is applied to traditional banking offering a re-packaged combination of services in Forex, online lending, and banking services.

Online Lending: 
IndusInd Bank has set the right example for new-age banking. Their loans are now pre-approved and the ETB users log into the portal and get instant loans after meeting the online eligibility criteria. Besides, they have ramped up the loans on consumer durables, securitized loans, and more digitizing those long and time-consuming loan processes into paper-less, pre-approved seamlessly online instant transactions.

Transactions in FOREX:
This trending market also covers multi-currency travel cards, currency exchange at market rates, and delivery of local currency at kiosks or the airport for foreign travelers. The easy on-boarding and reloading, blockchain-based security, direct product deliveries against cash-on-receipt; easy conversions of FOREX, etc are some of the USPs.

Personalized Banking Services:
Customization of banking services through requests has made visiting the bank unnecessarily. Almost all banks have portals for account management, and payment platforms like BHIM and QR scans like PayTM have meant digitization and cashless transactions leading to higher C-SAT ratings.

Skills for a new-age banker:
To become career-prepared you need to undertake new-age banking training and work hard in the New-Age Banking Courses on the following attributes. An academic bachelor’s degree would be essential and experience in banking practices help.

Fluency in English communication and excellent skills in presentations using Microsoft Excel Macros and financial software is critical to presenting a report of insights that help decision-making based on predictive analysis foresight and data analytical skills. Yes, conceptual knowledge and expertise in the domain enable you to stand out.

Employment Outlook:
The pay packages, bonuses, and career progression when you make a career in new-age banking are not just lucrative and prestigious. They are performance and certification related enabling continuous learning and very satisfying job roles.

Conclusion:
Bank jobs are open to all graduates and persons making career changes within the banking sector. Doing the new-age banking training course at Imarticus Learning helps you with assured placements, certification, knowledge of the new-age banking procedures, and employable experience.
Hurry! Admissions are limited in every batch.