Banks perspectives in 2013-2016: strategy, marketing, products and channels, consumer experience and innovation.

We invited several experts from different countries, whose activities are related to innovation in the bank to discuss the future of the financial industry, promising strategies and challenges for banks in 2013, among the guests - author, scientist, designers, strategic consultants, futurists, directors of consumer experience, CEO, and vice presidents of banks.

Experts:

Bruce Cahan, USABruce Cahan is creating GoodBank™(IO), a high-transparency, impacts-aware bank built in and for the Information Age. Bruce is a serial social entrepreneur, Ashoka Fellow, Stanford Visiting Scholar (School of Civil & Environmental Engineering) and Stanford CodeX Fellow (Computer Science and Law Schools’ Center for Legal Informatics). Beginning in 1991, Bruce pioneered capital investment strategies for governments to create open geospatial data now used in Google Maps and similar web services. He provided geospatial data and logistical support as an emergency responder at the Command Center in NYC after the 9/11/01 World Trade Center Attacks. In March 2012, Bruce organized TedxNewWallStreet in Silicon Valley to re-imagine banking built in and for the Information Age.

Brett King, USAAuthor of Bank 3.0, Founder of Movenbank. Brett King is the bestselling author of "Bank 3.0: Why Banking Is No Longer Somewhere You Go, But Something You Do”, “Bank 2.0” and the founder and CEO of New York-based Movenbank, the world’s first direct mobile-only retail bank. He was voted American Banker’s BTN Innovator of the Year in 2012 and is a strategic advisor on the future of financial services to clients such as HSBC, Citigroup, Commercial Bank, UBS and Emirates NBD.

Roger Peverelli, The NetherlandsAuthor of “Reinventing Financial Services” Roger Peverelli is a partner at VODW, a leading strategy consultancy operating out of The Netherlands, and specialised in customer focused strategies in financial services. Roger co-authored the international best-seller ‘Reinventing financial services‘. What consumers expect from future banks and insurers’ available in 5 languages.

Throughout his career he concluded assignments blue chip financial services companies across the globe; in retail and private banking, in wealth management and in life and general insurance. Roger has worked in virtually every European country, the Americas, the Middle East and Asia.

Chris Skinner, UKBlogger № 1 in the world of finance.Chris Skinner is best known as an independent commentator on the financial markets through the Finanser (www.thefinanser.com) and Chair of the European networking forum the Financial Services Club, which he founded in 2004.  The Financial Services Club is a network for financial professionals, and focuses on the future of financial services through the delivery of research, analysis, commentary and debate. He is the author of nine books covering everything from European regulations in banking through the creditcrisis to the future of banking.He is a regular commentator on BBC News, Sky News and Bloomberg about banking issues.He is a Judge on many awards programs including the Card Awards and the Asian Banker’s Retail Excellence Awards, as well as having worked closely with leading banks such as HSBC, the Royal Bank of Scotland, Citibank and Société Générale and the World Economic Forum.

Luc Schamhart, The NetherlandsEMEA Finance (Insurance) Industry Lead. Luc joined Microsoft in 2007 as the Partner Industry Manager for FSI based in Amsterdam moving to Finance Industry Development Manager role the following year.  He has leveraged his insurance and banking expertise working with customers such as ING Group, ABN AMRO, Rabobank and many others. Luc Schamhart brings a deep level of industry experience with over 20 years working in the financial services sector. He is dedicated to bring innovative Microsoft solutions to the large financial services. Prior to joining Microsoft, Luc spent 18 years at IBM Corporation, managing the FSI (software) business for their Global Financial Services Accounts.

Jin Zwicky, SingaporeVice President, Experience Design at OCBC Bank. Jin is a customer experience designer bringing common sense, simplicity and beauty in financial services. She is currently a VP in Group Customer Experience at OCBC Bank, a leading Singaprean bank.  She researches and designs customer experiences of retail and premier banking businesses and drives business success in banking product development.

Before joining OCBC Bank, she spent 10 years in Switzerland as a senior manager in customer experience at Credit Suisse Private Bank setting customer experience strategy in key markets and designed experiences across critical channels and key processes of private banking customers.

Harriet Wakelam, AustraliaSenior Customer Experience Designer, National Australia Bank.Harriet is a customer experience design specialist at National Australia Bank’s Immersion and Design Centre. She applies apply design thinking and service design practices and approaches to gather, embed and apply customer insights to financial products and services. Her role requires the design, use and development of tools that embed customer experience within product and services.Her background includes includes user experience design, multimedia development, ethnographic research and design, design leadership, the development and application of digital strategy for commercial and government environments, management of digital content services and innovative approaches to building customer experiences.

James MoedFinancial Services Lead, IDEO London.IDEO is a global design firm that takes a human-centered, design-based approach. James Moed is a leader of IDEO’s work in financial service design across Europe, he advises clients and design teams, combining observations of human behaviour with inspiration from other services, new business models, and emerging technologies.James’ work with clients like Visa, Generali, Swiss Life, and Bank Audi, builds on cross-sector insights drawn from experience in energy, health care, luxury, and consumer goods. He speaks and writes frequently about the intersection of design and business, facilitating conversations on innovation with students, startups, and executives.

Николай Чумак, УкраинаFounder and CEO of IDNT.He is the founder and strategic director of IDNT, which during 10+ years has developed and implements formats and concepts for Retail Banking, Mass Affluent and Private Banking offices.IDNT works with CIS-region banks and has some projects with European countries. Moreover, IDNT has projects in retail, allowing it to bring ideas and technologies from the retail to the banking sphere. IDNT considers functional design & concepts as one the most important factors of customer experience. Mykola studied functional design and banks concepts in London, Hong Kong, Singapore and Tokyo. He is a constant speaker on conferences devoted to Retail Banking, Private Banking & Wealth Management, Retail-Marketing in CIS countries; and the author of numerous publications in professional and business magazines.

Do you expect any changes in the bank marketing strategies in the nearest future? If so, which ones? If not, why?

Brett KingThe reality is that over the next 3-5 years mobile will not only continue to dominate changes in retail positioning and consumer behavior, but will become increasingly accessible to all parts of the economy. By the end of 2014, smartphone adoption is expected to reach 80% of the population in markets like the US, UK, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, UAE, and other developed economies. But this is not limited to developed economies and the mass affluent or middle and upper-class.

By 2016 low-end smartphones will cost less than $20, and Gilder’s Law dictates that basic Internet access will come bundled in your monthly plan at no additional cost. Today, Internet access via mobile devices has already surpassed wired internet access. Put this all together and by the end of the decade 80-90% of the world’s population will have access to the Internet via a smartphone.

This will fundamentally change how retail banking and payments work in our economy.

How banks change their attitude to online banking in the nearest future? Which one gets more attention – online business (products) or physical branches?

Luc SchamhartIt all will be multichannel, the physical branches will not disappear will be less in number but will definitely be there in the future, where the focus will be on customer engagement instead of transactional, face 2 face contact will be important in the future as well. The online business will increase tremendous, especially if you add the online mobile banking possibilities. Personal financial management will be the key feature in adding additional services in online banking.

Brett KingFor 60% of the world’s population that today does not have a bank account, their mobile phone will likely be their very first banking experience. In markets like Kenya and the Philippines, the majority of the population has had their first electronic payments experience via their phone, and their first debit card or account was simply a balance carried on their phone. The fastest growing use cases for mobile in emerging markets like these have been payments and remittances. In markets like Kenya, this has changed the day-to-day flow of cash in the economy. The same will soon be true for India, China, Indonesia and other such emerging markets.

By 2020 the world’s bank account will indistinguishable from the functionality you find on your mobile phone. Your mobile device will allow you access to your money (in the form of an available balance), send and receive money, pay at a store, pay online and to exist fluidly in the world of commerce. In the past we have tended to characterize our bank account by its physical form factor – in the old days a passbook was our ‘bank account’, then in the 80s it was our cheque book, and today our debit card (attached to an online account number) is how most of us do our day-to-day banking. In the near future, however, banking will besimply dominated by the mobile phone.

James MoedRather than cut investment in branches in favour of web and mobile (or vice versa), banks must learn to use their staff and spaces to teach customers, so they feel confident using digital tools. This means fewer traditional tellers, and more tech-savvy “coaches.”  Hopefully, 2013 will be the year that banks stop seeing online and branch channels as trade-offs and start seeing them as complements in a single customer experience.

What kind of plans should banks avoid during next several years?Explain your answer, please.

Bruce CahanCommercial banks operate as and in a culture of "herd mentality" and "peer pressure"  The limits of herd and peer knowledge have been well-illustrated in banking crises throughout the ages, including the most recent bank scandals, each of which pivot off of a camouflage or information asymmetry. In the Digital Age, banks built to "hide" mistreating clients or client funds will ultimately be found out, fined and reduce their brand's reputaitional value.  Thus, continuity of banks planning to maintain “status quo”/business as usual will be at odds with old and new banks who promote designs for products, pricing and services that reallocate value and meaning to the customer, not the bankers.  Banker compensation - bonuses - that emphasize short term thinking are no longer practical, nor were such compensation schemes ever truly practical.  Banker compensation should reward stewardship of bank capital, and global impacts, and personal improvement in character, mental and physical being.  

Roger PeverelliAll projects that center on 'technology for technology sake'. The only real purpose of technology is to improve customer experience. And if we can combine that with even more efficiency that is perfect. CRM is a great example. In many Russian and CIS banks CRM is still in its infancy. While CRM offers so many benefits to address customers needs better and to create much more efficiency on the marketing side.

Which kind of new approaches or ideas, insights concerning bank strategies and tactics which appeared in 2012 will be actual in the 2013-2015?

Roger PeverelliMobile will really take off. The penetration of the smart phone is already huge and ever increasing, but when you look at what banks are doing with it, we are just scratching the surface. Banks focus on replicating current processes on mobile, while mobile gives us the opportunity to become part of life of our customers. The mobile phone is the only appliance we have with us 24/7, every day of the year. We often refer to 'the horseless carriage syndrom'. The first car looked like a carriage without a horse in front of it. Basically because we could not immediately imagine what would be possible. Mobile banking services are still in that stage.

Jin ZwickyI am a huge believer the power of design and its impact on business success in banking industry. Design is not only the final object the way it looks and feels, it is also the process of creating that object or experience. The quality of the design process has the direct impact on the result. When banks understand the value of design and embed design in problem solving, this can bridge banks' strategic intent and tactical implementation. 

Harriet WakelamHolistic thinking. The death of multi and omni channel. Colllaborative thinking, new partnerships, an acceptance of iterative and complexity thinking. Customers as partners. Respect for not knowing. Banks as learning cultures.

Brett King2013 will be a big year for mobile payments. Many of the mobile wallet projects currently in development will hit the market. The first mobile only banks, such as Movenbank, will hit the market with products and interactions designed around the mobile. ISYS will launch, and other players like Google Wallet, PayPal and Square will duke it out for merchant dominance in mobile payments space. NFC deployment will start to be highly visible and more and more banks will announce PayPass and v.Me (Visa) deployments to capitalize on this emerging trend. When we look back on 2013 we’ll recognize it as the year the biggest players realized mobile was the game changer it was cracked up to be.

By 2015-16 mobile banking use will dominate day-to-day banking interactions in most developed economies, being the preferred channel for the majority of customers. However, this is unlikely to have a significant effect on Internet banking utilitzation as tablet computing will still be widely used for managing day-to-day portfolios, bill payments and transfers. In fact, comfort levels with digital interactions will rise such that consumers will manage most of their banking relationships entirely digitally with more than 60% of retail banking revenue coming through non-human channels at this stage. This will put extraordinary pressure on branch systems.

Initially many banks will move to reduce their branch network by up to 20-30%, retooling and retasking remaining branches to focus purely on sales and service as transactional activity moves digitally. Branches that remain will either be brand flagship and showcase stores, or smaller footprint stores designed to still support sales and service metrics without the large network expense. Financial analysts watching bank stocks will start to discount retail banking brands who aren’t aggressively dealing with excess capacity in the branch network. For the first time we’ll see stock markets penalize banks for having branches.

Bruce CahanEvery commercial bank in 2012 has, or has designs for, a mobile app, cross-platform (AppleiOS, Android, etc.)  Similarly, most commercial banks have a social media presence, on Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, and their local and language equivalents.  Other trends include the annual CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) reporting season, the cleantech, women's and other diversity subgroup and the bank's foundation’s public relations efforts that improve the lustre of the bank's brand and its capacity to recruit and retain customers and bankers.  Some of the largest names in global commercial banking have taken their lumps in 2012, paying record fines for money laundering, interest rate manipulation, and mortgage securities fraud.  What was bought for such record fines?  Nothing, unless the culture of teaching bankers to be bankers, changes. What I deeply hope happens is that the Industrial Age of rogue bankers thinking primarily about what's best for themselves and their career and bonus prospects, will sunset, and that we will see a Digital Age of bankers who return to a more stewarding role, safeguarding bank capital and focus on the customers' success as paramount.