Tag: business banking

Why you need one, what to look for and how to select the best digital banking platform to support your digital banking strategy heading into the new year.

The concept of digital transformation in banking has evolved from simply offering a web or mobile version of the branch, to being able to provide digital banking services that add value to customers’ lives.

Digital banking trends show a movement towards personalized digital banking services that can adapt to changing customer needs and provide the right offering, to the right customer at the right time.

What does that mean when it comes to selecting a digital banking platform?

To adapt and compete in the future of digital banking, banks and financial institutions need to look for a next-generation banking platform that can help them react to changing customer needs, and that offers the level of flexibility needed to adapt their digital banking solutions in an agile and cost effective way.

What Is a next-generation banking platform?

Next-generation banking platforms are cloud native, API-centric and have a microservices-based architecture. They have a digital banking foundation that is built on data, and they are insights-driven so banks and FIs can better understand their customers down to a segment of one, enabling them to facilitate one-to-one personalized banking experiences. A next-generation digital banking platform should also offer off-the-shelf capabilities that can be easily extended, provide a simple way to adjust products and support the creation of new business capabilities.

With a next-generation banking platform, banks and FIs can extend business capabilities and realize new revenue streams by building digital ecosystems. They can take advantage of the Open Banking opportunity and integrate with third parties to provide new, disruptive digital banking services that add even more value to the customer experience.

How can a next-generation banking platform support changing customer demand?

As the needs and demands of banking customers continue to evolve, driven by an increasing reliance on digital channels, your digital banking strategy also needs to evolve beyond simply delivering the same products and services online, to leveraging omnichannel banking to keep share of wallet and realize new revenue streams.

If your strategy is to move away from servicing banking transactions to facilitating consumer interactions, then you need to look for next-generation digital banking solutions that facilitate agile ways of working and that can reduce time-to-market.

Learn more about next-gen banking core.

What is the best next-generation banking platform?

While there are a number of banking technology providers who claim that they have a next-generation banking platform, in reality, many of those platforms are legacy platforms that have undergone a series of updates and are not truly next-generation.

Next-generation banking platforms have been specifically designed for the future of digital banking. They are designed to help you differentiate by adapting to changing consumer behaviors. They can help you become an integral part of your customers’ lives by offering the right digital banking services to the right customer at the right time based on data. And they help you provide those digital banking services seamlessly across all channels.

But the ability to truly and dynamically adapt or adjust the right financial service offering to the right customer at the right time can be challenging. Simply implementing a digital platform on top of a core isn’t going to work. Neither is relying on a core digital banking platform – no matter how advanced – that doesn’t have a consumer-centric digital engagement and orchestration layer.

Banks need a next-generation banking platform that provides an integrated approach. If a bank’s core and digital platforms are not seamlessly integrated, it will not be able to provide the level of flexibility needed to identify and dynamically adapt to changing consumer behaviors and create new or adjust products and services in a timely fashion.

The digital banking platform difference

Cyberbank Digital is a next generation digital banking platform. The digital banking platform has been designed around the concept of structural flexibility which can help banks to differentiate by enabling them to provide capabilities beyond the typical business capabilities required. By leveraging structural flexibility with our digital banking platform, banks and FIs can:

• Gain a competitive edge with a flexible system that drives dynamic product and service innovations.

• Create and launch new digital banking services at market speed.

• Improve customer service by providing omnichannel banking with a seamless interface across multiple platforms.

• Gain an integrated customer view across all points of contact, with a client-tailored data repository that combines customers’ information, products and transactions at a multi-dimensional level.

• Minimize operational risk by implementing a system designed around industry compliance standards.

• Use monitoring, control and corporate governance tools to trace and resolve transactional issues.

• Keep systems updated on regulatory changes with intuitive rule management tools.

• Align the technology with business needs, making it easier to introduce new services and operations with a minimal impact on IT resources.

Cyberbank Digital is designed to help you differentiate

The Cyberbank Digital next generation banking platform is designed to help banks and FIs differentiate with:

• The ability to define new products, services and customer journeys through business-oriented tools

• An extensive and powerful digital ecosystem

• Empathic banking customer experiences with adaptive CX in every point of interaction

• Integrated data gathering and transformation capabilities

• An API-centric platform and microservices based architecture

To find out more about Cyberbank, the digital banking platform, request a demo with one of our digital banking experts.

Note: This article was originally published on technisys.com, which was acquired by Galileo parent company SoFi Technologies in February 2022.

Many financial institutions still rely on legacy systems or outdated computer hardware and software that were introduced more than half a century ago. These technologies were not designed with future-proofing in mind and were not intended to be upgraded or replaced.

Fast forward to 2023, and the financial services industry has changed beyond recognition. Digital start-ups are disrupting the market, and customers expect digital integration and seamless transactions. Banking services are no longer the sole preserve of established financial institutions.

Established financial institutions can feel like supertankers compared to agile speedboats, such as digital disruptors, racing off into the distance with their innovative products that exceed customer demands. But the process of updating or replacing legacy technology is not completely bleak. With their size, resources, and momentum, these institutions can weather the storm while nimble disruptors are at risk. Established institutions have financial stability, customer base, and solid reputations that digital disruptors lack, and some may question why they need to innovate at all.

Customer expectations are changing.

A PwC survey from June 2020 found that 41% of customers would switch providers due to a lack of digital capability. Nowadays, customers expect the latest technology across all their financial interactions, and companies that can’t meet these high standards are quickly left behind. As Gen-Z comes of age, they expect intelligent technology as a simple fact of life. Staff working within these organizations will also have higher expectations and be reluctant to work with outdated tools.

The changing scenery can be bewildering for established banks with legacy tech, especially since research from BCG has shown that 70% of digital transformations failed in the last few years. Complicated and costly legacy core banking transformation projects are negatively impacting profits and not hitting the mark with consumers.

A smarter way to innovate.  

Fintech enablement offers a smarter way to innovate. It allows organizations – not just financial institutions, but any company operating digitally – to create and launch new digital products without the need for a full digital transformation. Fintech enablement is a full-stack technology solution that works with existing legacy systems and can transform them into efficient, automated ecosystems. Hyper-personalized customer journeys become simple, which not only better caters to existing customers but also wins over new ones. Backend processes can be automated, saving time, resources, and money.

Traditionally, there are three ways for established financial institutions to innovate: innovation labs, incubators/accelerators, and venture capital investment.

Innovation labs allow established financial institutions to maintain their steady course while creating small, innovative teams that can develop agile digital products that match those of their nimble digital competitors. Fintech enablement solutions enable these small teams to create and launch innovative financial products that meet the needs of the market without being reliant on legacy systems and teams of tech support.

By finding a way to balance legacy institutions with agile innovation, traditional financial establishments can reap two significant benefits.

• Meet customer expectations – especially those of GenZ, who expect seamless technology across all aspects of life.
• Reduce costs – digitally superior financial institutions will see dramatically reduced costs compared to their competitors.

Fintech enablement is a smarter way for established financial institutions to innovate, modernize their operations, and keep up with customer expectations. By embracing this approach, they can create and launch innovative digital products without the need for a full digital transformation.

Currently dealing with outdated legacy technology? Book a demo to learn about FintechOS’ fintech enablement platform here.

Many financial institutions struggle to decide where they should focus their strategic modernization efforts. Should they prioritize back-office and core capabilities or more tactical front-end and point solutions? Trying to choose the best option often leads to significant resource use and major inefficiencies. Combined with the rapidly changing customer expectations driven by generational shifts in technology, this struggle means financial institutions need to quickly rethink their approaches to modernization and innovation if they hope to stay competitive.

That’s where fintech enablement comes in. Fintech enablement empowers financial institutions to access and leverage new technology and tools on their own to improve operating and decision-making processes, in turn offering streamlined products and services to their customers.

What is a Fintech Enablement Platform?

Designed to accelerate the launch, servicing, and expansion of financial solutions and new customer journeys, a fintech enablement platform is a technology infrastructure that acts as an operating system to implement fintech enablement’s many capabilities. They can often be thought of as one-stop-shops for all financial technology solutions, including digital wallets and payment gateways.

Fintech enablement platforms are also uniquely designed to integrate with existing systems in a cost-effective manner to achieve a seamless transition. They include prebuilt and modifiable components that can be quickly deployed in a more agile and responsive method than most traditional systems. Built to be highly scalable and customizable, fintech enablement platforms allow businesses to tailor solutions to their customers’ needs now and in the future.

5 Key Components of a Fintech Enablement Platform

There are several key components that can typically be found within fintech enablement platforms. If you are thinking of partnering with a fintech enablement platform provider, make sure they have these five components in place.

1. Product Definitions & Components in Critical Product Areas 

Having well-defined product definitions and components in critical product areas such as lending, savings, mortgages, insurance, payments, and embedded finance ensures the platform is clear and consistent for everyone involved.

2. Data Models That Sit on Top of Existing Data Sources

For data sources such as legacy core and open baking, having data models that sit on top of existing data sources enables the platform to integrate with a wide range of data sources, including legacy systems, cloud services, and third-party APIs.

3. Capabilities to Create Customer Journeys  

Effective fintech enablement platforms should have the ability to create customer journeys that make use of embedded automation and streamline both workflows and the customer experience, giving the platform a more personalized feel and gathering valuable insights about user behavior.

4. SaaS Ecosystem Connectors

SaaS ecosystem connectors that can be orchestrated into customer journeys and bring external innovation into the mix take advantage of the latest software innovations in a cost-effective manner.

5. Self-Use Tools

Self-use tools that allow nontechnical staff to create, service, and update solutions using low-code or no-code can reduce the turnround time and cut down on costs for simple changes or customizations.

Getting Started with Fintech Enablement

Whether you’re a large financial institution or new to the market, a fintech enablement platform may be the solution one-stop-shop you’ve been looking for. Learn more here.

Banking is going digital fast–and you need to figure out how to compete with digital-first fintech challengers. Here’s what you need to know to stay competitive.

In the following interview, Michael Haney, Head of Digital Core for Technisys, discusses the evolution of banking’s digital transformation and how banks can retain market share amid stiff competition from newer entrants.

How has the concept of digital transformation in banking changed over the years?

Initially banks thought it was enough to launch new digital self-service channels, such as an internet banking portal, or a mobile application. This helped to eliminate the need for branches or devices such as the ATM, while accelerating the move to banking anytime, anywhere.

The focus then moved to digitizing the physical world of paper and plastic. Everything from monthly statements to debit cards to cash itself became the target, as the cost to manage and process these items ate into the banks’ earnings.

Finally, incumbent banks shifted their attention to automation of business processes. The goal was to remove bank employees from the process to eliminate human error, reduce costs, and improve scalability.

Why has this proven to be insufficient to truly transform the industry?

The common theme in those examples is cost reduction, either by eliminating labor, real estate, or physical items, such as checks. The focus was on productivity of existing business models, so it was a very bank-centric approach to the adoption of digital technologies. Improvement to the bank’s operational efficiency was the challenge being addressed.

These days the industry is focused on changing its business models entirely, by putting the goals of the customer first. Banks and their fintech challengers are now using technology to create new digital-first products and services. They are embedding them at the point of need for the customer, no longer limiting their distribution to their own closed ecosystem of channels.

What are some examples of these new digital-first products and services?

Customers are seeking more than just the ability to transact. They are seeking help to manage their finances in ways that meet their goals, such as better abilities to manage cash flow. Early wage access and buy now, pay later solutions help customers access funds when they need them, and pay back these advances over time, all without the need to utilize credit. Personal financial management (PFM) solutions help customers understand how their money is being spent and address ways to prevent unwanted expenses or account balance shortfalls.

Customers are also searching for solutions that help them optimize their savings and align their savings to future goals. Data analytics from these same PFM solutions can help uncover opportunities to save, automate savings, and thereby reduce the overall effort required by the customer to save and invest.

What has prevented the incumbent banks from being the first to launch these capabilities?

Banks that invested solely in a front-end customer engagement platform eventually hit a wall. As they try to move beyond providing transaction services on their digital channels, they realize their middleware and back-end solutions can’t transform in the ways they need them to, or at least cannot do so without a lot of effort and cost. Their middleware needs to contain customer journeys that are not only agnostic to the bank’s own channels, but also allow the bank to embed these journeys into external brands, where the customer truly needs them.

The bank’s back-end platform needs to be configurable in ways that break down traditional system silos and allow for the combination of products and services that help solve unique customer pain points. The back-end systems also need the agility to change at the same speed as the newer front-end systems, which many of the older platforms are incapable of doing.

How can banks enable this change to keep up with the Fintech challengers?

The ability to adopt agile methodologies and the concept of continuous development and deployment requires not only retraining and reorganizing their staff but shifting budgets from a capital expenditure to an operating expenditure model.

Finally, they need to adopt tools and platforms that enable rapid-test and learn models, involve the customer in the design process, and most importantly allow the staff to focus on customer problems. Today, banks are still too focused on challenges that are not core to customer-centric banking, such as running a data center. This can be accomplished by moving to a cloud environment, adopting a low-code development platform, and using collaborative tools to bring together a mix of in-house disciplines, as well as the customers themselves.

What other advice would you give to banks to future-proof their businesses?

We cannot underestimate the impact that advanced data analytics will have to improve the customer experience and uncover opportunities for the banks. Banks have historically used data analytics largely for marketing purposes, and more recently to help fight financial crimes such as fraud or money laundering. Newer business intelligence tools are allowing banks to react to events in real time and shift from models that were only predictive to ones that are adaptive and self-learning.

Again, we will see a shift in the application of these technologies from simply helping the bank drive revenue or reduce risk, to being able to help their customers reach new levels of financial health and wellness. The abilities of these technologies to scale in a cost-effective manner will allow banks to apply these AI technologies to all customer segments, not just the affluent clients.

Click here for Haney’s Top 3 Tech Priorities for FIs Heading into 2023.

Click here to learn more about how banks can compete with fintechs.

Note: This article was originally published on technisys.com which was acquired by SoFi Technologies in February 2022 and is the parent company of Galileo.

There are many reasons to modernize your commercial lending technology. Make 2023 a year of transformation for these core reasons:

• Enabling a digital omnichannel experience
• One loan system for multiple lines of business
• Real-time access to data
• System agility to grow

These all support the main priority—improving the customer experience. Consumer businesses know the importance of their customers’ experience, adopting technology that provides the experience customers demand—simple, all inclusive, and fast. Now commercial lending needs to do the same!

The right technology investment can improve your customers’ experience while modernizing your business for growth and success. Here’s how.

Attract and keep customers

Everything begins and ends with your customers. The most important factors in acquiring and retaining customers is how flexible, easy, and timely doing business with you is. Putting their experience at the center of your solution is critical. Digital solutions, fast response times, and personalized AI advice are the bare minimum your customers’ expectations.

Enable end-to-end integration for your omnichannel strategy

A customer-centric, omnichannel network that delivers integrated products and services is essential for enabling “ease of doing business.” This industry changes quickly and approaching your business as an interconnected entity allows you to support any line of business/product and pivot your focus to react to inevitable market swings.

Get Real-time, accurate data

Pre-pandemic, there was much discussion that by the time digital system upgrades were completed, any “nice to haves” would become “must haves.” And that’s exactly what happened. The need for a system with consistent, real-time, and trustworthy data will provide meaningful and sustained value for your clients and you.

Increase efficiency and revenue

Disparate and non-integrated legacy systems, siloed business lines and inefficient processes, manual, error-prone data entry, slow response times, lengthy decisioning and funding processes—all chronic obstacles that impact efficiency and profitability. Multiple outdated systems result in slow closing times, unclaimed fees, and missed renewals. Improve it all with one integrated system.

Adapt and grow

You need an agile, real-time core loan accounting system that reacts to client growth and market changes. Meeting market and customer demands means making faster loan decisions, offering “hot topic” products like ESG financing, staying ahead of market and regulatory developments, and keep pace with you as you grow.

Find the right technology and transformation partner

The issue is no longer whether to update your systems, but how quickly you can deliver a game-changing customer experience with real-time efficiency and revenue gains. Modernizing your commercial lending demands a technology partner with a targeted approach, a robust foundation, and built-in flexibility.

Start modernizing now!

Successful financial institutions are replacing their patchwork, outdated systems with a modern end-to-end, seamless omnichannel experience that will meet customers’ expectations. A system that enables real-time responsiveness, data trust, easy navigation, transparency, and agility is essential to create the sought-after customer experience. With AFS and AFSVision you get the innovative technology you need to enable modernization and deliver the customer experience your customers expect from you.