ACCOUNTANT_SUMMER18_AMENDED_PG12

BANKING
the organization, traditional banking providers will
struggle to take advantage of powerful new tools
such as robotics, big data, AI and blockchain.
well as Revolut plans to launch in the U.S., Singapore
and Australia later this year, with India, Brazil, South
Africa and the UAE also in sight.
There are various initiatives that need to be
undertaken by the banking sector, but two key
initiatives revolve around, firstly the need to reengineer
the consumer journey, and secondly to
leverage the power of data mining.
Re-engineering the consumer journey requires
banks to completely detach themselves from legacy
processes and procedures – to think without the
box not just outside of it. Frictionless is the most
common term one comes across in the customer
journey process parlance. I find it very compelling to
compare customer journey processes at a Bank, with
those in non-bank outfits and clearly a compelling
one is Amazon – a customer journey as frictionless
as it can get through one-click ordering platforms
- see it, like it, click it, buy it. Revolut is another
classic example of the benefits of digitalization and
has become one of the fastest European companies
to reach the so-called "unicorn" status. It is not
surprising that Revolut now manages around $1.5
billion in transactions every month, up 700 percent
year over year, and this number should increase as
Now try to transpose this frictionless process within
the banking sector and you come across a “frictionfull”
process, taking days and sometimes weeks
to be provided with say a credit card, a loan and
opening of a bank account. Through enough, the
current regulatory environment has not helped,
apart from the customer deep pocket syndrome
with litigations flying against banks – “because they
can afford it” which has brought about a document
fraught process.
Despite all these challenges, coupled as well with the
legacy IT architecture which is today not fit (or possibly
not fully fit) for purpose, justifiably, consumers
are looking at the likes of Amazon and asking why
banks are not trying to replicate their processes
and completely digitize the consumer journey from
start to finish, by introducing rapid onboarding and
automated digital service and product propositions.
The ramifications of such a solution frees up staff for
more valuable tasks, like cross-selling and relationship
building, while simultaneously saving the institutions
money by streamlining processes.
26 Summer 2018