Gigabit December 2018

DIGITAL DISRUPTION
54
With stories breaking of banks
suffering from technical glitches,
leaving customers locked out
of their accounts, and chief executives
resigning due to the effect of IT meltdowns,
it’s a reminder that it isn’t good enough in
today’s customer-centric world to expose
customers to poor digital services.
Despite these shortcomings, customers
are still reluctant to switch bank accounts
from established brands - which is increasingly
becoming a problem with small to
medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). In fact,
recent research (from a Unisys study) has
shown that 97.8% of SMEs expressed
satisfaction with their existing provider,
while 60% of SMEs have no plans to
change banking provider in the next five
years, citing trust as their main reason for
choice. The research also highlighted the
quality of today’s digital offerings were not
a driver for SMEs when choosing their
provider. With recent banking technology
blunders, challenger banks are able to
prioritise robust digital services and new,
innovative propositions could force a power
shift in the banking industry.
During my time as co-founder at challenger
bank Aldermore the SME savings market
was materially under-served. We saw an
opportunity to address this as SMEs
“1 in 6 SMEs stated
that they would be
willing to switch
accounts in the next
twelve months. Even
more staggering is
that almost half
(47%) stated if they
did switch, they
would move to
a challenger bank,
digital bank, or nonbanking
brand”
DECEMBER 2018