Technology progresses faster than we can count up to 10 with our fingers. That’s because providers and clients alike are always running processes, debugging tasks for errors and developing solutions that could make any workflow as seamless as possible for the end users.
One industry that has seen much improvement in terms of technology is the finance and banking sector. There have been quite a number of innovations to banking in the past decade alone. Contactless ATM transactions have become possible, for instance. This technology now allows users to interact with the automated teller machine using only their mobile phones.
Indeed, fintech, as “financial technology” is fondly called, is poised to make yet another quantum leap moving forward into this new decade. What can we expect from banking this year, 2020?
Customer Experience Will be at the Forefront of Fintech
Before everything became digital, banks had to create processes that tailored mostly to their own staff. Thus, clients will have to contend with whatever system the bank puts up when doing transactions at the branches, because they’ve been created to maximize productivity of the staff.
In 2020 and the next years, however, banks are expected to roll out more features to streamline customer experience during transactions. You can expect the financial sector to become more real-time. There will be developments that will result to banks delegating more and more of their processes to mobile apps.
These developments will result to a newer and more convenient customer experience. Some banks, like ING Bank, are even now allowing new clients to sign up for a bank account through a process that’s 100% online. ING’s mobile app lets you do everything from the comfort of your home, from cashing in to your account, to paying your bills, and sending money.
Indeed, the days where you have to line up at the branch and wait long hours on queue are slowly fading into memory.
Blockchain Will Become Mainstream
Blockchain attracted attention early on in the first decade of the New Millennium. It appeared to be a challenge to the traditional banking system by providing a decentralized platform for conducting financial transactions. Peers within a network provide the computing power needed to verify transactions from one party to another, and provide the framework that stores the data.
Blockchain is not without its problems, but banks seem poised to implement and further improve on the technology. BizTech predicts that the technology will slowly be assimilated into the industry, with players introducing various new offerings like lower fees and multiple points of verification for transactions.
Automation Will Become the Norm
The rise of mobile apps and other customer experience solutions will also result to the need for automating certain processes behind the scenes. Banks are expected to invest heavily in backend software that will automatically handle key processes in order to sufficiently support real-time transactions usually done online.
In fact, an article at Bank Innovation had predicted way back 2016 that bank staff could be reduced by a whopping 80% because of automation. Much of the required manpower will now be in the IT department, which is in charge of taking care of the infrastructure needed for the bank to provide its digital services to the clients.
Here’s to an exciting year, or decade, ahead in the financial sector!
