Although every industry has felt disruption through advances in technology, it is the finance industry that appears to have felt these digital trends the most. With the entire sector needing to develop and move forward with the times.
Here are just some of the ways that the financial sector has changed and developed in recent times:
Customer Personalisation
When it comes to banking and financial companies, there is lots of competition. So, to obtain new customers and keep their current customer base happy, these companies are having to place a higher emphasis on personalised services and marketing.
So, to improve the customer experience, these companies are using technology to create apps and the like so that customers are always happy.
This has also seen a rise in the use of AI bots to improve customer experience. Here, many financial companies will add an AI bot to their website, where it can answer common queries for customers. As these are available 24/7, customers can get answers to questions at any time rather than waiting for a phone line to open.
Open Banking is Now the Norm
While banks have been reluctant to accept open banking, where customers can share their financial information with third parties, the customer demand for open banking is forcing these banks to make it a reality to keep customers happy.
This is particularly popular for allowing customers to use apps that can help them to track and manage their monthly spending habits in order to improve savings and help pay debts.
Established Banks are Creating Their Own Challenger Brands
A challenger bank is a small retail bank that aims to compete with the larger banks on the market, such as Monzo. With these banks growing in popularity, many banks are losing their customers to these mobile-only banks.
To help combat this disruption, many major banks like HSBC and RBS are creating their own version of challenger banks, so that they can improve their customer base.
Fintech Companies Aren’t a Bad Thing
Although new fintech companies are indeed rivalling well-established financial companies. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Not only is this encouraging companies to move with the times and improve services for customers, but to do this, many companies are teaming up with new fintech companies to share expertise. Which means the customers get the best of both worlds.
Cryptocurrencies are No Longer the Future
It seemed like cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin came out of nowhere, totally taking the world by storm. In fact, many of us thought that cryptocurrencies would be the future for us all. That was, until 2018 when the value of these currencies plummeted, bringing into question whether or not these cryptocurrencies had any long-term viability in the financial sector.
That being said, the blockchain technology that was used in cryptocurrencies is still incredibly interesting and useful. So, over the next few years, we may see this technology used in other more exciting ways in the financial sector.
Technology is improved every day, which means the financial sector is going to need to constantly evolve to stay relevant. Which means we can expect many notable changes in the years to come.
