What is the future of banking technology for 2020?

Just like the previous year, Auriga kick-starts the new year with a list of 2020 trends, which we anticipate will define the banking sector in the upcoming 12 months.

1. Bank branches remain a necessity

Bank branches nationwide may be reducing in numbers due to their expensive running costs; however, it will remain a traditional and vital point of contact for many consumers.

The branches that remain on the hight street will therefore be undergoing digital transformation through IT investments such as shared and white label banking and the full automation of legacy processes.

This will in turn maintain the accessibility of financial services for the public, whilst keeping the budget low and enhancing the customer experience.

Younger generations perceive the customer journey differently and rely much less on bank branches compared to older generations as they are most engaged with unique, personalised experiences. That’s why we are expecting to see more of video banking in the upcoming years.

2. Say hi to video conferencing

Video conferences and remote assistance will be able to help both the younger demographics, the elderly, and those living in remote areas to interact with branches in a completely new way, 24/7, thereby improving the customer relationship.

This is particularly useful as in many European financial institutions, customers must be physically identified by the bank before the bank account is fully configurated.

For banks, this means streamlining management processes, reducing the probability of human error, and bridging the gap between the operator and the valued customer – fundamentally enhancing the overall interaction and user experience, with mutual participation from both parties.

Customers will benefit from real-time verification of payments and transfers, as well as virtual assistants whenever it is needed.

3. Leveraging AI to gain customer insights

IDC’s Worldwide Artificial Intelligence Systems Spending Guide predicts that the global AI spend could add up to approximately £74.9bn by 2022. Being one of the most disruptive technologies of the decade, traditional banks will need to be able to understand, manage, and integrate AI throughout its infrastructure to remain competitive.

This technology enables a wide range of innovations, namely data analytics and customer intelligence. Artificial Intelligence can be used to manage the bank’s wealth of data, which can then be tapped into to discover new customer information such as trends, habits, and behaviours to better understand their needs and personalise banking services.

Banks can similarly analyse big data and patterns using AI and ML to identify suspicious activity, combat fraud in real-time, and take immediate action to notify the customer.

4. Cloud Computing continues to thrive

The adoption of Cloud Computing allows banks to improve its resilience and capability in supporting the digitisation of our society in a time- and cost- effective manner. Banks will benefit from a fundamental boost in computing power, which makes it much easier to house and analyse data lakes.

Banking trends for 2020

These are only some of our predictions, we are constantly monitoring the industry landscape for the latest trends and hot topics and will reflect on these thoughts in a few months to see how they evolve.

So, keep a look out!