John Gerspach, Chief Financial Officer of Citigroup stated at an investor conference they are building the foundation which will support the launch of a national digital consumer bank launch in the next three years; the bank currently has around 700 bank branches which is far fewer than the three biggest banks. Source
UK based startups and big banks have been pushing their online investment advisors through ads as they try to gain new clients; after seeing some of the startups have early success big banks started to get into the market this past year; the upcoming ISA deadline on April 5th has companies pushing their marketing spend in recent months with hopes it will pay off in new customers and cash. Source.
JPMorgan Chase is the only U.S. bank with scalable businesses in every payments vertical; the bank has been investing and partnering heavily the last few years into payments innovation; they see checking accounts as checking and payments accounts; they have made moves into digital wallets, p2p payments, order and pay ahead apps and recently partnered to allow customers to send an receive electronic payments and invoices; the bank sees payments and banking as one in the same and with the recent news of their heavy tech investment for 2018 more innovation looks to be on the way. Source.
The company is calling their strategy the digital everything model, which includes new mobile features and back office operations powered by the blockchain; “We’re not going to lose our financial discipline because we have to make an investment that we have to do or want to do,” CEO Jamie Dimon said when asked about their approach to the tech investment; branch expansions, investments in big data solutions and more were also discussed during the investor call as reported by American Banker. Source.
Digital only banking startups are finding it hard to scale as their offerings are similar to incumbent banks but with some better tech; with the amount of companies starting to increase these banks should think of focusing on a particular niche to get greater traction says Satya Patel, a partner at VC firm Homebrew; customer acquisition costs and a viable revenue model are two of the biggest barriers for companies; online lenders like SoFi have started to offer banking services on top of lending as a means to offer customers more products after providing an initial service. Source.
MasterCard and Facebook Messenger have teamed up to bring Nigerian small businesses digital payments and banking; 98 percent of Nigerians use cash when transacting with businesses; businesses message a Masterpass QR bot on Facebook Messenger to help enable QR code payments; the partnership is then supported by Nigeria’s Ecobank and Zenith Bank by setting up those businesses with accounts at the banks; the biggest hurdle in a partnership like this is the consumers or small businesses cannot transact with one another and so adoption is slow, though the partnership hope to solve that issue. Source.
Seed offers small businesses of all stripes the ability to open an account in less than 5 minutes on their website or mobile app; they now offer banks software to help them digitize account openings; they are one of a handful of fintech companies offering banks a white label solution to increase small business deposits; Seed comes with KYC procedures but has the ability to adapt to the bank as they know banks need customization. Source.
Samsung’s new Galaxy S9 is marketed as having a better camera and can take clear pictures in low light; the technology could solve one of the bigger facial recognition issues which is poor quality pictures in low lighting; thus far banks have been slow to adopt the new technology as they have yet to be comfortable wit the way it currently works; with Samsung and Apple continuing to improve their cameras and a younger generation of customers increasing, facial recognition will soon be an important piece for all banks. Source.
Varo Money has ramped up their marketing campaign to position themselves as a better option than the banks; the fintech company is not going directly at the banks in their ads as some other fintechs have done, they are instead highlighting their own offering; their ads can be seen on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest; they are also focusing on their customers overall financial lives, empowering their users to understand what they make and how they can spend wisely. Source.
Capital One is looking to ensure innovation at the bank is beyond add ons that might solve a particular problem; the bank is looking to take a fuller look at innovation and not just trying to be first to market with a new product; Capital One has rolled out a chatbot, an Alexa skill and more as they look to try and make banking part of their customers everyday experience; Sanjiv Yajnik, president of financial services at Capital One, tells TearSheet “The real power is shifting the way in which you think about the product. Customers today are demanding products and services that are seamlessly integrated into their lives.” Source.