In an effort to increase security banks have started to move to the internet domain dot-bank; the switch has not been widely adopted but those who have done it say the investment is worth it; “Anybody can have dot-net or dot-com,” said J. Marty Filogamo, SVP and marketing manager of Farmers & Merchants State Bank. “Not everyone can have dot-bank.”; this is part of a wider trend in banking as more banks look to increase digital products and security. Source.
Banks have started to push a lot more of their technology investment into mobile; banks like Capital Bank in North Carolina has seen a jump in mobile usage from 17 percent three years ago to 43 percent today; while most banks have a mobile app experience they do not offer all the features that are found online; while banks are making progress there is still significant innovation ahead. Source.
UK based banking app Revolut has decided to build their own in-house processor after their provider experienced a number of outages; Revolut follows fellow banking app Monzo in making the move to an in-house processor because of outages; GPS, the processor, serves a number of fintech companies and digital banking apps. Source.
Since launching BankMobile as a digital only bank in 2015 Customers Bancorp has seen the venture have some success but not yet reach profitability; after a deal with Flagship Community Bank for BankMobile fell through they are now looking to spin the business off; American Banker interviewed Luvleen Sidhu, BankMobiles’ President, about the spinoff deal and the future of the firm; topics discussed include why they chose a spinoff strategy, the future of the leadership, profitability and potential future ventures. Source.
While announcing earnings for Q3 Wells Fargo and Bank of America both revealed how important digital channels are to their bottom line; BofA saw mobile banking users jump 11 percent, mobile usage grew at 19 percent and digital payments grew 9 percent in the past year; Wells Fargo saw digital usage grow 2 percent and digital sessions grow 6 percent; the digital trend shows how much banks businesses are changing. Source.
To continue a global expansion of the bank they needed to remodel it around technology; they needed to transform to handle the customer base, which currently stands at over 660 million, more effectively; increasing bandwidth has been a main focus according to China Construction Bank’s CIO Jin Panshi, “We don’t just need bandwidth for 4K or HD video, but we also felt that AI capabilities, including voice and facial recognition, were urgently needed.”; they have also migrated about 83 percent of distributed applications to the cloud and continue to keep innovating to try and stay ahead. Source.
While banks might have been a bit slow to react to online lenders they are certainly taking notice today and changing how they operate; fintech companies originated about 30 percent of unsecured consumer loans in 2016 according to TransUnion, up from 1 percent in 2010; banks have started to take notice and compete with fintech companies head on and in some cases partner with them as well; banks hold significant advantages over online lenders in cost of capital and customer acquisition costs which could erode that 30 percent market share that fintechs have built. Source.
Community banks feel the pressure from fintech companies and big banks as technology is changing the way banks operate; a recent SourceMedia survey of 304 chief information officers of banks, credit unions and other financial services firms says 70 percent plan to invest more in technology in the near term; they are digitizing lending, making document collection easier, investing in mobile app technology and more. Source.
While banks might have initially been slow to act when it came to embracing digital strategies they are now able...
While speaking as a keynote at LendIt Europe 2017 Zopa CEO Jaidev Janardana said old school banking was a zero-sum game; he explained how Zopa is looking to build what he thinks will be a fairer bank based on customer needs; they are currently about halfway through the licensing process. Source.