the future of banking technology
future banking technology
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sketching the futureAfter a long work day, you’re on your way
home, driving your car. The weekend is here.
You still have to order groceries for tomorrow
and tonight you’re going to a bar with your
friends. Using Google Assistant you order your
groceries. Google tells you your balance after
paying the groceries. You also get an update on
incoming invoices. One by one you confirm or
decline payment for the invoices. When you
arrive home, you get a reminder and confirm
your payments using the facial scan of your
mobile phone.
To illustrate the banking of the future we visualized three concepts
for future banking. Watch the video here.
future banking technology
contextaware and seamless
That’s what the near future
looks like. This future is
characterized by two words:
contextaware and seamless.
Contextaware means every
interaction takes three
elements into consideration:
Location - the geographical
location determines if certain
actions are relevant or
feasible. It’s not safe to be
reading or texting when
driving. And near stores or
bank branch offices certain
services are more likely to be
used than others. In the
comfort and safety of your
own home, you are more likely
to execute on the more
complex or privacy sensitive
tasks.
Privacy needs – Few things
require privacy the way
finances do. Personal data
must not only be stored safe,
but the way they are disclosed
to the client must also be safe
and fit the privacy needs of
that moment.
toekomst technologie bankieren
Relevance – relevance of
banking services are
determined by the client and
their profile. Think family
situation, age, fields of
interest, risk profile, history
and current product portfolio.
A seamless experience means
you can hardly notice the
transitions between channels.
Whether you are using mobile
devices, IoTdevices or home
computers, your bank takes
the needs and possibilities into
consideration and switches
without disturbance. Every
type of interaction, be it based
on voice, mobile screens with
switches and buttons or based
on gestures, connects to the
same user experience.
This high level of context
awareness and seamless
transition between channels
and types of interaction,
enables an increase in
interaction between client and
bank or banking solution. The
role the future banking
platform or provider of
banking services takes on is
much more proactive than it is
now.
relevant technologies and their role in the future
toekomst technologie bankieren
You can already see it now, but voice will become a
much more prominant and proactive channel than it
is now. Voice interaction will point out that you
have an upcoming direct debit. You can then block
or postpone that debit. Authorization of payments
now works through face recognition or fingerprint.
It won’t be long before this can be done using
voice recognition or with voice as part of a two-
factor-authentication. Biometrics may only
function as a final confirmation.
conversation
Various technologies are needed to enable this
future of banking.
machine learning and data
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To have voice interaction and personalization
function properly, you need machine learning. We
foresee a future interaction that offers a timeline
with history, current actions and a look ahead. To
be truly relevant in this timeline, machine learning is
crucial. It’s the technology that allows the
behavioral patterns of the client to be recognized.
This combines personal preferrance and behavioral
patters of the group the client identifies with.
Implicitely this means recognizing a clients as
belonging to a specific group, which enables
predictions about the behavior of that inidvidual
client.
personalization
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More and more digital platforms allow for various
content alternatives. Traffic on the website can
even be automatically analyzed and segmented.
This allows you to test what client groups respond
best to which content. Sitecore AI is an example of
such technology. The critical data set to activate
this technology is about one million views a month.
A smaller bank may not achieve such traffic
volumes, but a larger bank will. Once you combine
user data about the MyZone functionality of a bank
with other data sources – like product portfolio or
spending patterns – that can provide additonal
insights.
toekomst technologie bankieren
Ar you offering several potential tasks
in a timeline in order of priority? The
filter you use to select the presented
actions from the possible actions is
machine learning powered
personalization.
With those insights you can
offer a personalized
experience to the client. That
personalization can consist of
alerts, predictions and
recommendations.
The benefit of Machine
learning is that it limits the
impact of personal bias in
profiling the client: you are
prone to categorize clients
based on your own
experiences, classify them into
groups and define customer
journeys based on those
groups. You make a lot of
assumptions along the way.
Nevertheless, even with
machine learning you define a
framework by either including
databases into your data set
or not and by selecting the
options to be offered to the
client. You first define your
target audience and identify
relevant use cases. You enter
hard personalization based on
fixed requirements. It is only
after that, that you combine all
of these man-defined
elements with a machine
learning driven
personalization.
seamless integration
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Use over various devices must be seamless. By
saying devices, our mind swiftly goes to mobile
phones and tablets. The Internet of Things is still a
bit futuristic. Google glasses did not catch on,
thought interfaces are still a sci-fi phenomenon
and for now there is no fridge on the market that
can order its own groceries. We do however have
headphones, watches, home en voice assistants,
speakersystems, Apple and Google TV connectors,
cars and so on. Every device requires its own
interaction. When on the train you may want to
hear your balance through your headphones rather
than display the balance on screen on your mobile
device, with fellow passangers peaking at your
phone. When driving, you don’t want to take your
eyes off the road. Once at home, you want to
quickly attend the tasks you can’t do on the road.
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A seamless experience doesn’t
just mean that all channels can
communicate in a way that fits
that particular bank and client,
it also means providing an
interaction that shows a
sensitivity to the way that
device is generally used. And
switching comfortably
between devices.
Your role as a bank is not just
to anticipate the use of your
online interaction on all those
devices, but also to take part
in the ecosystem of apps used
on those devices. There are
devices that need to be able
to execute payments or
impact expenditures – think
future fridges ordering
groceries or thermostats that
can define how much energy is
used. As a bankyou can
facilitate that and also use the
data of those devices for
improving the financial health
of the client. You can instantly
categorize the groceries as
household expenditures and
when the use of energy
increases, you can anticipate a
higher expenditure. As a bank,
you become part of the
services of someone else or
exchange information with
other product or service
suppliers.
future architecture
toekomst technologie bankieren
Utilizing new technologies also requires a technical
architecture that can support those technologies.
Three aspects can contribute substantially.
toekomst technologie bankieren
headless
All those devices make it
necessary to have one system
that pushes the content to
the various interfaces. The
bigger content management
platforms are already moving
toward a more headless
structure. Content
management itself is there
primarily offered as a SAAS
(Software as a service)
solution. The ‘heads’ or front-
ends in this structure are non-
SAAS. Running and maintaining
and upgrading a CMS is not a
corporate priority. The value
of the CMS is in the
functionalities it offers. They
can be supported perfectly
fine in a SAAS capacity.
Worrying about upgrades and
maintenance are a thing of the
past, whilst you still profit from
the features they offer.
Unique requirements are
supported by system
configuration. A headless
approach also decreases the
dependance from technology
and suppliers. Headless means the front-end of
digital interaction is separate fromthe
back-end. Because of that multiple
environments - like the interaction on
a smartwatch and the interaction on a
smartphone – can derive their contant
from the one and the same back-end
system.
toekomst technologie bankieren
More and more banks offer APIs. You can connect your UI to the bank features and database by using these APIs. If you want to support your clients actual life, not just your own product, you have to exchange information with other systems. To do that effectively, unlocking your services with a clearly described API is the way to go.
api – open banking
toekomst technologie bankieren
By linking various suppliers of
services in the life of a
consumer, you develop a
platform targeted to a certain
lifestyle. It may not even be
that relevant to the user
which ‘bank’ is behind it for the
finance part of things. As part
of the onboarding the client
links the banks that supply a
service to their household and
the data comes to life. Finance
is no longer a goal by its self
but part of a platform that
fulfills the needs of a very
specific target audience. The
consequence is that the bank
is less on the foreground and
the service and architecture
need to be able to serve such
a platform. From our
experience we can make
several recommendations.platforms
Offering interaction that combines
multiple data sources and intelligence
(like machine learning) requires a lot of
execution power. Each time your client
interacts with your application, it
collects the various datapoints and
executes on the intelligence, putting a
strain on the hardware and engine that
empowers your application.This is
important to keep in mind when
evaluating your platform and hosting
choices.
praktical tips for a future focused architecture
1. cloud based
toekomst technologie bankieren
Work as much cloud based as you can to be able to
cope with increasing user numbers. Your
architecture is evolving from supporting your
service and data to also supporting data and
services of others.
2. documentation
toekomst technologie bankieren
Provide both a good API and great documentation
to enable others to include your services into their
platform. Only with excellent documentation do
you become the preferred supplier for the
industry.
3. SAAS solutions
toekomst technologie bankieren
Make sure you are on the latest version of the
technology you use. Wherever possible, use the
SAAS solution to ensure this in the easiest way.
Scalability drives success. When you
start a platform as a bank with a
minimal userbase, with a minimal actual
adoption, you never achieve a
profitable business model. So it is your
task as a bank to make sure you can be
part of business propositions of others
that appeal to a client segment. Many
small ones do make a viable user base.
4. fluent omni channel
toekomst technologie bankieren
Provide a customer journey that’s ‘Fluent Omni
Channel’. Your client has to be able to fluently
switch between one channel and the other. You
have to have a platform that can unlock the same
information to various channels and receive
information from these channels as well. The only
way to achieve a fluent omni channels is when the
information and the processes are facilitated but
not exclusively executed in the front-end. Your
front-end enables access to your back-end, but
does not store information. Only then can you start
a chat conversation on a mobile app and continue
on a desk top computer, Google home or a phone
conversion and vice versa.
toekomst technologie bankieren
5. shared integration layerBuild a shared integration layer for multiple
channels. Often websites and apps have their own
dedicated integration layer for the backend.
Building a joint integration layer is not only cheaper
and more efficient, but it also forces you to take a
more universal approach to the architecture. This
decreases the risk of making a choice that limits a
feature to a single channel. You also serve the
omnichannel approach better, because all the
interfaces and channels use the same information.
Use open standards as much as possible, so third
parties can more easili integrate with your system.
Facebook, Instagram and other social
networks have succeeded partially
because of the social pressure that
arrises when many people use
something. People within their network
become scared to miss someting if
they don’t join the platform: they
experience Fear of missing out
(FOMO). Using emotions like FOMO and
peer pressure will become part of the
new banking world. Imagine people
sharing their donations to charities
with their network.
6. native or hybrid
toekomst technologie bankieren
Choose to develop native or hybrid consciously.
It’s a very strategic choice to build your app using
native technology or using a hybrid platform. Both
have advantages and disadvantages, though hybrid
is increasing in popularity due to the short
implementation time and lower costs. Building a
banking application on native platforms offers
advantages when there is already a substantial
framework in place. Our BankingRight solution
offers such a framework, providing a technological
head start that cancels out the efficiency benefits
of hybrid development.
Iedere foto van
mobiel scherm
zou hier kunnen
toekomst technologie bankieren
7. decoupling
Strive to ‘decouple’ as much as possible.
Decoupling is a slightly wider term than headless.
It’s not new, but still very relevant. Decoupling
makes it easier to unlock services to various
channels and other parties. It limits the complexity
and because of that lowers the costs of
maintenance in the long term.
Decoupling means that you develop
using separate components, each with
their own responsibility and specific
purpose. You build these components
in a way they can be used and replaces
separate from each other. You’re in a
sense cutting up your services in
individual lego blocks.
8. responsibilities and possibilities
toekomst technologie bankieren
Provide a team with the responsibility and the
enablement to produce a solution from start to
finish. Give them the tooling to do it and the
freedom to make their own choices to build the
solution as robust as possible. This warrants speed
and stability. You empower your team. This team
must be one that represents all disciplines, so the
choices they make are viewed from all necessary
angles. They will then make the right
considerations about effort versus result,
particularly when small concessions can make the
process much faster and cheaper. Devops too has
an important part in this multi-disciplinary team.
Only then can you ensure continuity and an
effective deployment to production environments.
toekomst technologie bankieren
The future of banking requires a new way of
thinking about products, new technology and a
different architecture.
We love to share the experience we’ve had within
We are you . From concepting and strategizing to
actual development and optimization we are here
to help you innovate the banking industry.
Chief Technology Officer
Joost Broekhuizen
+31 6 10 88 46 84
toekomst technologie bankieren
+31 20 34 20 042
weareyou.com
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