FEATURE21 August 2017

The calm before the storm

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Features Finance Financials Impact Mobile Trends UK

Despite branches closing, customer transactions with their banks are increasing, led by mobile apps. With open banking on the horizon, banks need to act fast to face the ‘fintech’ disruption coming their way. By Derek McInnes. 

Storm

There is a storm on the horizon. Retail banks are on the brink of unprecedented change, fuelled by customers’ shifting expectations and developing technologies, but pushed to a tipping point by a radically reshaped regulatory environment.

Incite Marketing Planning and The App Business have carried out joint research into the implications for retail banks of impending regulatory changes; it has identified ‘at risk’ customers – and they are some of the banks’ most important clients, with significant current and future value.

For incumbent banks to remain relevant and prosperous, they must build a mobile offer with services that meet – or exceed – the outcomes these high-value, high-risk customers desire. A one-size ts-all approach won’t work any more.

Yet, on the surface, all looks calm. Recent figures from the BBA, the trade association for the banking sector, show that – even at a time of steeply declining branch visits – the overall number of interactions people ...