We are still glowing from the excitement of this year’s Finovate Europe event. The increase in number of bankers in the audience over last year indicates that ‘the times, they are a changin.’ For a more thorough wrap up from the event we give you a post from Forrester Research’s Ben Ensor. This Week in Engagement Banking we also include the results of a five-year study by Javelin Research, which among other good insights, found an increase of an astounding 63% in mobile banking over the last year. Bank Systems and Technology has a great article this week about how a bank’s culture can sabotage its plans for change and how banks can address this. Connecting with customers is an art and a science and with this in mind the Bank Innovation Blog takes on what’s in a name. Finally, we include an article from snarketing 2.0, which we think truly gets at why banking isn’t going the way of the music industry regardless of its drastically changing industry dynamics.
Finovate Europe 2012: Innovation In Digital Financial Services
“There’s plenty of innovation in digital financial services. This year’s show was even bigger than last year, with over 500 eBusiness executives, technology vendors, venture capitalists and journalists drawn from across Europe. That’s a good sign for those of us who work in digital financial services. The new generation of digital financial services is upon us. Technologies like smartphones and tablets have changed what executives can deliver through digital touchpoints, and continually raise customers’ expectations. eBusiness executives need to think through what it means for the way they sell to and service customers. Firms like Backbase, IND, Mootwin and Sandstone are developing beautiful interfaces.”
Mobile Banking Grew 63pc Year-to-Year: Study
“Fueled by large financial institutions, mobile banking grew 63 percent from 2010 to 2011 and reached 22 million new consumers in 2011, according to a study from Javelin Strategy and Research. In the “Mobile banking, smartphone and tablet forecast: 2011-2016” study, Javelin took a look at the current state of mobile banking and where it is headed in the next five years. The report also presented how mobile banking stacks up between large and smaller financial institutions. “At first, there are always barriers with financial institutions setting up mobile banking solutions, but once a bank gets it, it clicks,” said Mary Monahan, executive vice president and research director of mobile at Javelin, Pleasanton, CA.”
Capitalizing on Big Data Requires Banks to Change Their Cultures
“‘Better access to more internal and external information about customers means that big data provides banks with new and improved growth opportunities,’ says McKinsey & Co. director Allen L. Weinberg. But, he adds, culture and organizational changes are required. Big data, characterized by the dramatic growth in the volume of data (internally generated and from external sources) available to businesses, presents new opportunities for banks to grow revenues through better customer insight. But can banks create the corporate cultures necessary to compete in the big data era?”
10 Coolest Brands in Banking in 2012
“Can a banking brand be cool?A tech reporter once said to me that a financial services startup wasn’t sexy. I mused over it for a while. It’s not a completely unfair point. Well, it’s an unfair point. Banking is cool — in its own way. And to prove it, we’ve put together a list of the 10 coolest brands in banking today. Some you know. Some you will not. Some you will wonder why we put them on the list at all. But our point is to prove that there is a thread of cool running through banking today, and we’re lovin’ it (to quote the tagline of a successful brand in another sector). To be clear, we are not listing the ‘most valuable’ brands or the “best” brands. We are simply identifying the brands that have the greatest cool factor today. You want to know our methodology? We don’t have any. That’s what makes the brands cool. They just “feel” cool to us. You don’t like our methodology? We welcome your suggestions. As long as they are cool.”
The Fat Lady Ain’t Singing To The Banks
Ron Shevlin, on the snarketing 2.0 site, responds to an American Banker article titled ‘Time to Face the Music On Disintermediation’ in which the article’s author stated: ‘In spite of all the regulation that helps prop up legacy business models and protect established companies, much of banking is ripe for digital disintermediation-and it’s starting to happen already. Fundamentally, banks connect those with money to those who need it. By limiting access to the systems that handle the transactions, banks have been able to charge big fees. But the walls are breaking down now, just like they did in the music business.’ My take: The banking and music industries aren’t analogous.”
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