Five Game Changing Technologies in Digital Banking
Digital banking is becoming the rule rather than the exception. With technology moving the world in a progressive direction toward paperless and contactless services and financial products, online shopping, and transactions largely digitized, we’re entering into a new age. Everything has changed and it’s a new system that offers greater convenience with faster and easier ways for conducting our financial transactions. Here are five game-changing technologies in digital banking.
1. Augmented Reality
Augmented reality is a technology that is used in the banking sector in a variety of ways. While it’s a new technology that is still in the infancy stage of its development, it serves to grant total autonomy to banking customers in the transactions and other actions that are accessible from the comfort and convenience of their homes. Thanks to augmented reality technology, traditional bank branches are becoming a thing of the past with new virtual branches along with mixed reality available through the online environment. This technology is changing the way that we conduct financial business. This new technology has nearly eliminated long lines at the bank where customers wait their turn to see a teller for help to deposit checks, make cash deposits, withdraw funds, or conduct other banking and financial related services. Consumers can even use their smartphones to take a picture of a printed paper check to deposit into their accounts through augmented reality technology.
2. Business Intelligence
Business Intelligence is a technology that enhances the efficiency of new digital banking technologies through an integration process that provides insights that are more accurate, unbiased, and more function-specific. The technology bases the data on current, past, and future banking trends. This in turn helps to increase bank efficiency based on real data in a scientific manner that also generates higher revenue. Business Intelligence is a vital component in the new digital era of banking to help prevent any inaccuracies for greater confidence in the new systems that are based on empirical evidence with proven methods that help to promote confidence in the banking systems. For new technologies to be properly implemented with as few mistakes as possible business intelligence provides the platform and methodology for ensuring that all banking processes flow seamlessly per the strategic plans that are set into motion through its use.
3. Biometrics
Biometrics is a technology that is used to create banks that are completely branchless with no traditional contact centers. There are also no brick-and-mortar operations associated with the technology. What it amounts to is a mobile-only bank. There is a bank with this type of infrastructure in the country of India with a DBS team in Singapore that has established a financial institution called Digibank. It’s revered as the best digital bank in the world, nominated for this distinctive position by Euromoney. The number of customers who are currently using this mobile banking system now numbers over 1.2 billion. This is an impressive number by any standard. Customers go through biometric authentication as a part of the security of using this type of banking system. The financial institutions using this type of technology benefit their bottom lines by saving on staffing for operating the systems without the need for the overhead costs of maintaining offices and branches with limited staffing required to ensure smooth operation. Perhaps the greatest benefit of these branchless institutions ran on biometric is the straightforward operation and convenience that the end users/customers experience without the hassle of driving to the bank to conduct transactions. In India, consumers can fund accounts, conduct money transfers to accounts at other institutions, and make online real-time payments.
4. Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence in the banking industry is one of the most impactful game-changers. There is a great potential for Ai to support new business and provide enhanced customer experiences by personalizing the service that is provided through digital means. Private banks used investment algorithms based on AI that makes their portfolio management stronger. AI can also help with fraud detection to make banking safer and more secure for end-users. On a global level, AI platforms are developing with a focus on technology investment. Currently, about 33% of executives relying on technology. Although still in its developing stages, AI has the potential for helping banks decide whether or not to offer a loan to consumers based on analysis of hard facts and empirical data that is specific to each applicant based on their history and current status. There is still much to be done to fully implement AI technology into the new digital banking scene but progress is being made as AI has the potential for helping to fully explain the reasons why a loan application was either approved or rejected, taking the place of a human in the process.
5. Instant Payments
Instant payment technology is helping society to move towards an economy that relies less on cash transactions. This is a more convenient method of making payments or purchasing goods without the hassle of counting out cash and change rendering payment through a single financial transaction that is all digitized. The same technology is now used for issuing payments to employees for the work that they perform. We see this technology being used by payment management companies such as PayPal, Payoneer, and many other services that make payments instantly from one account to another all through digital means. This eliminates the need for issuing paper checks that can be lost or stolen. Money is transferred immediately from one account to another. More financial institutions are partnering with P2P payment operations that provide instant payments which are received far faster than the traditional methods of depositing checks and waiting for financial institutions to process the payments. In a world where many people have turned to online shopping with contactless transactions, this is a timely service that is being used as the new normal method for sending and receiving funds.
