Traditional banks operating today face stiff competition from fintech innovators and other non-traditional financial institutions, and many now struggle to keep pace with these emerging competitors. To maintain their relevance in the industry, banks must find new ways to attract customers, expedite onboarding, meet obligations to existing clients and partners, and optimize their back-office operations.
Without a commitment to embracing change and pursuing up-to-date solutions, financial institutions run the risk of falling behind current industry leaders. Overdependence on antiquated systems and processes can have pronounced negative effects on operational efficiency, customer satisfaction and retention, and overall profitability.
In the interest of becoming more open, agile, and responsive, many banks have turned to modern core banking solutions and other technological innovations. Banks that choose to retire legacy technologies and methodologies and instead adopt modern solutions can look forward to the following benefits:
More Agile and Efficient Operations
Modern retail banking customers operate in predominantly digital environments and have thus grown accustomed to expecting fast, user-friendly, and perennially available banking services. To meet these expectations and further improve banks’ agility and operational efficiency, core banking solutions utilize cloud-based technologies. Cloud-enabled software allows banks to collect and access accurate real-time data, analyze that data in fine detail, and make more intelligent business decisions based on their findings.
The best core banking software will also come equipped with innovative AI tools, machine learning capabilities, and automation features, which can help banks streamline and speed up many of their day-to-day procedures. Banks should first concentrate on automating basic tasks that have historically depended on paper-based processes and manual labor, like processing transactions, onboarding customers, and reconciling business data. With a more robust tech stack, banks can complete tasks that would once have taken days of processing time in just a few hours.
These expedited workflows not only increase customer satisfaction but also save the company significant amounts of time, labor, and resources. Instead of dedicating talented staff to the rote performance of manual duties, for example, leaders of banking institutions will now be free to give their people more challenging and value-adding work, such as product and service development and advanced analytics.
Better Tech Support and Security Features
Any technology will become increasingly harder and more expensive to maintain as it ages. This is because software developers tend to offer less and less technical support for their older products as time passes, concentrating instead on developing and fine-tuning new offerings. The number of experts with the skills and knowledge necessary to operate these aging systems dwindles, and institutions that depend on old technology for their day-to-day operations are left in the lurch.
Banks that run on legacy technology face great risk, as they may not have access to easy or affordable solutions in the event of malfunctions or system breakdowns. This is not the case for modern systems, which are well-supported by large and active development teams. Developers are often proactive in rolling out bug fixes, performance enhancements, and other updates for their most current products, and they’re frequently also responsive to customer feedback and concerns.
As cybersecurity becomes an increasingly urgent concern for financial institutions, banking software developers are also likely to prioritize security features. Core banking systems should come pre-programmed with encryption, user permissions management functions, password-protection capabilities, and other essential security tools.
Comprehensive Customer Perspective
Because financial matters are sure to be highly sensitive and personally important to any customer, traditional banks tend to nurture intimate, deeply involved, and often long-term relationships with their client base. Customers want to regard their banks as dependable partners that can be trusted to safeguard their hard-earned savings, protect their private information, help them make sound financial decisions, and aid them in growing their wealth.
In light of this, a bank’s success will frequently hinge upon its ability to gather deep insight on its customers and interpret that insight accurately and effectively. Beyond simply responding to real-time client demands and concerns, banks must be able to predict what their customers will need and offer them convenient ways to address these anticipated needs.
Modern core banking solutions make this possible by efficiently collecting, processing, and storing customer information from multiple channels and sources. The software can then generate an aggregate, 360-degree perspective on the customer that bank staff can consult as they work to develop more personalized, context-attentive products and services.
Superior Connectivity
Over time, customers have begun to visit physical bank branches less frequently in favor of doing their banking transactions online. This change has prompted banks to invest more in their dedicated mobile apps, websites, and other digital platforms to provide a better digital banking experience.
To maximize their openness and connectivity, some banks now offer users the option to conduct transactions via email, SMS messaging, social media, and other channels. Good core banking software will be able to support as many communication channels as a bank needs to reach its customer base in the ways that are most comfortable and convenient for them.
Current core banking systems can give banks the flexibility and power required to respond to evolving customer and market demands. Recognizing the need for innovation and embracing the vast number of potentials modern technology offers is the first step many traditional financial institutions need to take in order to thrive in the contemporary business environment.
