Opinion: Why banking must change its game

The next generation wants simple, fast ways to manage money.

KARACHI: You have 15 minutes to kill. Time to bank. After logging in on your smartphone, you check that your pay has come in, you settle your credit card dues, pay your rent by bank cheque and move money into your savings account. Before you reach home on your way back from work, there is just enough time to locate the nearest cash point and check for discount offers at your favourite lunch spot.

This is a far cry from banking of old, and this is only the beginning of what the internet and mobile technology can offer. As device sophistication and network speed increase, so will consumers’ expectations of usability and service. Next generation customers want banking that fits into their lives, not the other way around.

For banks, this means that we must adopt a whole new way of thinking, right down from how we develop our products and services. More than what we offer, it is how we deliver that will drive our relationship with the customer in coming years. In next generation banking, there is no place for top-down, blinkered innovation. We must ask not ‘What do we want to sell?’, but ‘What does the customer want to do, and how can we help them do it?’

Standard Chartered’s customer research has revealed, above all else, a wish for simpler, faster banking, be it at the branch, on the phone or via mobiles. In general, customers have grown to demand more from service providers, and banks are seen to be lagging behind.

In the past, banks expected customers to follow their rules. Today however, there is a growing, global tribe of trend-setting and tech-savvy consumers who demand relevant banking that is instant, intuitive and integrated. United by mindset, not demographics, these people want more control over their finances. If banks were slow to adapt usability to their services in the past, they now need to catch up fast.



Our Breeze Mobile Banking app evolved, not from a top-level committee, but out of desire on the part of some of our youngest employees to make banking simpler by creating an intuitive, plain-speaking smartphone interface. Development was undertaken by small technology start-ups in Singapore. With many nationalities involved both inside and outside Standard Chartered, Breeze Mobile Banking was brought to life by a global village of creators.

Global statistics appeared to confirm huge demand for mobile services. With a trend evident in many markets, demand for easy banking on the go is increasing rapidly. In Singapore, where Breeze Mobile Banking was first launched, it has been consistently in the top 5 downloads of the iTunes app store for finance.

We believe that many of our customers, if not all, will be using mobile phones to interact with us in the medium term. And mobile banking platforms won’t be limited to banking alone. Ultimately, such platforms will transform into integrated one-stop shops, where customers can do anything they want to do on the go, whether it’s checking their bank balance, buying a movie ticket or booking a flight. We want to be part of this exciting future.

However, this does not mean that we will invest in the mobile banking channel above all others. Increasingly, customers want to interact with banks across a number of different channels to fulfill their financial needs. A home buyer wanting to take out a home loan, for example, may research options online, get details over the phone or through web chat and then walk into the branch to buy the product. This means that banks need to ensure all channels – including the traditional branch – are as user friendly as smartphone banking.

While the marriage of new technology and changing consumer lifestyles will require banks to turn the traditional concept of customer service on its head, some things will not change: people will always have to pay for goods and services, to save and invest, to buy homes and grow their wealth. And trust between the bank and the customer will remain pivotal.

At the end of the day, banking is about enabling customers to achieve their ambitions; it is about helping them to protect and grow their wealth and enhance their life styles. While channels of delivery will change as technology and needs evolve, this should never be forgotten.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 30^th, 2013.

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