Challenges

Financial institutions will count on technology more than ever to handle the increasing complexities of business with a minimum of staff, to satisfy customers’ need for convenience and to abide by increasingly complex regulatory rules. On the other hand, big data, bio-metrics and mobile payments are among trends impacting the financial services industry. Marketing’s big data boost, mobile payments explosion, locking down customer data, marrying data from disparate systems are now some of the core characteristics of financial services.

Another challenge in this sector is mergers and acquisitions that resulted to shrinking the number of banks and financial institutions, while integration is still an issue. Compliance gets an increasingly role in financial operations; financial institutions need to be more proactive than reactive in determining when they can legally initiate a foreclosure or making other decisions with potential regulatory implications.

Financial institutions are shifting from the traditional product focus to a more client-centric strategy. Although most of them have virtually identical products, their customers are obviously distinct and, hence, offer these firms a pathway for differentiation. Institutions that cultivate a deep knowledge of their customers can tailor offers to individuals in a timely manner based on activity in their accounts and lifestyle changes or choices; the customer is core. What’s more, greater marketing precision can direct banks’ spending more efficiently and help control costs.

In a few words, customer centricity, clear and consistent focus, executional excellence, smart partnering, new and mobile technologies, risk management and ruthless performance management influence operational performance, provide a huge immediate advantage and are essential to long-term success in today’s low-growth, low-margin environment.