By John Barber, VP & Head of Europe, Infosys Finacle

Although the banking business is always evolving, a number of new innovations have emerged during the past year that will have a big impact on how it develops in the future. Most of these new developments have an apparent repeating theme, which is partially a result of COIVID-19’s impacts. The pandemic has made banks realise how crucial it is to build their own digital infrastructure since customers, workers, and society at large have grown accustomed to conducting daily business online.

The following subjects, according to John Barber (VP & Head of Europe, Infosys Finacle), will be crucial for the banking sector to succeed in 2023.

The metaverse

The expansion of the metaverse as we currently know it has been greatly aided by the emergence of the experience economy and technical advancements. The gaming, media, and entertainment sectors have already embraced it, but the banking and financial services sectors must follow suit in 2023.

By doing this, banks would be able to give their customers a personalised banking experience without having them drive a considerable distance to their branch. For instance, voice-based contact centres may be replaced with metaverse avatars of bank executives, allowing banks to give their customers more detailed, real-time information (such as statements and forms) than they could have over the phone. If the metaverse is included into banking, training will also be transformed. Employees will be better prepared for a variety of customer scenarios thanks to their ability to create clients and artificial challenges. Additionally, they will be able to impart healthy financial practises to their clients’ children. In order to retain consumers and foster loyalty, banks will be able to create virtual money in the metaverse and help kids understand how exactly borrowing and saving money operate.

We believe that the metaverse will continue to grow in popularity because of continual developments in hardware and software that will improve the immersive experience. It is just a matter of making sure that the financial institutions have the systems in place for the demand of the new platform.

Artificial intelligence

By offering useful insights to their finance management, artificial intelligence (AI) and analytical solutions, like the metaverse, will give banks a better understanding of customers and subsequently lead to better engagement with them. But in order to get these advantages, thorough data is needed to deliver the best engagement. Banks will need to use systems that gather data from clients’ various business relationships as well as their geographic location in order to understand their preferences and anticipate their future requirements. For instance, using information on a customer’s income, spending habits, age, and financial holdings and liabilities, a bank may advise them to invest in a certain business or cut back on spending in a certain area.

Digital banking

Gen-Z’s need for a multipurpose, personalised, seamless, and fully digital experience in the style of Amazon won’t be going away any time soon. To address this increased demand, banks must implement embedded finance, in which banking goods and services are incorporated into consumer journeys so flawlessly that they are essentially invisible. Paytm, a mobile payments and financial services firm that provides a range of services including banking, insurance, and investments, ticket booking, food delivery, shopping, and seamless payments to fund these, is an excellent illustration of how this is put into practise.

Banks will need to consider their applications and expanding their capabilities beyond simply the essential banking procedures in order to compete. Ecosystem play, platform business models, embedded finance, and app-style capabilities are all evolutions that necessitate a thorough digital transformation that begins at the banking core. Therefore, banks should continue to develop highly competitive goods and services even as they set out on this digital journey. This is particularly important because meeting the demands of consumers should be your first concern at all times.

Automation

The concept of “quiet quitting” has become more widespread in the aftermath of COVID-19. There are a lot of variables that contribute to the phenomenon, one of which is the fact that many of the duties that managers assign to their staff are tiresome and undoubtedly do not promote a joyful, productive workplace.

Monotonous, unfulfilling tasks are detrimental to the banking industry’s goal of attracting and keeping the best staff. This is where the introduction of a workforce enhanced by technology that combines both people and technology is required.

We believe that in 2023, businesses will continue to automate using both established and emerging technologies. These technological advances include open API-driven automation, robotic process automation (RPA), which automatically performs routine and rule-based human tasks, and blockchain-powered private, permissioned networks for payments and trade finance. These apps will free workers from repetitive, manual labour that ultimately results in boredom and/or burnout in the long term.