Elsewhen and Pacemakers Launch Bank of the Future: A Blueprint for the Future of Finance in a Customer-First Age

Bank of the Future: A New Era in Customer-Centric Finance

Cloud-native Banking-as-a-service provider, Vodeno, chosen as technology partner to help bring the concept to life

Elsewhen and Pacemakers have joined forces to launch Bank of the Future (BOTF): a transformative, customer-centric concept that challenges banks and other brands to rethink financial products and services exclusively from a customer perspective.

The two companies are working with Vodeno to help deliver the concept with its VODENO Cloud Platform, one of the most comprehensive fully cloud-based banking platforms on the market. The three firms are seeking other progressive organisations keen to adopt the BOTF model in order to revolutionise the way consumers use financial services.

“In a world driven by accelerated customer expectations, Elsewhen and Pacemakers envisage a new paradigm that views banking exclusively through the customer’s eyes,” said Leon Gauhman, chief product and strategy officer, Elsewhen. “Bank of the Future will help customers achieve their financial objectives through deep personalisation, real-time advice and a focus on customer outcomes.”

Using APIs from open banking, social media, online spending and location services to apply insights from customers’ data, past and present, BOTF automatically takes the best course of action for the customer, becoming a trusted, transparent and invisible financial companion.

Key features include:

1. Real-time, automated personal bank 

BOTF provides customers with their own real-time, automated personal bank, dedicated to acting in their interests and responding to their needs around three core functions: spending, borrowing and saving (or investing). Customers can allow many day-to-day banking decisions to be taken automatically by their bank, based on real-time and historic behaviour, while still manually approving larger decisions and transactions. For example, the BOTF would liberate customers from their monthly paycheck to paycheck dependency by carrying out automatic adjustments to cover direct debits, payments and savings, notifying them as it goes.

1. Customer outcomes, not selling products

Incumbent banks sell standardised financial products and services, designed around their own needs and operational limitations. By contrast, BOTF will focus solely on customer needs and outcomes, simplifying the banking process into an invisible intuitive customer experience through seamless UI, natural language interfaces and automatic recommendations that are based on a customer’s own data and support their financial ambitions.

1. Profitable customer retention a core KPI

While a bank which operates in its customers’ rather than its own best interests feels counterintuitive, ultimately the BOTF will be more profitable, allowing banks that adopt the concept to both maintain high levels of customer satisfaction and make money. In an intensely competitive market what differentiates the Bank of the Future from the other players are its core assets of trust, ease of use and transparency.

1. BOTF will accelerate the trend towards embedded finance

As banking becomes more seamless, invisible and personalised, BOTF will become the catalyst for embedded finance where it can deliver banking-as-a-service to consumers by empowering communities of customers across retailers, telcos, manufacturers, sports clubs, entertainers and more.

1.       BOTF is more than just a concept

The Bank of the Future model is already possible with Vodeno’s technology: all that’s needed is a player with the courage to fulfil its potential.  We believe that the BOTF is the first truly customer-centric bank, finally acknowledging that customers do not want to buy banking products, they want solutions to help them achieve their financial goals.

For more information watch this video explainer:

Commenting on the partnership:

Elsewhen Chief Product and Strategy Officer, Leon Gauhman, said:

“There is so much more we can do to make banking an intuitive, deeply personalised experience that prioritises customers’ needs rather than banks’ profit margins. Thanks to Pacemakers’ strategy, Elsewhen’s design and product expertise and Vodeno’s cloud-native platform, the Bank of Future could be built today. My challenge to banks, financial services and other brands is: why wait?”

Pacemakers.io Managing Partner, Alessandro Hatami, said:

“Most of the banking solutions offered today by banks and fintechs are simply improving what banks were doing decades ago using digital technology. It’s time to do better. The Bank of the Future is a prototype of the first car when everyone else is focussing on building faster horses.”

Vodeno Chief Commercial Officer, Tom Bentley, said:

“We believe consumers should have access to the best banking products and services, anytime and anywhere. Modern cloud-based technologies make this promise a reality, and we built our VODENO Cloud Platform to be one of the most comprehensive banking platforms with the mission to offer embedded financial services to fintechs, established businesses and brands. The Bank of the Future concept is a very compelling vision of a customer-first future, and we are excited to have our platform be the engine to make it happen.”