By Jovi Overo, Managing Director BaaS at Unlimint

The customer drives change. Customer expectations of what is a good service and what is a vastly superior service now takes place in the digital world of financial services.

Last weekend, I called my mother who is 74, and she was really frustrated about how bad her bank is. She told me that trying to receive money sent by relatives from abroad is a real hassle. I asked her why doesn’t she simply move banks, or use one of the new fintechs? And she replied that she is tired of calling, being put on hold, speaking to robots, and being given multiple options to choose from as opposed to having a human to converse with. She said that it’s hard to get excited about all these new banks that have wavy fonts and fancy colours, but do not actually cater to her specific needs.

Banks face the problem of maintaining their outdated legacy systems while also trying to innovate and build new products and services. The mismatch between what is demanded by the customer and what is easily buildable on top of legacy architecture is going to increase. The legacy bank with outdated technology is what is holding back the kind of banking services that the consumer wants and demands. These are a few of the many problems Banking as a Service (BaaS) solves. Its impact on providing customers with more flexible and secure online payments means that traditional banks and FS firms have a strong incentive to turbocharge their digital journeys. Especially when you consider the digital-first fintechs and providers utilising BaaS to deliver more convenient, efficient, and more value-adding banking experiences.

Banking as a Service is on the rise

You can’t go to a fintech event or conference without someone mentioning “plumbing”, “embedded finance” or “BaaS”.

Through advances in cloud technologies and API, Open Banking, and PSD2, it has never been easier for banks and non-banks to deliver financial solutions to their customers. With the ubiquity of BaaS providers and users in the UK, banks and FS firms, and newer fintechs can now provide their consumers with offerings specialising in accounts, payments, and credit options that are tailored to the unique needs of their customers.

Though no longer flavour of the day, Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) is such an example. E-commerce checkout was a problem that BaaS solved. A problem that caused friction for the consumer. Now, consumers have a range of solutions that are offered to them at their point of need. BNPL and branded cards offered by brands and specialised fintechs are options available to consumers. This is a classic case of embedded finance. Customers want exceptional and frictionless services. A frictionless payment option at the point of checkout of an online merchant is now a must-have, no longer a nice to have.

With BaaS, UK businesses, banks, non-banks, and FS firms no longer need to sit at the kids’ table when it comes to customer-driven financial offerings. BaaS opens up the opportunity to reinvent their services to better meet the needs of their customers.

Upcoming trends

I believe we will see more BaaS solutions that enable businesses to offer hyper-personalised financial products to consumers. BaaS is designed to get closer to the customers’ problems and solve those problems more holistically. Problems that may come from the consumer moving through different life stages, such as getting married or moving home. There exist oceans of opportunity for fintechs and BaaS-enabled businesses to scale hyper-personalised financial products.

Will my weekend calls with my mother change? Unlikely. However, every business that has a financial component recognises that customer experience is critical and without it, it can be fatal. Thus, investment in digital is set to increase and these businesses are determined to exceed customer demands and innovate for the benefit of the customer. This bodes well for the sector, and hopefully my mother.

Unlimint is an all-in-one future-focused fintech solution that provides fast-growing, innovative businesses with advanced payment capabilities through an evolving financial interface. The company embraces a wide range of financial platforms to allow start-ups and entrepreneurs to expand globally and provide them with a seamless digital finance management experience. Headquartered in London, Unlimint has over 400 employees across 16 offices and five continents, including Frankfurt, Singapore, São Paulo, Hong Kong, and Mexico. For further information, please visit: https://www.unlimint.com/