This article is last of the two part series with more detail on the benefits of GDPR by data-driven marketing experts Occam.

The impetus for the regulation may be clearly consumer-centric, but there are benefits for banks that put GDPR-related measures in place sooner rather than later.

Almost by default, the changes the GDPR brings to the way banks use data will make the ‘Marketing View’ easier to find, and personalised communications more effective in attracting the next generation of financial services users:

Driving your digital maturity

According to Econsultancy, in terms of digital maturity, many financial institutions feel they’re “Just getting started”. Some feel that they “Haven’t left the gate.”

Financial businesses are collecting ever more data, but without the digital maturity to leverage it they are in danger of drowning in information they can’t understand, control or protect. The GDPR represents a line in the sand, an opportunity to revaluate the data you hold and the way you use it.

Building the ‘Marketing View’

The GDPR may result in data for which you don’t have express consent being lost. But data for which you do have consent will become hugely valuable. In an industry that struggles to find the ‘Marketing View’ because of the sheer volume of data, the GDPR will make it easier to understand customers more clearly, not least because there’s less ‘noise’ to filter out first.

Attracting the next generation of customers

Millennials don’t act like the generation before them. They expect financial services to be delivered faster, simpler, and usually virtually.

In Econsultancy’s report, 36% of retail banks cite the erosion of the connection with consumers as a major concern. Yet that erosion is only made worse when your data doesn’t offer the insight to be able to personalise communications effectively.

The purity of the data left in the wake of the GDPR will enable greater opportunity to find the next generation of customers – and personalise communications using the channels that matter to them.

Giving consumers what they want

The GDPR is a response to research that showed only 15% of EU citizens feel they have complete control over the information they provide online. One in three people think they have no control over it at all².

The GDPR is an opportunity for banks to take a fresh approach to data, one where quality trumps quantity, and where consent, personalisation and privacy form the basis of a new relationship between financial institutions and customers.