SunTec

  The once stable and staid world of banking is experiencing disruption at an unimaginable scale today. Competition for share of wallet is hotting up even as the COVID-19 pandemic wreaks havoc by precipitating economic slowdowns, loss of revenue and bad loans. And customers are not content with services and products that don’t deliver hyper personalized, relevant and effortless experiences. In a bid to meet customer demands, banks have invested in building customized products and services with hundreds of variants, many of which are not particularly profitable.  Banks must now take a more strategic look at their products and services and their pricing models to ensure profitability, optimize operational costs and deliver satisfactory customer experiences. The Rationale Behind Rationalization In addition to new products and variants, many banks have also expanded operations into new regions, and signed M&As with new entities to grow the business. Multiple localized product ...

  A customer of a leading telecom operator receives their monthly bill and is shocked to find it running into several thousand dollars. The call details reveal hundreds of calls to international locations that they never made. Yet the telecom company says that the bill is genuine and not an error at their end. Unfortunately, both the customer and the telecom service provider are victims of telecom fraud. Today DCS’ are often connected with the corporate network but inadequately protected. This presents a weak spot for hackers to exploit, resulting in significant revenue leakage. Communication service providers usually ignore the threat as they consider the losses from individual incidents minimal, but over time, these leaks can have a significant impact on revenues. Over the last year, as the world grappled with the COVID 19 pandemic, incidents of fraud went up significantly, and raked up a considerable financial impact as well. Can organizations really afford such massive losses? ...

  From grocery shopping to taxi hailing to entertainment, the modern customer is used to a customized, easy, and intuitive digital experience that was unheard of even ten years ago. More importantly, modern customers are demanding the same experience from other services including banking. For years, the banking sector resisted change because of concerns around security and compliance, and because they enjoyed a high degree of customer trust and loyalty. The emergence of fintechs and technology majors in the banking sector has changed the name of the game. With their agile platforms, multitude of products and services, and hyper personalized strategies, these new age entities are pulling customers away from traditional banks. As a result, banks are now faced with eroding customer loyalty and diminishing revenues. Today, it is clear that  digital transformation  is no longer an option but a crucial business necessity for the banking sector. And most banks have invested in m...

  The strategy of offering discounts on pricing is as old as the history of formal business. After all, what is more attractive for a customer than a part of the price being shaved off, resulting in saved money. Even in the modern digital era where customer expectations have changed considerably, financial concessions are still effective. But as banks gear up to contend with increased competition for share of wallet, can they improve the discounting approach to be more effective? Discounts in the Digital Era Banking is no longer the stable, staid business it used to be. The emergence of  fintechs  and digital natives have changed the sector forever by offering innovative and highly personalized on demand banking. Traditional banks, once secure in the knowledge that they were the only options for customers’ financial needs, must now focus on winning and retaining customers in a highly competitive market.  Winning new customers is easier said than done. It is time cons...

  By allowing banks to leverage third party applications to expand their product portfolios, open banking opens the doors to limitless innovation.  Traditionally, customer data always remained with the bank. Open banking represents a fundamental shift in this paradigm as it puts customers in charge of their own data. They are free to share their data including transaction details with third parties, which helps different third-party organizations to come up with personalized, intuitive, and cost-effective offerings. This will lead to the adoption of banking-as-a- service and open limitless possibilities for differentiated and customized offerings across numerous touch points. Understandably, interest in open banking models is high. In 2020, 29 percent of CXOs said that open banking was their choice of innovation strategy for the future. 1  And 45 percent said it was a part of their larger digital ecosystem vision. As open banking picks up pace, organizations have to figur...

  After using their credit card consistently to make large purchases, a banking customer is given a gift voucher for a high-end car accessories store. But the voucher goes unused because they just bought a mid-range car. They do not need new accessories and the expensive ones covered by the voucher are not a good fit for their vehicle. Rewarding customers for their business is an excellent strategy that can go a long way in ensuring customer delight. But the one-size-fits-all approach to rewards and loyalty programs are irrelevant in the modern banking landscape because customers expect personalized attention. The Demand for Hyper Personalization Banking rewards systems and loyalty programs have been in circulation for years. Why have customer expectations changed drastically now? The answer lies in outside of the banking world. Consider what a customer sees every time they open Netflix – a list of recommendations based on their viewing behaviour. Every time they shop online, they ...

  The 21st century banking customer expects on demand access to products and services, a seamless experience across touchpoints, and  hyper personalized offerings  and engagement. Business growth and customer satisfaction in this context depends largely on understanding customer requirements and behavior. Unfortunately, across most traditional banks, different business lines still work with individual legacy systems. As a result, the bank cannot gain a comprehensive overview of performance. And customers are left grappling with a fragmented system that does not give them a unified view of their transactions and billing. Banks need a unified, advanced technology framework that can analyze data in real time and deliver usable insights for better strategizing. How can they scale up and improve their technology foundations to deliver a better customer experience and improve its functioning without disrupting business operations. The Problem of Many Most traditional banks toda...

  Customers are always on the lookout for the best price and where they can get the most value for their money. It’s no different when it comes to banking. For instance, customers expect their banks to give them better interest rates on deposits based on their relationship with the bank or want rewards on credit card spend in line with their needs. Today customers increasingly value their personal relationships with their bank. While banks enjoy customer trust, offering products and services that lack differentiation has posed a potential roadblock to delivering consistent value. A Deloitte report points out that 75 percent people think that banking products and services are the same across all banks. 1 With customers willing to shift their loyalty for better prices and services, and with the emergence of new-age competition from Fintechs and BigTechs, banks have come to realize that this one-size-fits-all approach is counterproductive. Pricing, therefore, becomes a strategic imper...