SunTec

  For the banking sector, 2020 will be remembered as a difficult year packed with obstacles and lessons learned. While the internet and mobile banking were gaining traction before the pandemic, the worldwide crisis made going ‘digital’ the sole option to reach out to customers, engage them, and service their requirements during lockdowns, making it more about a bank's actual existence than a box to be ticked. Banks must adapt to be relevant, prosper, and grow as customers increasingly turn to digital alternatives. The growth of the API economy is another key trend linked to digitalization. Open banking, facilitated by open APIs, is now firmly established in financial services, giving clients flexibility over what goods and services they consume, including partner products, as well as from other third parties. This indicates that the purchasing decision might come from a third-party source rather than the bank. Third-party service providers, huge IT corporations, and fintech are all...

  Right now, the credit cards business is a fascinating place to be in. Let’s imagine if, Chase has teamed up with a number of airlines to establish co-branded credit cards that provide new users with a special welcome bonus that is redeemable on their next foreign journey. SBI, India's largest public sector bank, has teamed with Fabindia, a lifestyle brand, to provide a co-branded, contactless credit card to premium clients. Another major Indian private bank, ICICI Bank, has partnered with Amazon Pay to develop a contactless card that has already attracted two million users. The banking and financial services industry is changing at a breakneck rate, and the credit cards industry is no exception. Customers are moving away from cash, and new digital payment models are emerging, therefore the credit card industry must reinvent itself to stay competitive. The concept of buying and selling with the help of worthless instruments dates back to the dawn of human civilization. Since then,...

The banking sector has   been regarded as one of the most stable, with reliable returns on equity (RoE). The development of fintechs and the entry of tech behemoths into the industry has completely transformed the landscape. These digital native businesses have effectively used technology to address client pain areas, paving the path for a new era of hyper personalization, tailored services, and intuitive banking.   They have already smoothly integrated banking functions in areas such as e-commerce, social networking, gaming, digital entertainment, travel, health, and home-buying in many cases. Traditional banks are unable to maintain or improve their ROE as consumers' loyalties are shifting. According to McKinsey, global banking ROE was 10.5% in 2018 and 56% of banks across the world were not generating their cost of equity (CoE). Well, how can traditional banks then chart out a strategy for the disruption caused by the new entrants and how improve their RoE even under these ...

  Today, banks have a nod of approval on  integration of  third party applications and this has paved the way for them to expand their product portfolios and embark on a journey of change. Open banking has enabled banks to go beyond conventional banking and explore new avenues, leading to unprecedented innovation.     Fact is, ever since banking came into existence, customer data has remained with one entity – banks themselves. However, with the changing dynamics and open banking becoming the focus,  customers now have control over their  own  data . This has enabled third parties such as non-banking service providers to be part of the ecosystem to offer personalized, intuitive, and cost-effective offerings  that solve customer lifecycle needs . The adoption of banking-as-a-service is creating limitless possibilities and a plethora of customized offerings for the bank’s customers.      Understandably, interest in open banking m...