12 Trends Reshaping Banking in 2019

Infosys Finacle, part of EdgeVerve Systems, a product subsidiary of Infosys (NYSE: INFY), today released its annual banking trends forecast for the year 2019. The report, based on consultation with subject matter experts and experience of working with banks in 100 countries, captures twelve business and technology trends that will influence banking over the next twelve months and beyond.

The report observes that banks across the world have begun their digital transformation journeys, and in 2019, the focus will be on how to accelerate this journey, with Open Banking and API-led business models playing a key role. Technology and business outcomes will become more tightly coupled, as banks evolve their architecture for emerging digital technologies and new open banking realities.

Key highlights:

6 key technology trends for banking in 2019

• Accelerating architectural evolution – Banks will embrace principles of deep business focus, true agnosticism, pervasive analytics, open source, and comprehensive automation as architectural principles, to achieve new levels of agility, scalability, and resilience.
• AI in the bank – Benefits of AI in existing use-cases of customer services and fraud management will scale up, and the technology will find greater application in compliance, precision marketing, and even talent management.
• Blockchain – Blockchain use cases in banking will expand, and large networks will become crucial for meaningful value.
• Steady advance towards public cloud - Public cloud will emerge as the preferred choice of tier 2 and tier 3 banks looking to expand operations. API-driven business initiatives and new digital channels will also drive adoption.
• Accelerating connected commerce – Many banks will begin offering basic banking on smart voice-assistants. IoT adoption will accelerate in the trade finance and lease financing business.
• Increasing interactive dimensions – Mixed reality (MR) starts becoming a reality for banks. Banks will pilot use cases such as virtual branches, and mobile applications augmented with MR.

6 key business trends for banking in 2019

• Transition towards platform business model will accelerate. The traditional vertically-integrated pipeline business model where banks manufacture and sell their own products is giving way to marketplace-driven banking.
• Customer journeys will advance to the point of primary intent. Banks will craft journeys that begin when a customer contemplates buying an asset, not when he/she comes looking for a loan to finance that asset.
• Open Banking will make banks evolve their API strategies and align them with business and product strategies closely, as they expose more APIs and take them live with production data. However, banks and FinTechs will continue to grapple with the challenge of multiple API standards for some time.
• Cyber-Defense vs. Hacker Intelligence – Banks will enhance their security controls and make significant investments in security talent, tools and expertise to combat the rising threat from evolved hacking techniques.
• Optimizing digital-human interplay – Workforce and culture practices will adapt to attract and retain multi-generational talent. Banks will also welcome talent from outside of banking to become more diverse in a world of blurring industry boundaries.
• Data privacy and ethics – As banks navigate the dual challenge of sharing data for customer-centric innovation mandated by regulations, and protecting customer interest, they will find themselves stepping up for a new role, the role of facilitating secure exchange of customer data with third party ecosystems.