Rapid digital transformation
“In the years after COVID-19 pandemic bThe banking industry underwent rapid digital transformation, rushing to add features that met changing customer needs. Online banking platforms have become more sophisticated, mobile applications have been enriched with new features, and financial institutions are racing to stay ahead of the competition,” reads the “Digital Banking Maturity 2024” report.
New trend
“However, as the digital banking landscape matures, a new trend has emerged. Instead of constantly adding new features and overwhelming users with options, digital champions now focus on optimizing core processes and improving customer service quality. Instead of filling their apps with an ever-growing list of features, banks are now prioritizing quality of experience over quantity, focusing on the smoothness, personalization and performance of core functions.
Study of 349 banks in the world
In this year’s sixth edition, the study covered nearly 349 financial institutions from 44 countries on six continents. Three areas were assessed: analysis of over 1,000 digital functionalities, research on consumer preferences in the 18 most important banking activities and identification of principles and best practices in user experience (UX) design.
“The analyzed banks were divided into four categories: the best results were achieved by digital leaders (digital champions), setting the directions for the digitization of the banking sector, which include 40 banks, including four from Poland. The next group are challengers (digital smart followers) – institutions that effectively implement key solutions and try to catch up with the leaders. The next positions were taken by followers (digital adopters), which are in the technology adaptation phase and are still developing their digital functionalities. At the end, there are banks with the greatest backlogs in this area, which are just starting its transformation (digital latecomers),” we read in the release dedicated to the report.
Europe took the lead with the most Digital Champions, followed by India, Türkiye and Brazil, the report said.
“The results of our study show that digital banking leaders, the largest number of whom come from Europe, have developed a significant advantage over other players over the last two years by offering more functions supporting long-term relationships with customers. This is visible, for example, in the area of services beyond traditional banking , where the most advanced organizations provide these solutions 2.9 times more often, and in the category of ecosystem and account aggregation this difference is 2.8 times. The obtained results confirm that leaders not only introduce innovations, but also consistently improve service and personalization standards, significantly distancing ourselves from the competition,” commented Wiesław Kotecki, partner, leader of the Customer Strategy and Design team, Deloitte Digital, quoted in the release.
Deloitte experts emphasize that from 2022 there will be some stagnation in the implementation of new functionalities in banking applications. More and more institutions are putting emphasis on improving existing functions and improving the overall user experience, instead of focusing only on implementing new features.
Banks in Poland
Also in Poland, banking sector leaders are increasingly focusing on redesigning their applications. The authors of the report indicate that recently there has been a noticeable slowdown in the introduction of new functionalities on the domestic market, and in some cases they are even being reviewed and the less useful ones are being withdrawn.
“Banks in Poland can be divided into two groups. The first group is the current leaderswho in the last two years, like the world’s leaders, have focused on re-improving the design of their applications to support users in using digital channels as much as possible. The second group are those institutions that have so far had less developed digital channels, i now they are trying to add new functionalities and expand the offer for customers, especially in terms of basic banking functions. They undoubtedly draw on the experience of their competitors, higher in the ranking, introducing services focusing on customer experience,” said the partner, leader of services for the financial sector in Poland, the Baltic States and Ukraine, leader of the regulatory and risk consulting team, Deloitte Przemysław Szczygielski.
(ISBnews)