12 trends to change global banking this year

Infosys Finacle, part of EdgeVerve Systems, a product subsidiary of Infosys, has 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 12 business and technology trends that will influence banking over the next 12 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 (application programme interface) 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.

As per the survey findings, 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.

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. Also, Blockchain use cases in banking will expand, and large networks will become crucial for meaningful value, it said.

The trends study further said, public cloud would 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. Many banks will begin offering basic banking on smart voice-assistants. IoT adoption will accelerate in the trade finance and lease financing business.

The study also found that 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.

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.

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, the report stated.