Financial Services technology development in 2023

Published On : 12/02/2022

By Peter Theunis, Head of Payments EMEA at Endava

The COVID-19 pandemic showed the importance of technology development to meet customer needs. Global lockdowns accelerated the trend for the majority of financial transactions—including payments and eBanking—to be carried out online and the financial services industry had to work even harder to meet increased demand. Both consumers and companies required a more reliable, faster, and secure way of handling e-banking to ensure an easy and stress-free experience.

As we continue to exit the pandemic, it will be important for institutions and fintech’s to keep listening to their customers and meet their needs. A customer-first mindset is perhaps one of the most important pillars of innovation. It’s important to consider a problem and match a solution to it, rather than develop a solution without a clear problem or need demonstrated by potential users. As we head into 2023, there are some clear areas that consumers have been focusing on and that organisations would do well to tackle. 

Super Apps and Customer Satisfaction

Customer satisfaction is constantly growing, as consumers get comfortable with new apps or tools that businesses bring out in the e-banking industry, they are already looking for the next best thing to make their experience even more stress-free. 

This is where we will see Super Apps come into play. 

Super apps allow for many applications to connect under ‘one umbrella’ and provides the customer with one single interface in order to access a range of products and services, essentially allowing the customer to have everything in one app at the tip of their fingertips, instead of hoping to one app to another. If Super Apps do come into play in the UK, banks will be looking to compete in order to keep customers happy and provide them with everything they need. To do this, banks will need to embrace smart data whilst also re-doing their business models. However, whilst banks will have to compete in this arena, it will be imperative for Super Apps to gain customer trust and drive brand loyalty whilst being convenient for the customer and providing a personalised service, which banks are already doing. 

E-banking and customer security and privacy 

There is no doubt that when it comes to e-banking, customer satisfaction is highly impacted by the consumers security and privacy. In recent years, and years to come, there has been a growing focus on the security of payments, especially as customers are spending more of their payment lives online. Authenticating the participants in a transaction is a key concern, however; banks, processors and card issuers have had to develop sophisticated anti-fraud and AML solutions to ensure we are who we say we are and to reduce risk on transactions. Going forward, these will continue to develop. This is not only to combat the ever-evolving threat from fraudsters and hackers, but to also advise consumers on payment methods and assist in their decision-making as they evaluate the best ways to buy something. The key is for customers to have the easiest experience possible, whilst banks and payment providers keep their data safe. As discussed, security and privacy when it comes to customer satisfaction in e-banking, will only continue to grow. We’ll see biometrics and behavioural analysis become a significant part of this, as well as further innovation in user experience. People’s financial security is of paramount importance. 

Customer and consumer demands  

We’ve already seen the payments and the overall fintech sector develop to keep up with customer and consumer demands in regards to satisfaction especially over the past five years with Buy-Now-Pay-Later, more options for IoT transactions and the majority of customers moving completely to an online banking model, leaving a cashless society. 

As we increasingly move into a different way of e-banking, with IoT, wearables and Super Apps, companies/businesses will have to keep up with customers’ needs through further technological investment and innovation like never before. 

During the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic it became clear that organisations that were able to listen to their customers were in the best position to not only navigate turbulent times but also to do well and develop, retaining customers and attracting new ones. This is a mindset that must continue as we head into 2023 and face new and unpredicted changes to the global economy.

Sustainability

Sustainability is a theme which is transversal to all other developments mentioned above. Defining a strategy based on sustainability and other corporate social responsibility measures becomes more and more important for the users of financial services.

As such, carbon negative data centers which use sustainable energy and/or even generate their own energy are one of the cornerstones of this strategy. 

Greener processes are much needed in every single industry out there, a financial service won’t be the exception.

Uma Rajagopal

Uma Rajagopal has been managing the posting of content for multiple platforms since 2021, including Global Banking & Finance Review, Asset Digest, Biz Dispatch, Blockchain Tribune, Business Express, Brands Journal, Companies Digest, Economy Standard, Entrepreneur Tribune, Finance Digest, Fintech Herald, Global Islamic Finance Magazine, International Releases, Online World News, Luxury Adviser, Palmbay Herald, Startup Observer, Technology Dispatch, Trading Herald, and Wealth Tribune. Her role ensures that content is published accurately and efficiently across these diverse publications.