Digitalization in the provision of financial services is not a fad or a more or less ephemeral trend. Increasingly, customers are asking their banks for the same things they demand in other areas of their daily lives: convenience, speed, simplicity, transparency, and attractive prices. And all this without neglecting two fundamental aspects such as security in the custody of their money and their personal and financial data. When technology allows it, digital tools help banks continue to provide the best service to their customers, anticipating their future desires. The breakneck speed that dominates the digital transformation of society imposes on banks a strategy of learning and reacting to offer immediate solutions to an increasingly demanding customer.
The customer experience is therefore the key. The customer dictates the process and the timing in the digitalization of the banking offer, which entails a cultural change within financial institutions. Banks currently combine face-to-face relationships with customers and the offering of simple digital tools to access products and services. Banking employees will continue to be the institutions’ main asset by maintaining face-to-face relationships with customers and advising them on specific or more complex issues. Their training, attitude, and commitment to them will continue to define the way of working in banking, as always. Because even if it is done remotely, digitalization offers opportunities for greater interaction with the consumer and a wider audience through an immediate and efficient service.
Banks start with an advantage in the challenge that digitalization poses for everyone, because innovation and the capacity for adaptation are in their DNA. They have always known how to take advantage of technological progress to improve their range of financial services and products. But in the new digital era, the transformation in which we are all immersed entails greater competition in banking activity from entities that are not banks. This would not be a problem if it were carried out on a level playing field from a regulatory point of view, but this is not the case. Authorities must be aware that equal opportunities must be guaranteed among the different actors offering the same service, not only for the sake of necessary competition but for the good of the customer and financial stability.
The capacity for adaptation is another intrinsic characteristic of banks, which explains why they place such importance on collaboration with new fintechs—small companies that apply technology to the provision of financial services. Their ability to adapt to new times has also been proven in the current scenario of negative interest rates, whose persistence over time (without being normal, responding to the exceptional nature of the current low-inflation scenario) makes it necessary to find stable profitability models. Continuous regulatory changes have also tested the adaptation of banks. But they are not the only ones who must transform. It is necessary for authorities to ensure that regulation does not become an obstacle to the innovation that society increasingly demands.
No one should be excluded from the opportunities that digitalization brings. Depopulation and aging in rural areas require our authorities to take measures that guarantee the best possible internet connection and the necessary training on the use of digital services for our seniors. At the AEB, we have developed Expertclick to bring digital training to our elderly in rural areas throughout Spain. It is important that we are not alone in this endeavor.
José Luis Martínez, spokesperson for the Spanish Banking Association.
