European Banking 2020 - An Accelerated shift towards Digital Banking due to Covid19

Updated On : September 2020

Recently, a survey was conducted in Europe by Signicat, a trusted digital identity company. As per the survey conducted on 4,000 consumers, most of the respondents said that there should be 100% digital onboarding of customers and 66% of a survey of respondents expect that banks will work on increasing the access of new financial services to the consumers by adopting digital banking solutions. Around 40% of European consumers say that they've not been able to access new financial services because of the COVID-19 outbreak. About two-thirds of respondents said the pandemic may have accelerated the shift towards digital onboarding and only 14% respondent disagreed.

The 70% respondents in the survey said that they had an account with a digital-first financial service provider neobank. The respondents also said digital banks provide a better user experience as compared to traditional banks.

Due to the crisis physical bank branches have been closed because of which it is difficult for people to access financial services in person. So, banks and financial institutions across the globe have started adopting digital banking solutions like internet banking, mobile banking solutions, digital customer onboarding to provide easy access to the consumers remotely. This will help the financial institutions to reach the consumers remotely.

The CEO of Signicat said, "Our regular research into consumer attitudes around digital onboarding has found that financial services have struggled to keep up with consumer demands in the later years. One of the effects of the pandemic has been to bring this into sharp focus, turning a desire for digital services into a desperate need. According to big banks, the consumers expect to be digital customers are 2-3 times more profitable and more loyal than branch-only customers". He also added consumers want to perform all banking activities online but the quality of user experience is most important because most consumers abandon their applications when it becomes inconvenient for them.

Following are some of the digital banking solutions that banks need to adopt

• Internet Banking : Internet banking will give an omnichannel experience to consumers. Features of internet banking are consumer can check transaction details online, pay utility bills, make merchant payments, transfer funds. Consumers can avail the service anytime anywhere. The services offered are simple and easy to operate. Transactions can be completed in a few minutes.
• Mobile Banking : Mobile banking will give a seamless, secure digital experience to the consumers. Banking activities can be performed 24/7 Anywhere, Any place at consumers convenience.
• Digital Lending : Digital lending solution will help financial institutions to automate the end-to-end lending process that is loan origination, loan management and collection and recovery. Consumers can apply for the loan online, complete the KYC process online via video KYC, pay EMIs online. With easy capturing of consumer information and power of analytics, banks can take quick decision to grant loans to consumer or not. Thus, the loans can be disbursed in less time.
• Digital Customer Onboarding : Digital Customer Onboarding will help financial institutions to remotely onboard new customers faster via seamless onboarding process. Consumers can submit the necessary documents online and complete the onboarding process.

Digital banking is becoming the new normal. However, banks and financial institutions will need to adopt new technologies to leverage and monetize their data and stand competitive. The pandemic may have resulted in closed branches, but it has accelerated the adoption of open banking or digital banking solutions, which will bring convenience and new applications, this will change the way customers do their banking.

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