DN Intersect 2019 Day 1 key takeaways: ‘Branches are here to stay’
FinTech Futures shares Diebold Nixdorf’s (DN) latest insights around the evolution of banking and the new role of the branch.
“Those refusing to undergo digital transformations will die out.”
Key takeaways:
- Branches are here to stay.
- The dinosaurs won’t survive.
- The time is right in the US market to start using cash recycling.
- Many countries are still very cash-intensive.
- Only 13% of SMEs are happy with their branch.
- Data is the currency of the future.
Branches are here to stay.
For Diebold Nixdorf’s president and CEO, Gerrard Schmid, physical and digital channels are both critical. Schmid predicts that branches are going nowhere, although he admits “the nature of them will need to change for sure”.
“Consumers need to be able to tangibly touch an institution to trust it,” says Schmid. “Even in the Nordics, the so-called cashless leaders, we’ve seen the resurgence of cash.”
The dinosaurs won’t survive.
Schmid acknowledges that there is a difference to big, evolving banks and big, stagnant ones. Those that move with the times will survive the advances of challenger banks, or “attackers” as Schmid calls them, whilst those refusing to undergo digital transformations will die out.
The time is right in the US market to start using cash recycling.
In 2020, DN will be marketing cash recycling services through its new ATM, DN Series. DN’s senior VP and MD for the Americas, Octavio Marquez, says the the time is right for the US market to start using this and notes that his company knows how it works from offering this option to customers outside the US.
Now the ATM creator wants to bring this offering within the US.
Many countries are still very cash-intensive.
Particularly in Brazil and Mexico, the unbanked population is causing the use of branches to surge. As Schmid puts it, “they’ve gone from stuffing cash in mattresses to becoming active participants in the finance industry” adding that: “We work with 130 of them.”
“Machines are critical to branch operations, which is why DN’s primary objective is to automate connection points with consumers,” says Marquez. The DN Series modularises the journey, meaning ATMs can now be upgraded with new hardware and software, rather than being ripped and replaced.
Only 13% of SMEs are happy with their branch.
Currently there is a disconnect between the purpose of a branch and what the customer understands its purpose to be, says DN’s global banking advisor Simon Powley. We should be looking towards “a universal banking model”, which in Powley’s opinion will help include small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) who feel neglected or underserved.
According to DN’s report cited in the conference, only 13% of SMEs are satisfied with their branch, while 53.3% want a dedicated teller line for SMEs, 46.7% want more opening hours, 44.7% want shorter queues and 36% want more self-service devices.
Data is the currency of the future.
DN has designed its new ATM to be “predictive and prescriptive”, says its VP of Americas service Chase Andrews. The censors embedded mean DN can send out a technician with exactly the right part without having to run diagnostics upon arrival.
