A 2020 vision: digital adoption to continue

INDUSTRY INSIGHTS

By Nick Lawler, head of business development, DPR

Disruption continues despite economic headwinds

Despite the political and economic uncertainty that has continued throughout the last year, the competitive nature of the financial sector has continued apace and seen it witnessing ongoing change. It’s no secret that providers are facing increased competition from multiple challengers in the banking world, including large technology companies and digital-only counterparts, but what has 2019 bought to the savings and mortgage sectors, and what does it mean for banking technology requirements in 2020?

The savings market has seen deposits grow over the last 12 months, with the latest statistics from both the Bank of England and UK Finance revealing that deposits increased in August 2019 compared to the same month in 2018.

Digital adoption

According to the recently released Growth of Digital Banking Report by CACI, the second wave of digital adoption is now occurring. We at DPR have seen a shift in focus by regional building societies, looking to broaden their customer demographics through digital channels with an aim of enabling greater agility and speed to market. An increase in process efficiency via a fully automated end-to-end platform that removes legacy issues has been well-received. While more accounts are expected to be opened via online channels it is important that banks and building societies don’t leave customers who prefer traditional transaction channels behind. The drive to better serve customers with functionality that can enable self-service and improve retention of existing customers continues.

The ultra-competitive nature of the low-interest rate mortgage market has seen a growing number of mortgage lenders focusing on lending criteria and policy in order to enable them to help customers, such as contractors, the self-employed, and customers borrowing into later life. Specialist lenders and challenger banks have diversified their products and approach in order to gain more market share. While the Bank of Mum and Dad has remained relevant and questions continue over any possible replacement for the popular Help to Buy scheme. In order to improve processes and the onboarding of customers, mortgage lenders have continued their efforts to improve agility and operational efficiencies within their businesses with the resultant aim being improved service for customers.

I believe that these key themes will continue into 2020. Providers will seek improved speed to market alongside quicker mortgage application processing to create more frictionless application journeys. An improved understanding of customer changing needs will also improve retention numbers. Regulatory demands can be met by improving anti-money laundering (AML) checks and document verification that will further improve operational efficiencies. It is the growth in fintechs that will continue to facilitate these improvements.

Meeting the challenges

DPR understand the size of the opportunity and are offering an industry-wide solution for those wanting to adopt a leading system, get to market quickly and minimise costs. The approach we’re evolving allows rich integration with more third parties to improve areas such as AML and speed to verify customer information. Our solution allows clients to diverse into new sectors of the savings and mortgage markets quickly, with our enhanced platform.

Even when business requirements change, our options give the freedom of choice to clients now and in the future. One example being Maturity Manager which enables better retention of existing customers through the ability to self-serve which results in reduced operational dependencies. Our new savings platform includes regular releases seeing clients benefit from continued enhancements which means no clients are left with a costly legacy system. Additionally, a savings mobile application can be fully branded allowing customers to self-serve and manage funds.

Banking will continue to be shaped by digital and data-driven innovation, with the expectations and demands of customers continuing to accelerate I believe that we are perfectly placed as a vendor to remain at the forefront of banking development and integration.

This article is also featured in the holiday season Dec 2019 /Jan 2020 edition of the Banking Technology magazine.

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