Inside one of the City of London’s oldest buildings, bankers are discussing the future. Amid trade war turmoil, Brexit uncertainty and climate change concerns, there is one issue above all that dominates the agenda; digitalisation.
It is a topic at the heart of the 23rd World Conference of Banking Institutes held at the City’s Guildhall, where corporate bigwigs and academics are meeting to discuss “the age of disruption”.
It was not so long ago that the cumulative impact of many of the so-called ‘disruptors’ in the City barely amounted to a rounding error on the big banks’ operations.
But today neo-banks, fintechs and payment providers are all giving the traditional high street lenders a run for their money, eating up a higher share of the market and piling pressure on their larger rivals.
A new report out this week from Accenture predicts that banks are set to miss out on as much as $280bn (£225bn) in payments revenue over the next six years if they do not adapt to shifts in the sector, with 18 per cent of UK banks’ payment revenue likely to be displaced.
Another new challenge from the digital boom was also raised in conference; data. Mountains of information are being used by the UK’s largest lenders to improve services and drive up customer retention.
Banks have been investing in new infrastructure and recruiting more people with data analytics skills, but the question of trust over privacy rights remains one of the industry’s biggest hurdles.
“Standards will have to be developed for the ethical use of data and analytics,” said Lloyds banking group boss Antonio Horta-Osorio.
Full article on City AM
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