Digital Transformation in Banking isn't happening

There is a lot of talk about digital transformation by banks but the reality is that despite what they say they are not doing it. What the vast majority of banks are actually doing is digital enablement. They are simply using digital technologies to do what they are doing today only slightly better. There is nothing transformational about what they are doing.

Fundamentally the products and the services that banks are offering are no different than those they have been offering for the last fifty years, if not longer. They may be offered through different channels like the mobile, tablet and over webchat but they are still fundamentally the same as those offered to your parents when they were your age.

It is not only the big banks that are guilty of digital enablement but also the majority of the so-called challenger banks. For most of them the term 'challenger' is not even appropriate. What is challenging about providing free dog biscuits in branches! Their impact on the market share of the big banks is negligible and not growing at a sufficient rate to be a significant threat anywhere in the short term.

The reality is that the majority of the challenger banks are simply competitors offering a subset of the products and services that the big banks provide. However the emergence of a large number of competitors into the market is to be welcomed as the choice for individuals and small businesses as to where they get their bank services from has, and continues, to expand.

When you take the UK market as an example the competitors break down into a number of categories:

• Existing Competitors

These are the likes of Co-op Bank, Nationwide Building Society, Clydesdale and Yorkshire banks who have been around for many years with a fairly consistent market share. They are all in different ways and at different speeds enabling their businesses with digital technology. Some are being more ambitious about growing market share of current accounts than others.

• The Clones

These banks are the ones that have been spawned from previously existing organisations, been re-sprayed with a new or revived brand and trade on the fact that they are not one of the big four banks. The main players in this category are Santander (Abbey National), Virgin Money (Northern Rock), TSB (Lloyds Banking Group) and Halifax (Lloyds Banking Group). Of course the latter is still owned by one of the big four, but is positioned as their 'challenger' brand.

The Clones offerings differ from each other. Santander has expanded the range of products that Abbey National offered with a push into current accounts and SME banking. While the Santander 123 account has shown some innovation it is still fundamentally a vanilla current account. Virgin Money has expanded the Northern Rock offering into balance transfer credit cards, but despite previous announcements is holding back from entering either the current account or SME banking markets for the moment.

None of the clones are leading in their application of digital technologies and, at best, are enabling some of their processes with digital.

• The New Traditionals

Into this group fall the likes of Metro Bank, Shawbrook, Aldermore, Oaknorth, Handelsbanken and OneSavings Bank. New banks that are offering an alternative to the Big 4 banks but all of which have a small market share and whilst growing quickly will take years on their current trajectory to be of serious concern to the large banks. Like The Clones they position themselves as not being one of the big four and differentiate themselves on offering superior, personalised service. They have not invested heavily in digital - Metro Bank has only just (August 2016) launched its customer website. In the cases of Metro Bank, Handelsbanken and Aldermore have made their branches and face-to-face service a key point of their differentiation.

• The Mobile banks

These are the banks that are being designed with mobile in mind for the Millennials the likes of Mondo, Atom, Tandem, Starling and Monese. While a number of these have been granted their banking licences and a number are in beta testing these banks have not really been launched yet. We have some indication of how they will operate however until they move to full launch it is difficult to judge how transformational in terms of their digital offering they will be.

So if today's banks are only undertaking digital enablement what is it that they would need to do to be undertaking digital transformation?

Re-imagining the business models for banking

Transformation is about fundamental change – something that the banking industry has not seen since the Medicis created the first bank. This is about changing the business models for banking to reflect what customers want and also how the way industries boundaries are blurring.

Banks that are truly undertaking digital transformation are reimagining the business models for banking

Customers do not want to do business with banks. Customers do not fundamentally want a mortgage they want a home. Customers do not want a loan they want a car. Banks for customers are a means to an end. Banks who get this are recognising that they need to be offering services beyond the banking product. For example some banks are forming agreements with online estate agents so that when a customer is looking at a property online the banks knows this and can tell the customer whether they can afford it and whether the bank is prepared in principle to offer them a mortgage.

Banks have lots of SME customers many who will have offers that are of interest to other SMEs or individuals. The banks know how well those SME businesses are performing so banks are in an ideal position to create a SME marketplace where their customers can do business with other bank customers knowing that the supplier is backed by the bank. Equally the supplier will know that the customer is backed by the bank. In this model the bank operates as the introducer adding value to both the business and the customer.

For those banks that have invested in building a modern banking IT infrastructure they recognise that this is a highly valuable asset and there are opportunities to offer banking as a service to either businesses outside the banking industry such as retailers who want to offer banking services to their customers or to banks in other countries. Two good examples of organisations that already do this, both German, are SolarisBank https://www.solarisbank.de/ and Cardwire www.cardwire.com

The three examples of different business models above are just illustrative of what banks and other organisations are doing to use digital as an enabler to fundamentally change the banking industry.

This is true digital transformation and for those organisations that embrace it the future is positive and full of hope; for those who don't the future is a slow decline into obscurity.