Setting the FS Growth Agenda: World Population hits 7B

Efforts to rebuild and recapitalize the industry post the financial crisis notwithstanding, banks are looking at where growth will come from and how to respond to changing customer needs.

Several industry reports have highlighted the changing needs and profile of the end consumer, both within the advanced economies as well as in comparison to developing or emerging economies. In advanced economies, such as the US, baby boomers will retire at an increased pace and look for ways to grow their income through their retirement age as well as begin to draw down their assets.

Secondly, a May 2011 PWC report, “Banking in 2050,” clearly highlights that the accelerating shift in economic power from developed to emerging economies is dramatically changing the banking industry across the world. The E7 economies (China, India, Brazil, Russia, Indonesia, Mexico and Turkey) will be 25% larger than the G7 economies (US, Japan, Germany, UK, France, Italy and Canada) by 2050 in terms of market exchange rate (MER), and will be 75% larger in terms of purchasing power parity (PPP)

At the recent Oracle OpenWorld 2011, the financial services general session - through insights from partners as well customer case studies - highlighted how banks can transform their business to cater to these trends and set the agenda for future growth.  Four best practices emerged:

• Reduce IT costs by simplifying the infrastructure and moving more of the spend into strategic investments as opposed to development, integration and maintenance costs.
• Ensure that your banking systems adapt to the new needs of the various segments, whether it be the baby boomers or the growing Generation Y.
• Social and mobile are the new channels of banking, and banks will have to compete with existing non-banking players who are already providing services like payments.
• Use investments in compliance as a competitive differentiator that reduces reputation risk as well provides information to the business in terms of revenue and profitability, and delivers a better understanding of the end customer.

What are your institution’s plans for effectively serving a changing world?