Streamlining systems: meet consumer demand to be competitive

With bank switching now easier than ever before, we’re at a point where maintaining a high level of customer satisfaction is going to be crucial to a bank’s success. Customers don’t just want the best products and services; they’ve now come to expect them. The risk of not meeting these expectations means banks could lose their customers…quickly.

To prevent (risk of) churn, banks need to develop a strategy that enables them to leverage their entire data knowledge of customers.  One option is an enterprise payments strategy, which has clear benefits for both the customers and the bank.  For the bank, that means better FX rates, improved fees, better cut-off times. But it’s more than just the electronification of messages – what some have described as a hub. It’s about utilising the functionality banks already have in place and bringing that together to provide a better set of goods and services for their customers.

There are additional benefits for banks considering an enterprise payment strategy – for  once there isn't a pressing industry driver (assuming you're ready for SEPA) and therefore no timeline for banks to be forced into making the investment to move to an infrastructure that makes sense for them. Different banks are going to (need to) move at different times, as there's going to be business drivers that need to be addressed upfront.  They can then figure out what the benefits are and what investment they will need to spend on infrastructure.

This is not a time for banks to get complacent. With new banks emerging, such as Metro Bank in the UK, and other banks striking whilst the iron is hot, it is crucial that they start looking at longer term strategies to leverage what they have and what they want to get back from these. We've seen too many projects recently with promises of the 'super-hub' only for the realisation to be quite different and banks are already looking for hub 2.0.