By 2020, bankers expect the financial services industry to be shaped strongly by technology and non-traditional competitors who are expected to gain ground in key markets including payments, lending, and wealth management.
The Economist Intelligence Unit surveyed the views of 203 senior retail bank executives to world over, to gauge their views on the future of their business and potential areas of disruption from new market entrants.
Bankers polled predict that retail peer-to-peer (P2P) lending will be available via banking platforms (65%); retail banking will be fully automated (64%); and more money will flow via fintech firms than traditional retail banks (57%).
They see the industry under attack from all quarters, with Apple Pay and other computing behemoths seen as a potent threat by one-in-five, while a further 20% expect the upheavals to flow from other non-bank competitors who have yet to fully emerge.
Bankers see three main areas that they must change in order to survive: adapting the role of the branch network (36%); getting the right talent (35%); and modernising their technology (31%).
Monica Woodley, the editor of the report, says: "The true winners will have the technology to cope with co-operation. Security and integrity will be as important as cost, efficiency and speed. But even the winning banks could be reduced to a mere screen icon for many customers, becoming the trusted platform via which consumers access a range of services from third-parties like fintechs."