Key banking decision makers to the tune of 1200 have descended on Dublin to discuss the future of Fintech and digital banking for Temenos' annual conference. We're live-blogging proceedings here.
16.29 Consistency is key- it should be a standard journey no matter what channel the customer uses. Detailing how, in this example, to apply for a loan, a customer can get a decision, fast. This is the same functionality so jovially showcased in the opening plenary sessions with the mortgage applications. Information pertaining to this request is available on all channels- mobile, internet banking portal or front end in the branch.
16.15 Origination in minutes, not days, Origination can be static and siloed, impersonal and inefficient- it should be personalised, dynamic, holistic and faster.
Coffee break
15.47 The differences in functionality wants between older and younger contingents proved very interesting. The older set was focused on security, nervous re going online in the first place; the younger mob thought every piece of functionality on there was just hygiene, so for them it was being able to move money and change address, more dynamic functionality
15.42 Key surprises in all this? In response to functionality- seamless log-in, which was anticipated to be in hot demand, turned out to be just a hygiene factor- what came out was a preference to engage and interact and message via the platform.
15.40 Now in design, build and deployment phase, keeping customer at the heart, Having a consistent team ensures knowledge transfer. In summary- the importance of the right platform; a strong focus on the customer, experience is design, remaining loyal to the brand
15.34 Getting different departments to design the homepage. The marketers wanted to focus on welcoming customers. The techies focused on the order of the accounts which were most transacted with.
15.31 Key pain point for SMEs- that the research brought up- how long it takes to make a decision on the maturity of their fixed term deposits from senior management- over ten days. In terms of prioritisation, they asked customers what their key functionality would be when logging on. Found vastly different responses.
15.25 Four methods to the first phase, Understanding.
1) Contact centre observations
2) Competitor interviews,
3) SME analysis, and
4) Gathering in person
15.20 Treasury currently uses a postal and a telephone channel. To drive change, it was necessary to empathise with users, understand technical realiites, create end-to-end journey and baseline the mvp, and early visualisation..
three stages- 18 weeks
The first phase (understanding needs and wants of users (treasurers) and the most important
Second stage- explore
Third stage- create
The process was agile, testing being huge importance. In the understand phase was four forms of customer research:
15.17 Core banking replacement is at the, ahem, core of Close Brothers' digital proposition. A quick show of hands in the room shows no-one does not have a digital strategy. For Close Brothers, not having a separate data store was of appeal, as was the over-riding them of simplification and a one-stop shop for any troubleshooting.
15.10 Close Brothers' UK-based merchant bank up now to hone in on the compelling digital journey. Close is a specialised lender to businesses, eg motor loans B2B to a network of dealers. and football transfer funding, from premiership down. When a club sells a player for £10m, for example, this is rarely released straight away. Disclaimer- did not fund Coutinho's transfer to Barca- whcih was way above our appetite for risk.
15.00 Sarah Hobbs, senior channels products manager, Temenos, introduces the breakout stream about creating compelling digital journeys. From prospect, to customer, to advocate, how do you deliver a digital lifecycle? Relevance is key, as we have seen and heard today a number of times.
14.00 LUNCH ;)
13.53 Ninety percent of the world's infrastrucutre projects are either late or over-budget. Massive potential in biotechnology, virtual and augmented reality, abundance markets, smart infrastructure.. all this constitutes a massive source of jobs in the next ten years. Quantum computing could come online in ten years. What does it mean for banking? A need to connect experiences and data to banking. Aligning human experience to the digital process. Thirty-four percent is the difference in growth between leaders and laggards. High performers wrestle with culture- 50% say fear of cultural change is holding them back. Pan your business processes for gold and apply software.
13.44 Roehrig says 12% jobs will be replaced, 75% will be enhanced and 13% of jobs will be new. AI platforms are eveywhere- hell this live blog could be relaced by Narrative Science in the coming years. I doubt it. But it could help in gathering industry news for decision makers internally.
13.39 Outlining the challenge of implementation- What to do when machines do everything? Digital is the imperative for banks to adapt to new world realities, says Paul Roehrig, chief strategy officer, Cognizant. AI is transforming everything. Eight out of ten hedge funds are now quant based/AI based. by 2025 the 'second economy' (ie digital economy) will be as large as the 1995 physical economy- Brian Arthur. Yet all this doesn't change the fundamental elements of our society and how we bank, Roehrig says.
13.29 Agility also a key driver for Santander, as is a core that runs on the cloud. On-premise cores are becoming too problematic. And crucially, a key driver is to outsource the workload related to regulation. Functionality and roadmap, being able to grow business in different directions, ie serving SMEs, and scale easily. Key success factor is partner, vendor, incumbent working together as one. Ditch the hierarchy. The clock is ticking.
13.24 Openbank- "we are our own challenger", owned by an incumbent. Retail customers 1.1 million. APIs for 100% of customers.Every single decison is based on machine learning algorithms. Why? To focus on owning the customer relationship and value proposition, hence the front-end being kept in-house. There is no stipulation to code the core, the focus is the outward relationship.
13.15 Szafir's talking about when two technologies existing concurrently in the market- Blackberry vs Apple, for example, that people will naturally gravitate towards the best one, despite intial reluctance. He describes the technological change in the last few years as a tsunami, it will be upon everyone in the industry before they realise. Referencing the Titanic, he mentions the failing being the lead time. Time from first warning to taking action was 40 odd minutes. Damning stuff.
13.04 Ezequiel Szafir, CEO of one of the furst fully-fledged digital banks in the world, Santander's Openbank, takes the stage. Openbank has completely transformed its architecture, with a new app and webiste, digital bank platform in the cloud. He's going to tell us about the drive to change and the sense of urgency.. plus of course the decision to take an external core...
12.51 UBS speaking now on compliance and risk screening.. How to get more efficient? Know the scope of your screening, avoid unwanted traffic at source, check data quality, tune your filter, which financial messages are screening-relevant? So to Temenos' new SAR module... more in the breakout session. Exciting times at the Bank of Cork, now digital to the core after implementing:
1. Enterprise Origination System- open APIs in marketplace portal
2. Digital Engagement Suite
3. Enhanced Data Analytics
4. Instant Payments
5. FCM - Suspicious Activity, SaaS
6. Robo –advisor
12.35 Jenny Alexandrou, Temenos corporate banking product director, talks about SMEs.. calling out how underserved this segment of the corporate marketplace is. Onboarding comes to a mobile app for SMEs. leading to new payments hub, introduced by Darryl Proctor- now T24 is no longer required. Based on Ovum survey, 80% corporate respondents touted instant payments capability as most important to them.
12.20 One view of all accounts for corporates? How about that? Not too shabby. Mirror accounts reflect accounts held in other FIs- full visibility of their cash, for example.. more in the breakout sessions
12.04 And so to the democratisation of retail investment, quoting a Forbes article highlighting the rise of the roboadvisor. The Bank of Cork- in this role play, can offer this, providing mass market with tools previously restricted to much fewer customers
11.48 Post-coffee break, the live action roleplay continues on stage, illustrating the mortgage marketing campaign in action
10.57 The origination system draws in all the info from the front office.. again, front-to-back integration. product-launch ready in under a week with a bundled mortgage offering with third party access
10.30 Dharmesh Mistry introduces Bank of Cork, who chose a build and migrate approach, taking only six months to launch. Treasury front office configurable to preference, works in browser and across prices with real time updates, embedded analytics and fully integrated front-to-back. Interest rate rises can be easily predicted, for example. Customers can be moved from legacy bank to digital bank easily and integrated analytics- understand target market themselves and re-define a mortgage product themselves, using visibilty granted by analytics to predict profitability
10.20 Temenos’ chief product officer Mark Winterburn introduces new product announcements- all available on the cloud, arguably the most complete set of products on the cloud today.. they can be implemented howsoever the FI chooses.
1. Enterprise Origination System- open APIs in marketplace portal
2. Digital Engagement Suite
3. Enhanced Data Analytics
4. Instant Payments
5. FCM - Suspicious Activity, SaaS
6. Robo –advisor
10.09 Re Brexit.. welcome the agreement re the transition period until 2020, but this is not guaranteed, the British government has to honour the no-hard-border line. Business needs clarity and certainty- Ireland offers that. We’re developing a framework to deal with challenges from Brexit here in Ireland. English-speaking, pro-business, tax efficient are some of the advantages. There is a vibrant start-up community. The central bank will launch an innovation hub this year.
09.58 Taoiseach Leo Varadkar takes the stage. Ireland being a technology hub and its transformation of economy over last century means it is now a leading tech company globally.. specialising in cloud, robotics, AI, etc. The key to this success is commitment to quality of education.
Need to strike balance between security, privacy, usability, innovation.. we need to support an open and collaborative approach. Unemployment now below 6% after a peak of 15% during financial crisis.
Government principles-
1) prudent budget balance; reducing national debt
2) raise living standards for people, sustainable pay rises, modest income tax changes,
3) achieving full employment (with good jobs)
4) investing in infrastructure- after ten yr plan will be one of the highest investors in infrastructure
5) modernising and improving public services- in partic health
6) ireland’s role internationally- committed to EU, (despite others) multilateralism and free trade..
09.38 Arnott highlights but a few of Temenos’ new products- 12 key announcements
Origination- front office experience
Instant payments- major area investment
Client assembly factory- different way deploying software..
It is never tech alone that changes an industry..such fundamental change that it will be unrecognisable in ten years
09.30 The power of analytics democratises the industry through access to data, potentially for everybody.. the second ingredient for change is a benign or supportive regulatory backdrop. The combination of this with technology will change the industry, Arnott says. New players such as Amazon or Google are setting the benchmark of frictionless customer service and onboarding. Gone are the days when you can take two months to hardcode a new release into your system. Scale is everything, the ability to provide a plug and play is crucial- business schools used to teach scale was prohibitive to growth- not any more.
09.25 The more the community grows, the greater the voice for driving change, says Arnott. Shared infrastructure lowers the barriers of entry for everybody.. data sharing through APIs enable platformification and new business models are nurtured
09.18 Celebrating 25 years of Temenos, David Arnott sets the scene for the next couple of days, blaming the Guinness at last night's opening bash for the slightly later start this morning. With regard to change, none will change more so than FS. Fundamental overhaul required. Platformification is becoming the model for FS he says. 85 new banks added to Temenos family in one year alone.
09.00 People piling into plenary for the kick-off keynotes from CEO David Arnott and Ireland PM Leo Varadkar
08.24 Welcome to live coverage of TCF. The theme is Digital to the Core, the venue is the National Convention Centre in Dublin... the stage is set for the latest in banking transformation.
