Banks in the West have upped their digital sales game, with most now allowing customers to open accounts online, according to a Temenos report.
Temenos quizzed 60 large and mid-sized banks in North America, Europe and Australia for its latest annual look into the state of digital sales, finding that three quarters now offer online account opening for personal accounts.
Meanwhile, mobile is catching up, with 50% of accounts of all types available for opening on phones and tablets. This is a marked improvement on two years ago when mobile reached just half the accessibility of what was available through online desktop channels.
Temenos says that, in 2019, the majority of banks have made significant progress in revamping their retail product line, with 65% of digitally active large banks reaching the ‘Digital Promised Land’. This represents a significant shift from 2017, when the majority of banks were still categorised as ‘Legacy Lovers’ or ‘Under Achievers’.
For the first time since the study’s inception, the largest US banks now lead the world in mobile enabled personal banking, at 75% of accounts, surpassing the perennial leader Australia. The study highlights the rapid progress made by the largest US banks as their long digital investments start to pay off, after lagging for several years.
While the big boys surge ahead, Temenos finds that mid-market banks are struggling with their digital sales efforts, left behind not only by the giants but also by smaller rivals. This is because the middle tier maintain a more complex product set than their smaller competitors, yet lack the financial and IT resources of the larger banks in order to innovate and grow.
Derek Corcoran, chief experience officer, Temenos, says: "Globally, banks that invested in digital transformation projects three to five years ago are beginning to see the fruits of their labor in the form of improved customer-facing digital capabilities hitting the market.
"With banks mostly solving only the basic requirements of digital account opening for personal banking, much opportunity still exists for banks to implement advanced retail features, as well as digital sales channels for wealth management and business banking."