Until 2018, every stage of the customer’s financial journey was typically owned by traditional banks. Regulation opened competition by requiring banks to share customer’s data to third parties of the customer’s choice.
Open finance has granted entry into the market for new players, and fintechs are digitising processes at one or more stages of the customer journey. With access to more data, challengers can now provide more personalised customer journeys.
On 16th November 2021, we took out seats at the FTT Open Finance Stage to explore the customer benefits of open banking, with a focus on inclusion, personalisation, security, and convenience.
Our moderator, Julie Sutton, VP of Customer Success, Europe at Marqeta, kicked things off by asking the panellists to provide some real-world examples of open banking and its benefits.
Use cases included car financing, pensions, investments, and savings. Open banking was shown to provide a more holistic view of an individual’s profile, empowering companies to provide to more customers, and customers to increase knowledge and power over their finances.
Open banking is beneficial to financial services and their customers – companies save costs, gain customers and crucial insights, whilst saving time and reducing manual processes.
Within pensions, open banking gives customers a real picture of their pension balance so they can constantly see how their money is moving and growing. Fraud risks are significantly reduced too, as in many cases paper statements will be sent to an outdated address. With open banking and real-time data, this risk is mitigated.
When exploring the prospect of “hyper-personalisation” and what the future might hold for open banking, the panellists emphasised the importance of open finance as the next stage. It will be a matter of showing customers the real value of open banking as opposed to telling them.
Customers will see their whole financial journey in one app or as few places as possible. Open banking will provide a holistic view of a customer’s profile, but it is a case of educating the customer about the benefits for them.
As customers start to see how open banking can help them, they will become more open to adoption. The more insights customers have, the easier it will be to form their own financial journey.
Listen to the full recording of this session below:
The panel:
Julie Sutton, Vice President – Customer Success, Europe, Marqeta (moderator)
Angus Clacher, Head of Product, Credit Kudos
Clare Reilly, Chief Engagement Officer, PensionBee
Hristian Nedyalkov, CEO and Co-Founder, Novus
Kat Mann, Head of PR, Nutmeg