The Current State of

Saving and Investing

Consumers are seeking financial support now more than ever and financial services have a unique window of opportunity to form lifelong relationships with their customers by providing money management solutions that help them meet their goals. 

We have created a three part series which delves into the opportunity in saving and investing and how banks can launch their own leading money management propositions. The report is now available for download here.

It is no secret that many established financial services business models are under immense pressure. Most of all they are facing challenges in three key areas.

From outside the industry, their financial performance is under pressure. Low, zero, or even negative central bank interest rates make it costly to maintain a bloated balance sheet. As a result, the potential to affect the financial bottom line is tightly capped by thin margins of balance sheet related activities.

Within the industry, there is increased competition on UX and price. Digital-first platforms from tech and challenger brands are entering the finance space with superior customer experiences. Often, these propositions are offering previously chargeable services for free, while regulation has additionally increased transparency around fees and costs.

Finally, within organisations, you have internal efficiency bottlenecks. Increasing layers of regulation continue to add headcount and divert resources from client-servicing to compliance-adherence. This is made worse, by legacy-heavy infrastructures and oftentimes a prolonged underinvestment in technology, both standing in the way of cost-reducing innovation.

Key Ideas
  • Customers seek financial support from their banks, a customer-first mindset allows banks to start tackling this
  • Incumbent's legacy technology is holding back true banking innovation