Page 25 - GS170201

Views

Payment trends Using data for an improved, personalized

customer experience
for 2017 Financial institutions have accumulated mountains

of customer data over the years. While this data has
traditionally been used to identify risks and potential
fraud, in 2017 there will be a shift to using that data
to improve the customer experience and provide
personalized services.
With larger financial organizations working hard to
differentiate themselves from fintech startups, leveraging
the massive amount of data at their fingertips is a good
place to start. This information can help build out products
that fit the exact needs of customers, when they need
them. And by offering the right services at the right time,
banks and other financial organizations can build loyalty
and trust with their customer base.

For instance, if a customer always uses a specific payment
card when in San Francisco, because he or she goes there
regularly on business, that individual's digital wallet could
display that card as the preferred payment method when
By Kirsty Tull the GPS shows the customer is in the San Francisco area.
BillPro Pty Ltd.
Another example could be making customers aware of
he early months of a new year is always a good specific financial services during different phases of life.
time to reflect on the previous year. From the If a bank's data shows that there is a correlation between
perspective of the payments industry, 2016 was customers downloading a certain application and his or
T a year that laid the groundwork for stunning her proximity to retirement age, the bank could provide
innovations and continued expansion into new financial information about retirement strategies and products
technology (fintech) and financial services (finserv) ter- while also looking at the information to help formulate
ritories. new products and services appropriate to the customer's
needs.
What 2016 really did was set up fintech and finserv for an
exciting 2017. Below is a list I compiled with colleagues Changes to legacy infrastructure
of the top trends we expect will take center stage in the due to real-time payments
months ahead.
Real-time payments have reached a level of maturity
Blockchain that requires financial institutions to make changes to
accommodate. Projects in the United States, Europe and
While blockchain has been around for a few years now, Australia are expected to be ready with real-time payments
it's finally emerging from the shadows and hitting the in 2017. However, many banks operate on legacy systems
spotlight with larger financial firms. As the underlying that are incompatible with the speed and processing
technology to the cryptocurrency bitcoin, blockchain needed to handle real-time transactions.
made larger institutions question its place in the financial
landscape, and how it might affect their place as well. To stay on pace with the move to real-time processing,
banks will need to invest heavily in updated infrastructure
But blockchain has moved from wait-and-see technology to handle the demands, or risk falling behind. Beyond
to the realm of product possibility. A joint proof of concept infrastructure changes, financial institutions will need to
project, between the Bank of Ireland and Deloitte, was make updates in staff knowledge and skills to handle the
introduced in early 2016. This project focused on the data new technologies.
associated with trading stocks and shares, attaching a
full, trackable ledger to the transactions across the entire The growth of contextual commerce
trade lifecycle. And Bank of Ireland is just one of the first
institutions to investigate the value of blockchain. In a Consumers spend a lot of time on their devices. But only
survey of over 200 global banks, 15 percent stated they around 2 percent of that time is spent actively shopping.
expected to be using blockchain technology by the end of Consumers want to make purchases in the moment,
2017. when the need – or desire – arises. Take, for instance, the
Amazon Dash buttons.

25