The convergence of digital, data and payments will fundamentally shape the contours of financial services as banks look to be more agile and provide contextual experiences.

The convergence of digital, data and payments will fundamentally shape the contours of financial services as banks look to be more agile and provide contextual experiences, according to Andrew Murrell, General Manager of Digital and Payments at Bank of Queensland.  

Speaking at FST Media’s 2nd annual Technology and Innovation – The Future of Customer Experience and Business Intelligence conference this morning, Murrell said that the expectations of customers today have been shaped by the innovations of Google, Facebook and Apple, who have disrupted the payments space with their intelligent digital strategies and deployment of intuitive data analytics.

“Digital has been around for over 20 years, but financial services organisations did not really embrace digital until 2010,” Murrell said.

“The uberisation of financial services is upon us and the experience is transforming customer expectations.”

According to Murrell, financial services institutions have access to a plethora of information on customers via behavioural data on websites, transactional and location-based details on customer purchases, as well as social data – on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter – and FSIs need to tailor their approach to help retain the customer of today.

“Big data is finally becoming real data. We are now starting to provide real value and insights to our customers,” Murrell said.

“If you really want to provide a contextual experience, then you need to embrace data and analytics, allowing for a true omni-channel approach.”

Murrell said that the anticipated launch of the New Payments Platform (NPP) in 2017 will give rise to a growing emphasis on real-time transactions and immediacy, which in turn will shape the expectations of traditional banking services.

“NPP is the financial plumbing for the economy of the future. [It] is a very important development in Australia and it is going to fast forward the digital revolution,” Murrell said.

“We are going to be able to offer our customers a very different service proposition than we do today.”

As a result, Murrell said the role of the physical bank branch will also change as banks look to become more agile and efficient to avoid being disrupted.

“Customer expectations are going to force us to look at how we are organised. I do not think branches are going to disappear, however the footprint will change,” Murrell said.

“From an advice point of view, the branches still play a very important role. Banks have been very successful over the last 100 years, but [they] will need to transform themselves over the next 100 years to be more nimble.”

Andrew Murrell will be delivering a keynote at our Customer Experience and Business Intelligence for Financial Services event in Melbourne this Friday together with a distinguished panel of executives and industry speakers. 

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