A PLACE WHERE YOU CAN SEE EVERYTHING – This is the first thought that comes to my mind about Mobile Internet Banking. Banks who adapt in digital banking are being advanced in providing quality banking experience by tailoring their offerings to their customers because of open banking.

While top banks are enjoying this kind of flexible and extensive Open-Banking, the majority are still stuck with the traditional way of banking. Taking leverage of this new technology will expedite the growth of Banks and Financial Institutions.

What is Open Banking?

Open Banking is a banking technology model that gives access to users to securely allow their data that they can share with the bank’s third parties (of course, with their consent)  to  offer personalized and seamless experience.

This banking model creates a more competitive environment by opening up new opportunities for collaboration between banks, fintech, and other financial institutions. In the Philippines, open banking is still in its early stages, but it is quickly gaining traction as a new and innovative way of providing financial services to customers.

The implementation of open banking in the Philippines requires collaboration between different stakeholders, such as regulators, banks, fintech, and customers. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), the country’s central bank, has created guidelines and regulations that encourage the adoption of open banking in the Philippines. These guidelines include the use of APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) to facilitate the sharing of data between banks and third-party providers.

To encupsulate how Open Banking works, Banks and Fintech have privacy policy guidelines when we are installing an app or registering to their website. This means that they designed data safety conditions that comply with regulators and government to protect every customers’ data. 

Digital Banking in 2023 – What to Expect

Open banking offers several benefits to both banks and customers. Banks can leverage open banking to improve the customer experience by offering new and innovative financial products and services. For example, open banking can enable banks to provide personalized financial advice, digital payment solutions, and other services that meet the needs and expectations of their customers.

Moreover, by partnering with fintech and other third-party providers, banks can access new technologies and expertise that can enhance their offerings.

By working together, regulators, banks, fintech, and customers can create a more competitive and transparent financial services market that benefits everyone. For banks who are still not adapting to this technology, it is important to stay informed about open banking and embrace this new model to stay ahead of the competition and provide better services to customers.

Executives must understand the importance of open banking and support its implementation and growth. IT experts, on the other hand, must ensure that the necessary technology and infrastructure are in place to support open banking securely and efficiently.

What are the Benefits of Open Banking?

1. Improving competition: Open banking allows third-party providers to offer financial services, increasing competition in the market and providing customers with more options.
2. Enhancing innovation: Open banking enables the development of new financial products and services through tailored promotional offerings, loyalty rewards, and other marketing advertisements based on customers’ interests, digital behavior, and etc. These kinds of personalized user experiences are always with the consent of users through checking the terms and conditions when they sign up for an account. Additionally, terms and conditions of the banks are always relying on the government’s Data-Privacy Act.
3. Improving financial inclusion: Open banking can help reach underserved or unbanked populations by enabling new providers to enter the market and offer financial services.
4. Enhancing security: Open banking can help improve the security of financial transactions by using modern technologies and standards, such as strong customer authentication.

How Should banks respond to Open Banking? Do they need to adapt?

Banks need to respond to open banking and adapt to this new model. Open banking represents a shift in the traditional banking industry and offers both challenges and opportunities for financial institutions. 

To successfully respond to open banking, banks need to adopt an open and collaborative approach. This means working with fintech, third-party providers, and other stakeholders to develop new financial products and services that meet customer needs and expectations. In order to do this, they need a Digital Banking Solutions Provider that will enable them to apply it accordingly. The effect? Banks can leverage open banking to offer new services, such as personalized financial advice and digital payment solutions, that can improve the overall customer experience.

Additionally, banks need to prioritize security and data protection in their open banking initiatives. This includes implementing robust security measures and data management processes to ensure the protection of customer data and financial information.

In short, banks need to respond to open banking by embracing it as a valuable opportunity to improve their offerings, better serve their customers, and stay competitive in the market. By adapting to open banking, banks can ensure their continued success in the rapidly evolving financial services industry.

Exist Software Labs, Inc. offers digital banking solutions for banks and financial institutions that want to modernize their systems to better serve their customers and make their banking seamless and personalized. Our solutions include but are not limited to Mobile Internet Banking, Accounts Onboarding/Enrollment, Loans Management System, & Corporate Internet Banking. 

Technology became unwavering as it conquered many battles in the last two years when the pandemic became a primary problem in different business sectors across the whole world. While sudden changes broke their business plans, this too established adapting technology, especially in the banking and financial services industry.

We all know that 2022 was an exciting year for the banking industry since it opened a lot of opportunities for businesses. But this 2023, banks and financial institutions will continue to evolve with the new market trends that would create next-generation digital banking solutions and meet their customer needs when it comes to seamless operations, online transactions, and 24/7 banking. 

Here are the technologies we need to look at when it comes to Digital Banking this 2023:

1. Cloud-Based Banking

Cloud is one of the biggest trends in the post-pandemic era because of the advantages when it comes to security and online access to data. At first, chief officers and executives were skeptical about having a cloud-based banking platform, particularly on security and information sensitivity but realizing that cloud has a secure framework and could give financial firms endless scalability and access to the internet, this technology would get to expand.

As end-users embrace digitalization, banks must stay relevant and innovate services that give convenience and personalization to their customers. Cloud-based banking is a powerful technology that will truly empower banks and financial institutions this 2023 and beyond.

2. Identity Verification & Fraud Prevention

According to the BSP’s Inclusive Finance article, it is a state wherein there is effective access to a wide range of financial services for all, especially the vulnerable sectors. In line with this, digital customer onboarding should be a primary feature in the Banking applications to enroll their users online easily. However, banks are prone to identity theft and fraudsters that’s why they need to have a reliable eKYC solution and identity proofing.

Jumio is an end-to-end eKYC Platform that helps banks to have automated identity proofing, eKYC, and Transaction Monitoring. From onboarding to monitoring, they build trust based on your terms.

• Jumio is one of the technology partners of Exist Software Labs, Inc. (Learn More)

3. Always-On Financial Observability & Monitoring

While our human bodies cannot be awake 24/7 and need to take rest, banks’ operational systems, data warehouses, third-party applications, etc., should be observed in real-time without a blink of an eye. Banks are handling tons of data per minute like transactions, financial records, analytics, and reporting tools. Good thing, Real-Time Observability Technology’s primary duty in a bank’s system is to identify critical issues, diagnose and resolve them to prevent outage & fix infrastructure before it creates an impact on the business.

4. Open Banking APIs

The Banking and Financial Services landscape continues to evolve as they work with other companies in creating a convenient and innovative financial ecosystem and part of it is acquiring an Open Banking API (Application Programming Interface) Integration. While some of the banks don’t want this kind of development because of information sharing, this technology benefited the end-users to access new helpful applications to make it an omnichannel digital banking platform inside their mobile apps like investments, cryptocurrency, savings plans, & insurance.

5. Embedded Finance (BNPL)

Banks & Financial Services are more rapid than ever since companies considered cashless and online transactions. Embedded Finance is an integration of different financial services to businesses in one application without the need to transfer them to other branches or other landing pages (when online). To encapsulate this, you can see payments, investments, lending & insurance to a real estate application or to a health care provider’s application. (See the infographic below)

According to Mckinsey’s Global Payment Reports, Embedded Finance reached $20 Million in revenue in the US alone. Could you imagine how impactful it was in the world? That’s why most companies in APAC are now getting this technology to really help them to grow their revenue.

6. Blockchain

Blockchain technology is slowly but surely making its impact on banks and financial services by proving that it is the most prominent technology this decade. Most of us heard this word but we are not yet seemingly seeing its effect. Blockchain is expected to revolutionize the banking industry and other businesses like retail, healthcare, and more. 

Blockchain will be expected to accelerate international transfers and monetary transactions faster, more cost-effective, and more secure. Right now, when we are doing fund transfer from one country to another, our transactions can take multiple hours with a processing fee before it gets to the recipient. Blockchain, on the other hand, can empower these parts to make it faster and simpler for more efficient transactions. Some fintech in the PH is using their digital wallet to cash in, save, and invest in a crypto wallet.

There are a lot of features and advantages we can look forward to with blockchain technology like reducing the cost of the BFS industry, reducing human errors by automating record transactions, more efficient banking, and more!

Conclusion:

As we can see, there are so many technological innovations that can be customized based on the bank’s and financial institutions’ offerings. They can utilize it to provide seamless, omnichannel, and powerful banking. However, this can only be possible by tapping into an IT solutions provider or Software developer that can truly help you in your digital transformation this 2023. Exist Software Labs, Inc. is one of the technology innovators in the Philippines with over 2 decades of experience in bringing the value of technology to humans.