Innovation Insider with Pierre Villeroy de Galhau, Boursorama

How do open banking and “thinking platform” create value for our customers and employees? What are the uses within the Group and the concrete contribution of this new business model? Focus on Boursorama with Pierre Villeroy de Galhau, Head of Strategy & Innovation

Pierre, could you tell us about the strategies adopted in the area of open banking within Boursorama?

Boursorama is undoubtedly the only entity in France to combine the aggregator approach (AISP and PISP) on the one hand and that of a bank on the other hand which, in accordance with PSD2, must explain the payment transaction data of its customers via APIs. This can lead to some schizophrenia!

Having said that, the acquisition of Fiduceo in 2015 provided us with strong expertise in all these open banking issues and, in particular, as part of DSP2, Boursorama is probably one of the most advanced players in this area. It should be remembered that Boursorama offered its customers a banking aggregation service in 2011!

Today, our open banking strategy is quite ambitious and our use cases in production (or progress) are numerous. While the first step in this area has long been what is known as PFM (Personal Finance Management), that is, a customer’s ability to clearly and intelligibly view their expense and revenue history, consolidated within its various banks, the scope of possibilities is now much broader. And it’s all the greater at Boursorama because we are the only player also able to automatically aggregate all of a customer’s documents in their various online customer spaces (statements, invoices, etc.).

In addition, the tools no longer only relate to a historical vision. They are becoming forward-looking and proactive, and they automate certain tasks such as the possibility of filling an overdraft automatically from an external account.

Could you give us concrete examples/evidence?

There is a need to distinguish recurring aggregation and one-off aggregation.

Recurring aggregation is once again the possibility of viewing all of one's payment accounts in the same ecosystem (in this case the Boursorama banking area), regardless of the original bank, but also all loans, and all investment accounts with an aggregated and “smart” view. This is what we call Wicount. Furthermore, as outlined above, the client can automatically retrieve from the same ecosystem all the documents of their everyday life, which are automatically associated with the corresponding banking transactions. In their banking space, Boursorama customers will be able to view their Amazon payments done with their Societe Generale card and will be able to view the details of what they bought (photos of goods, references, etc.).

The one-off aggregation enables Boursorama to respond to use cases where Boursorama will refer to information collected from third parties to respond to a “one shot” use. This is particularly the case with the “Flash” consumer credit application process, where the customer, after providing the username/passwords (“credentials”) of their main bank (non Boursorama) will be able to obtain, in real time and without providing any supporting documents, a definitive response to their credit application. The same applies to an increase in authorised overdrafts, for example. The principle is simple: Boursorama analyses the client’s revenues and expenses via a specifically developed AI and can therefore score them in real time and without supporting documents. In some cases, and for certain professions in particular, this analysis will not be carried out by requesting the credentials for their bank but those of their impot.gouv customer space (automatic recovery and reading of the tax assessment notice).

And many other uses are still under development, particularly thanks to the ability not only to aggregate information, but also to initiate payments from a third-party bank from their Boursorama customer area.

Our Group’s digital and innovation strategy focuses on the development of AI, Open Banking and Open Innovation; how is open banking strategic?

Although the announced “tidal wave” has not yet occurred, it is clear that things are changing rapidly. The major challenge, well understood by others (I’m thinking of the GAFAs in particular) is to maintain the relationship with the client on a daily basis. Open banking gives customers the power to choose to manage the main actions of their daily financial life (account inquiries, payments, etc.) from “anywhere” and no longer necessarily from the product provider (historically the bank). There will therefore be a battle to capture this daily relationship thanks to the best customer experience, regardless of the quality of the products. There is therefore likely to be a gradual disconnect between the producer and the distributor, who will manage this relationship on a daily basis. In addition, customers are gradually becoming aware of the value of their banking and documentary data.

Open banking is therefore probably one of the major strategic drivers of the coming years, as it theoretically gives a multitude of distributors (including GAFAs), who have fewer regulatory constraints than banks, the opportunity to vie for the day-to-day management of customers’ financial life, with 100% open architectures.

In your opinion, in 5 years, where will we be in open banking?

See above, no one can tell if open banking will ultimately divide the producer/distributor vision with, on one side the “super markets” and, on the other, the production plants.

Banks, which are rapidly digitising, are certainly not going to leave the field open to distributors and simply be production plants for financial products.

On the other hand, I think we are moving towards a world where personal data will be shared in a much simpler way and will gradually become a “commodity”. The use of open banking will certainly increase throughout the ecosystem and will simplify and improve customer experiences. A more accurate and comprehensive vision of a client or prospect provides the opportunity to offer personalised products, speed up processes and streamline interactions. This is true of daily banking, as well as of credit, KYC, savings, career paths, etc.

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