Interview with David Gyori, CEO of Banking Reports

DISTRIBUTION IS RISING FROM A TACTICAL TO A STRATEGIC CHALLENGE

We are expecting over 300 banking and insurance executives to attend the EFMA Distribution Summit in London. How do you see the reasons behind the relevance of distribution?

There are three strong and transformative trends going on parallel regarding distribution channels of financial services.

-> The first trend is REPOSITIONING of bricks and mortar assets.

-> The second trend is OPTIMIZING the already existing digital channels.

-> The third trend is DISCOVERING emerging, cutting edge new digital channels.

These three activities keep bankers and insurance experts busy and on the edge. Putting it into a wider perspective, distribution is rising from a tactical to a strategic challenge.

Can you give some specific examples of these trends?

Capital One in Boston is repositioning some of its branches into hybrids of café-branches. The project is so far successful.

First Midwest Bank has optimized sales of Express Personal Loans through its website by doing a brilliant series of live a/b tests. Results are stunning, for example changing the color of the click-through button to the optimal tone can alone lead to nearly 20 percent hike in conversion rates.

HDFC Bank in India has a dedicated smartwatch application with over 14 functions. Notifications, balances and transaction history are among top features.

How do you see the future of the bank-branch?

In the last 10 years the number of branches per 100 000 adults has risen from 10 to 14 globally. Yet, in the same 10 year period in the most developed and mature retail banking markets half of the branches have disappeared. So the branch conundrum is mostly relevant in the mature, slow-growth markets. In these mature markets 2017 is going to be the year of video banking. Many international, regional and national players are rolling this transitional solution out.

I am in the camp of experts who believes that the branch has a long term future. I see co-branded, cashless and paperless branches emerging in the long-run.

What are the emerging, truly transformative channels financial services providers will have to take seriously in the coming years?

The smartphone is now becoming an almost standard channel. Therefore now just the fact that a bank offers this channel is less than enough: banks now have to compete in design, functionality, user-experience and segment-optimization (EFMA will soon hold the first ever SME Banking Apps Awards ceremony in Milan, Italy) of this channel.

Smartwatch, AI-propelled chat robot solutions (a chat-bot is answering the client as if it was a human assistant) and Contextual chat-boxes (the chat-box which pops up on a product-subsite is linked to a human advisor specialized in the given product) are all coming. Alexa and Siri – as well as other digital personal concierge services – are fast becoming new financial channels in creative ways. A good example is the insurer Liberty Mutual, which has an ‘Alexa Guestimator Tool’ to provide auto and home insurance estimates. The next step will be to be able to pay for the insurance through Alexa and Alexa will initially deliver automatic upcoming payments reminders.

Which speakers are you the most interested in when attending the upcoming EFMA Distribution Summit in London?

There is an absolutely amazing global lineup of top speakers. Global banking-innovation superstars like Chris Skinner and Jim Marous; Challenger-bank executives like Mark Mullen from Atom Bank and Megan Caywood from Starling Bank; Key decision makers from global players like Richard Davies from HSBC and Suresh Viswanathan from Barclays; Chinese and Russian champions like Daniel Tu from Ping An Group and Roman Ovchinnikov from Sberbank. Besides the above mentioned speakers I am very much looking forward to Professor Peter Hahn’s perspectives because being the dean of The London Institute of Banking and Finance he will speak about ‘Professionalism, conduct and ethics in a digital World’.

About the EFMA Distribution Summit in London

Date: Three day summit on the 26th, 27th, 28th of April, 2017.

Venue: Hilton Hotel Wembley, Lakeside Way, HA9 0BU

More Information: https://efma.com/event/overview/522

About David Gyori

David Gyori is a globally renowned FinTech consultant, trainer, author and keynote speaker. He is CEO of Banking Reports Ltd London, providing top quality ‘FinTech Training for Bankers’ all over the world.