Reinventing the bank experience. What If?

Would you like an everyday checking account or the preferred account? How about a relationship-priced premium account with all the trimmings? What is the real difference between the dizzying menu of choices of metals: gold, platinum, and titanium? 

At this point, we are almost tempted to ask: would you like fries with that?

If only choosing a banking account was as easy as choosing what food to order.

Or perhaps as easy as ordering from Amazon. One click and you’re done. 

With just a little imagination, a little technology, and a little digital maturity. Perhaps?

It shouldn’t require an in-person visit to open a bank account. And while digital account opening has surged, especially in the past year, a substantial share of primary checking account openings are still done at the branch. Even among those that offer digital account opening, “40% still require an applicant to take more than 10 minutes to complete a checking account application”, according to a study from Cornerstone Advisors.  

Given the myriad of options — coupled with aging infrastructure and practices — are we really surprised account opening is still an issue for most banks?

Digital transformation isn’t just about simply digitizing existing analog workflows; it is also about rethinking the entire experience from first principles. As often as we talk about the volume of data available in today’s world, how we leverage this data to gleam insights — and how we use this to help customers become more financially secure — are also equally important.

Imagine driving without a GPS today. While you will most likely get to your final destination — as we once did leveraging paper maps — the journey may take a bit longer without the navigation assistance we take for granted today. Without the intelligent signaling, you may run into traffic and not be able to reroute until it’s too late. You may not be aware of new routes that can help shorten the journey. You might not know a road on the maps has been closed for some time. 

Our modern navigation system not only helps make the journey more efficient, it also takes some of the mental load off of driving — it gives us a piece of mind knowing that we will arrive at our destination at a particular time and lets our mind focus on the destination. 

Now imagine what we can do if we have something similar to manage our finances.

Instead of guessing how long our savings will last us, we know how long we can continue to live with our existing financial obligations, and exactly what levers to pull to make our nest egg last longer. Instead of merely consolidating loans with lower interest rates, we are incentivized to change our habits and get out of debt and stay out of debt. Instead of feeling our way with IFTTT (If this then that), we have an action plan of what to do, when, and how.

Now imagine that. 

With artificial intelligence, we now have the ability to leverage algorithms and data to facilitate key financial decision making. Financial institutions can support unique customer journeys at scale, guiding customers with their insights at the right place, and helping them make the right decisions at the right time with confidence. 

Just like how a navigation system guides us to our destination.

The future of banking is autonomous. 

And we might get there sooner than we think. 

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See how BOND.AI is reinventing the bank account here.

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Our new book, Beyond Good, is now available for order at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kogan Page, and everywhere fine books are sold. Keep in touch with our book launch events at BeyondGoodBook.com.

Beyond Good is a call to arms for business leaders to recognize how they can do well by doing good. Business for good, which is the philosophy that you can pursue profits while delivering on sustainable and societal development goals, is already delivering big changes. With exclusive interviews with experts from the B-Corp world, policy makers and executives, this book also showcases how companies like Microsoft, Flourish Ventures, Ant Financial, Sunrise Bank and Paypal are doing their bit to make our world better — and you can too. Beyond Good is also available at Bookshop.org (supports local, independent bookstores), Waterstones, WHSmith, and everywhere books are sold.  

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Unconventional Ventures helps drive innovation to improve systematic financial wellness. We connect founders to funders, provide mentorship to entrepreneurs, strategic advisory services to a broad set of corporates, and broaden opportunities for diversity within the ecosystem. Our belief is that anyone with great ideas should have a chance to succeed and every voice should be heard. We work with financial institutions, fintech startups, technology firms, and corporates working within financial services and tangential verticals. Visit unconventionalventures.com to learn how you can partner with us.