Digital Rethinking in Banking and Finance

The challenges for the banking system are increasingly pressing, competition no longer comes only from historical banking competitors but also from major technology players and more recently emerged actors. Fintech startups, therefore, take on a primary role as either direct or potential competitors of traditional banking players, or in any case position themselves as complementary providers of solutions that are innovative and in some cases disruptive to today’s common ecosystem. To tackle the extended competition banking players today can leverage two important advantages: if there is no doubt that on one hand banks have historically been the keepers of account-holders’ firm trust and clients’ undisputed consultants, on the other they acquired a priceless wealth of information and pervasive customer knowledge in the longstanding relationship. Based on this and enabled by Big Data analysis techniques and methods, a traditional banking player can, for example, evaluate with greater speed and accuracy a client’s credit merit and even predict customer needs. Furthermore, digital technology can contribute to making processes more efficient and effective. Digital enabled process automation can drive considerable improvement in terms of operating efficiency, in line with regulatory challenges. Partially or entirely automating the investment process, for example, can allow the financial institute to position itself complementarily to its traditional offer. In some cases, digital innovation can be disruptive: this is the case of using the Blockchain also to the effect of offering services that are alternative and different from Bitcoin, the virtual currency that has made the specifically implemented technology famous.