Finance Monthly - October 2021

25 Finance Monthly. Bank i ng & F i nanc i a l Se r v i ce s models and efficiency while at the same time enabling extreme competition from both traditional and non-traditional competitors. In tomorrow’s banking eco-system model, more and more of the value is accruing from customer- facing functions supported by platform-based business models. By extension, this has meant competition from both FinTech and importantly TechFins (large technology companies that are moving into the less regulated aspects of financial services such as payments, electronic wallets, BNPL – buy now pay later models and more). Banks in the future will increasingly not only automate extensively, but they will also likely extend their business models to create ‘beyond banking platforms’ to help their customers in a much broader context beyond the traditional banking value chain. The future of such models is being written in Asia by banks such as DBS in Singapore, SBI in India and many more as they change their business models to blunt the onslaught of the ‘super-apps’ such as Alibaba, Tencent, Grab, Gojek etc in that part of the world. How can the industry find its footing after such a change? Banks have several natural advantages that come from incumbency, customer loyalty and material regulatory barriers preventing non-traditional competitors from rapidly breaching their businesses. Regardless mastering the future will require banks to ask themselves three questions: 1. Is our strategy ambitious enough? 2. Are we executing fast enough? and 3. Do we have the talent and capabilities to win? Answering these questions honestly and then putting in place programs to execute relentlessly is the only way for the industry to continue to thrive and take advantage of the huge opportunities that are presenting themselves in the coming decade. “In tomorrow’s banking eco-system model, more and more of the value is accruing from customer-facing functions supported by platform-based business models.”