Perspectives: Efficiency & Monetization

Not unlike a piece of software, retail banking can be portrayed as a stack comprised of 3 layers, where the complexity of each services can be abstracted into discrete segments and end products.

Following the financial crisis in 2008, Fintech startups gained a lot of prominence globally as consumers started to look for alternatives to traditional banking methods. These startups have penetrated every service area of consumer retail banking with the goal of dis-intermediating banks and becoming the new leaders of the financial services industry.

One of the largest and fastest growing wealth segments, the Asian mass affluent, is projected to hold $43.3 trillion in assets by 2020, yet only 20% of all wealth in Asia is tapped by the wealth management industry.

The Indian life insurance market is the fifth largest in the world.  Although the per capita premium remains lower than in other emerging markets, the size and growth of India’s working class remains one of the largest globally, presenting enormous opportunity for life insurance companies to expand into and within the Indian market.

In the world of financial advisory, growth strategies often focus squarely on the end client; after all, growth is achieved through new client acquisition or new asset acquisition from existing clients.  While this logic is not incorrect, it fails to acknowledge the intricacies of third party distribution. 

Smart contacts offer the potential to facilitate or fully automate processes that are heavily paper-based today, particularly long-winded, expensive legal processes.

As cryptocurrencies and their underlying ledger system gain momentum, many financial institutions are trying to determine how to best be part of this revolution. In particular, they want to know how best to update their existing IT architectures and operations to capitalize on this new technology.

The last thing any multinational organization wants to worry about are business and compliance risks introduced by third party vendors.

As global firms respond to the post-Great Recession regulatory and economic realities, efficiency of the back-office has become critical to ongoing success.

Driven by data security concerns, a majority of financial institutions are now looking at so-called private or hybrid blockchains, rather than fully decentralized public blockchains (like the blockchain used for Bitcoin)

Over time, many firms realize that they have become so reliant on vendors/contractor for critical knowledge on key applications, that they have, in fact, ceded control of those applications to the vendors.

One question seldom asked is “how do I put my (IT infrastructure) customers on a diet?” The demand side is often assumed as a given, and there is with little assessment of (over-) consumption by applications.

Procurement often involves multiple disparate stakeholders, systems and protocol. This complexity results in increased reliance on inefficient sourcing processes and only partially takes advantage of all the benefits available from supplier competition.

It is well known that one way to make better predictions about how your customers, distributors and suppliers will behave, is to augment your own data with that of third parties.

Some clients have even deemed spend reduction in procurement categories like legal services, where recourses and expertise are concentrated within humans not technology, to be intractable. At Kepler Cannon, we continuously challenge these sorts of conventional wisdom.

Credit has seen its fair share of ups and downs, from being the crux of financial services, to commoditization and mass distribution, to now being re-engineered. In the realm of Wholesale Credit, a revolution is underway.

For some, Insurance might seem a monolithic industry, but for the ones keeping a close eye on it- Insurance is revamping itself faster than ever!
From days when underwriting a simple policy would take weeks and months, to now when it can be done in seconds with a simple ‘selfie’ - there seem to be no bounds in the future of this industry.

We are on the cusp of a revolution within financial services that will have far-reaching ramifications for the +1 billion unbanked, current models of financial intermediation across entities and borders, and ultimately the very nature of how end-consumers understand financial health. As this understanding held by customers evolves, so too must the operations, services, and visions of providers.

Now that Business As Usual is unusual, leaders are forced to re-imagine business models and build ‘winning strategies’ - to not only survive the pandemic but also emerge as successful change-makers, shaping an altered business reality.

Cities are at a standstill, but they are bound to get moving again. Urban mobility will never be the same, and contactless payments will shape the new normal. Trends are shifting, preferences are being broken, and opportunities abound!

The COVID-19 pandemic has re-shaped the landscape for marketers. They are not only forced to cut budgets to save costs, but also face the challenge of keeping up with new emerging customer behaviors. These unprecedented changes call for a broader shift in marketing tactics and investments to successfully navigate the current transformed landscape.

Strategic direction is evolving rapidly during COVID-19. Businesses are struggling with ways to respond to the pandemic and have numerous challenges facing them including potentially significant revenue shifts, interaction changes and resource limitations.
Fortunately, organizations can analyze readily available data by using both business and data intelligence to better serve their customers.

We are on the cusp of a revolution within financial services that will have far-reaching ramifications for the +1 billion unbanked, current models of financial intermediation across entities and borders, and ultimately the very nature of how end-consumers understand financial health. As this understanding held by customers evolves, so too must the operations, services, and visions of providers.

Real time payment (RTP) transactions are likely to exceed 300B by 2023, growing at 40% per year worldwide. Financial Institutions need to quickly find their own space in this ecosystem. They must redefine their value proposition and rethink their business models around this phenomenon.

Getting the Basics Right

The payments industry has been experiencing explosive growth across Latin America over the past few years: cash usage has decreased ~20% as consumers pivoted towards payment products that are well integrated into the financial ecosystem.

In a competitive business environment, high-performing CPOs are 18x more likely to fully deploy AI/cognitive capabilities. This typically leads to 92% faster demand forecasting, on average 350 man-hours are saved through automation, and there is a potential for 24/7 operations

Investing in vendor risk management today can secure a future brimming with cost-effective, secure, successful and trust-worthy partnerships.

Healthcare organizations must harness the momentum of platforms, embracing unified solutions that may still be evolving. Benefits extend beyond cost savings, paving the way for establishing long-term relationships with vendors. Simultaneously

For several years, it has been said that “data is the new oil” and arguably, the most valuable strategic asset for a business. Whilst getting value out of data might be less straight-forward, it is true that data needs to be refined to make it valuable.

A common misconception is that revenue synergies are illusive or “icing on the cake”, primarily because they are more challenging to quantify.

Cybersecurity incidents are also not only a threat to corporations’ internal operations and bottom line; customer personally identifiable information and financial data is also at serious risk of exposure and misuse, in turn impacting customer perception and long-term brand loyalty.

Data production in healthcare occurs in different volumes, velocities, and formats by multiple sources – EHR, diagnostic, imaging, claims, billing, medical devices to name a few.

70% of all planned transformation initiatives fail to deliver tangible business value and 84% of organizations fail at tech transformations in particular.