December 19, 2016
Fintech Finance
Hans Tesselaar, Executive Director of BIAN
“The banking industry has changed almost beyond recognition in recent years, but the digital transformation that we have experienced so far is just a fraction of the shift that is to come. Big data, IoT, virtual reality, artificial intelligence are not just buzz words. It’s true that while some of these developments will simply fall by the wayside of tech developments that never took off (at least in the financial sphere), but others will continue to fundamentally shake the industry — it’s up to banks to evaluate the potential within each of these developments. However, without the army of developers required to test these innovative developments at the pace required, this is where banks are struggling.
“In 2017 we’re going to see banks ramping up their efforts to recruit tech talent — and position themselves firmly as tech companies. This isn’t as major a shift as it may seem. The financial industry has been the leader in tech for many decades. It was one of the first to adopt automation on a massive scale. But over time, being an early adopter has translated into huge legacy issues and lumbering old systems with incremental updates, while newcomers have swept in built on modern tech from the start.
“The smartest banks are working together to navigate the future of core banking IT systems — developing a standardised global framework that fits across all banks, so that consumer-facing next generation API technology can fit easily on top of this. But failure to shout about the work they are putting into this, means the perception of banks as anti-innovation remains. In the New Year we can expect to see banks focusing their efforts heavily on addressing this perception problem.”