The last decade was an era of heightened internet penetration accelerating digitization. The focus was on getting banking and other financial services to the fingertips of customers. It was the decade of mobility, a decade that saw the biggest transformation in the way business models changed and how the banking and financial services industry evolved.

We are currently in the “PostDigital Era” or “Industry 4.0” and the way forward seems to be even more exciting in many ways, as the change is faster and the impact larger.

To remain relevant, it is crucial to understand the key trends impacting the BFSI industry.

Let us look at some of the top emerging technologies:

AI and cognitive technologies:

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is now becoming a part of the business environment and is reinventing the entire BFSI ecosystem in a huge manner. By increasing the level of automation and dynamic systems, AI supports decision-making, enhances the customer experience and improves operational efficiency. It also provides a strategic oversight for getting value out of data, which is the need of the hour more than ever, due to the data influx from a wide range of sources.

Big Data analytics: Big data refers to large and complex datasets that create significant challenges for traditional data management and analysis tools in practical periods. Using advanced analytics, banks can apply technology to efficiently extract valuable insights from the data and leverage those insights to improve the strategic decision-making process.

The Internet of Things (IoT): Internet of Things is a technology which connects devices in a network with the aim to provide better data-driven insights. The banking sector started leveraging IoT relatively late compared to sectors such as energy and automotive. However, IoT has been gaining importance in the BFSI sector lately, especially in retail banks, which are showing large investments in IoT to be used in their internal infrastructure and consumer-facing capabilities.

Robotic Process Automation (RPA): With the use of Robotic Process Automation (RPA), the banking industry is mandating the use of intelligent automation to drive efficiency, remove repetitions, and improve customer satisfaction by providing fast and efficient services. RPA is transforming how banks can operate with benefits such as cost-reduction, accuracy, compliance and operational efficiency.

Quantum Computing: Quantum computing harnesses the power of quantum mechanics to solve problems that were previously believed to be intractable on regular computers. In the BFSI sector, it benefits in major use cases like portfolio optimization, financial modelling, enhanced security and machine learning optimization. Infact, according to Deloitte, the 2020s will likely be a time of progress in quantum computing, but the 2030s are the most likely decade for a larger market to develop.

Cloud computing: For financial services organisations, the hybrid multi-cloud approach is now a global standard as it has tremendous utility in streamlining and cutting business costs. To maintain business continuity in ongoing situations, hybrid cloud services are being utilised to derive business value directly from emerging technologies. Along with these pandemic crises, the BFSI industry also faces disruptions by cloud-native fintech companies and they also can provide banking access to millions of unbanked people.

Many organizations hold a massive amount of data, but struggle to discover their business value. Emerging business intelligence and data visualization capabilities will help companies provide actionable intelligence and find distinct patterns within large datasets.

For instance, Mastercard Advisors, the data analytics and insights arm of Mastercard, distill experience and knowledge from thousands of real-world engagements with financial institutions to generate valuable strategies across Consumer, Commercial, Debit, Credit, Marketing, Acquiring, Risk and Fraud. Mastercard’s anonymized and aggregated transaction insights and world-class analytical capabilities supplement our industry-proven problem-solving skills to offer highly actionable recommendations that drive financial results. The customer base has also increased due to the benefits like online banking, m-banking and contactless payments. Moreover, BFSI industry being the tech frontline is at the cusp of this systematic transformation.

The author, Supreet Badrinath, is Vice President, Business Development South Asia at Mastercard. The views expressed are personal

First Published:May 6, 2021 4:01 PM IST