What impacts did COVID have on the banking industry?

Covid has accelerated the digitalization of retail bank branches whether we like it or not. It has altered the ecosystem as a lot of banking activities are now being pursued through online or mobile banking and due to covid, the rise of digitalization is required to connect both online and offline technology to provide a seamless experience for the customer.

Consumer concerns, as well as the demand for mobile/online or contactless, are high due to the risk of Covid. Many are started to develop habits that reduce the chances of getting infected such as reducing outings or choosing solutions that can reduce the contact.

Besides that, from the bank’s point of view, the investment in retail banking is not as high as before when they can reach their customer via mobile/online means however, this does not mean that retail banks are going away, the bank management is looking at the way to reduce OPEX & CAPEX through repurpose the bank branches and invest in solutions that can automate the mundane work and focus their employees to solve customer problem instead of working on the repetitive activities.

 

How is Intel helping banks leverage digital technologies to remain viable and competitive in a post-COVID world?

Intel technologies enable bank branch transformation with a range of hardware and software designed for performance, security, and manageability. Intel and a wide range of ecosystems partners (Intel ® Partner Alliances) and Intel ® IoT Market Ready solutions enable the deployment of intelligence at branches from devices at the edge such as self-service kiosks, thin clients, through the network and to the data centre.

 

What technologies are essential for modern banks to achieve true branch transformation?

Modern bank branches should have a holistic look at delivering not only a seamless customer experience with their product offerings and the same time not compromise the security of using the devices at the edge. Banks can revitalise branch capabilities by leveraging smart technologies such as digital identity solutions using biometric, face ad voice recognition, contactless engagement, and conversational bots that can establish virtual personalized interaction through self-service kiosks, tablets or ATM for live chat with bank employees, the bank can engage with the customer while providing the trust and credibility similar to in-person branch engagement and video-based interaction to improve customer service.

 

How are smart kiosks enhancing the bank customer experience?

Smart kiosk can dispense information or conduct over-the-counter operation such as open new account, apply for new banking card etc. It can also increase footfalls and average turnaround time per transaction at the same time does not compromise with customer experience using Smart AI for recognition, conversation AI or biometric authentication. Artificial intelligence and machine learning can utilize to reduce inefficiencies at the kiosk and most importantly, use of kiosk helps the bank to upskill their bank employees to focus on providing personalized engagement with their customer or bank could reconsider the employee workload that can be consolidate with remote video teller feature

 

How does digital card issuance differ from traditional debit card issuance?

Primarily, digital card issuance can reduce the customer time to get a new one to compare to traditional issuance. Imagine traditional debit card issuance that requires the customer to take a queue number and wait for the employee over the counter to fill in a form and verify the identity of the customer now can be done at a separate self-service kiosk which the customer can walk straight to it, and start verify the customer through biometric recognition or using a secure mobile token that is connected to the customer mobile app and the kiosk can straight away issue card without more hassle. This reduces the customer touch point and friction and allows the employee to spend their attention on other customers who require a higher order of support such as financial consultation or guidance.

 

How are banks meeting customer demand for a touchless, contactless branch experience?

At the retail bank branches, to meet customer demand for touchless, contactless branches, more banks are considering the use of edge devices such as virtual teller machines or smart teller kiosks that enable the customer to still interact with bank representatives through video call or through artificial intelligence bot in the kiosk.

For example – With the virtual teller machine, customer can solve their needs by contacting the specialist via remote teller machines which reduce the risk of covid. Virtual teller machines can utilize biometric recognition to ensure seamless hyper-personalized interaction while maintaining a prominent leve of security for the transaction activities.

 

Finally, how can banks’ balance digital technologies with personal, face-to-face interaction?

One of the ways is for the bank to remove the mundane over-the-counter operation works (repetitive) to be replaced with the edge devices such as Smart ATM, self-service kiosks, or virtual teller machines. Ensure the branch experience is superior with other alternative channels in building trust with the customer, every action from greeting to ability to meet customer requirements defines the branch effectiveness, hence human touch augmented with personalized digital engagement will be critically important to attract and retain customer. Bank should focus on their branch employees as they are the key to transform the customer experience into long tern relationship, bank should reskill their bank employees to be empowered to be all-rounder advisors with skills in guiding, advising, and cross-selling.

 

Shailesh Chaudhry

GM, Consumer Industries Networking and Edge Computing Group, Intel   

Shailesh Chaudhry leads a team that is responsible for identify and solving some of the most complex challenges in Retail, Banking, Hospitality and Entertainment Industry and enable solutions that are impactful and meaningful.  His team works very closely with customers and partners and takes a human centered approach to delivering innovative IOT and edge solutions and developing an eco-system of partners to scale those solution into global markets.