Banking Technology as Competitive Advantage

As banks seek to develop new business   opportunities and maintain relationships with   corporate clients, while answering the industry   mandate of moving toward real-time payments,   technology has become the driving strategy. The   tactics: to improve customer interfaces while   developing new capabilities that utilize artificial intelligence, the blockchain, and application programming interfaces (APIs).

The stakes are high. Corporate customer satisfaction is at a nadir, according to the results of the 2016 Transaction Banking Survey published by GTNews in connection with CGI. The survey found that just 38 percent of respondents planned to stay with their primary bank. That’s down substantially from a year earlier, when 52 percent of respondents said they would remain with their bank. Why? According to the survey, the desire for better digital products and services is one reason corporate banking customers are jumping ship.

“There is a distinct difference between what corporates want and what banks are giving them,” said Jerry Norton, head of financial services strategy at CGI. “That is the message we’re hearing. Corporates are saying ‘We want this,’ ‘We want that,’ but they’re not getting it from the corporate banking sector.”