The Big Banks Are in Danger of Becoming Utilities. Can Data Make a Difference?

When digital disruption first hit the finance and investment markets, it seemed to signal the death knell for the traditional banks and financial institutions. For a time, it looked as though the best-known brands were doomed to become utilities: only good for basic financial transactions, weighed down by legacy processes and technologies, and viewed as little more than digital dinosaurs.

But, while faster, more fluid transactions and dynamic fintech businesses have undoubtedly reshaped global finance, we can’t underestimate the power of heritage in a brand to command and sustain customer trust. And nowhere is that more critical than in the financial space. After all, if you’re about to commit a considerable amount of cash to an investment, you want to know you’re in completely safe hands.

That’s why I believe it’s so important that today’s financial leaders do not lose sight of their DNA. Rather, they must stay true to their unique heritage while embracing change and facing the future.

Despite the seismic shifts in technology, the core banking principles and values that banks have always relied on haven’t fundamentally changed. They’ve just found new ways of delivering them to a more digitally advanced audience. In fact, those core values are likely to be their strongest competitive advantage in the years to come.

This might sound like a strange thing for a digital solutions and infrastructure expert such as Hitachi to say. But we know from experience that transformation is not so much about replacing old banking models with newer, shinier ones. Instead, it’s about harnessing the power of data to inform the best strategies and drive success with the most flexible, modern tools to hand. And that’s exactly where our expertise lies.

We’re helping our clients manage vast amounts of data and apply expert analytics to derive deep, data-driven insights and respond to customer habits and preferences in real time. Ultimately, we’re helping them make more incisive, profitable decisions, and deliver a better overall service to customers.

But it’s not just in customer service that data makes a difference. Being digitally driven is also about becoming more joined up as an organization. It means ensuring all your business units are aligned, mutually visible and moving in the same direction.

With clear, focused insight from our data-driven expertise, we help the world’s great financial brands reinforce their heritage, while transforming to stay agile in a new digital era. We help position them to keep winning customer trust and returning profitable rewards for years to come.

Get a front-row seat to the future of Social Innovation. Join us at the virtual Hitachi Social Innovation Forum on May 25-27. Register here.

Richard Connolly is Client Partner Executive at Hitachi Vantara.