How Can Your Bank Tap Into the Internet of Things?

The Internet of Things (IoT) has officially moved beyond hype. IoT is now well known and defined—basically putting data-gathering sensors on machines, products and people, and making the data available on the Internet—and companies are already using IoT to drive improvements in operational performance, customer experience and product pricing. Gartner predicts we’ll see 25 billion IoT data-gathering endpoints installed worldwide by 2020.

While IoT is delivering on its promise in a wide range of industries, many bankers are still struggling to find the value in finance, an industry largely built on intangibles. We see two primary IoT opportunities for banks:

• Direct use of sensor data (location, activities, habits) to better engage customers and assess creditworthiness.
• Partnering with companies that manufacture or integrate sensors into products to provide payment services for device-initiated transactions.

Engaging customers and assessing creditworthiness
Like most businesses, your bank can simply use IoT to understand—and serve—customers better. Banks are already implementing smart phone beacon technology that identifies customers as they walk in the door. Customers who opt in can be greeted by name, served more quickly and generally treated with more personalized care. You can also take advantage of sensor data outside of the bank to market more relevant services to customers. For example, data from sensors could […]