Rethinking the Core with Nimble Digital Banking Technology

When it comes to the core, banks spend years evaluating their systems and making sure they align with the current and future needs of customers.

From personal financial management tools to card controls, customers select banks that offer the highest tech and robust options. This can be a challenge for banks, especially on the smaller side or those with a limited budget. But when a bank’s core can no longer keep up with the demands of digital banking trends, the cost, expense and risk of a total core conversion is often too high for institutions to justify making a wholesale change.

Instead, banks are bolting on a variety of tools that attempt to provide the functionality they need to meet customer demands and run efficiently behind the scenes. This can be a challenge for many banks, especially those that are light on staff and are assigned to manage multiple vendors. Vendor management is can be a meticulous and time-consuming task, as there are many separate and segmented parts that need coordination in order to run smoothly with close monitoring. This may require additional staff or additional tasks for executives that already wear many hats.

The future in core banking
As they look ahead at the future of digital banking, bankers are seeking ways to work around the core and still have comprehensive banking capabilities. These systems must be robust and fully run through the cloud while maintaining security. This explains the rise of challenger and neo banks that focus more on technology and security, rather than the brick and mortar. What also sets these companies apart is the way they utilize their core – it goes beyond the legacy systems that require many additional outside services for simple banking needs.

The modern core needs to evolve into a hub that serves as the foundation for digital banking, embedded banking and other customer-focused capabilities, working seamlessly across channels while also giving consumers individualized services.

How customers prefer to utilize banking
Bank customers are continuing to seek options that are tailored to their needs. Hyper-personalized services have continued gaining momentum as customers seek services that match their differentiated and unique situations.

Different customer segments have different needs and requirements; a small business owner’s needs will look different compared to a college student. The small business owner may look for options that can better track purchases or need loans for his or her business. The college student may be looking at more options like P2P payments and card controls to monitor their financial behaviors. Hyper-personalization means cores need to be more flexible and adaptable, with streamlined processes that make updates to technology and features seamless.

The pandemic has challenged and complicated some customers’ ability to work with their banks, given that branches have undergone significant changes to operations to ensure the safety of staff and customers. In response, customers have had to rely more on customer service options in a digital environment – which can be a turn off for many. Many customers avoid using a chat function or calling a helpline at all costs, as they believe it will be a time suck or it will not resolve the issue. So in addition to building in hyper-personalized services, banks must also take these preferences into consideration as they assist customers by offering methods that best suit their preferences.

Nimble and robust from the bottom to the top
As banks continue working toward their goals for 2021, it is important they examine their current offerings against their roadmap for the future. By working with technology partners that create a one-stop shop for services, they can eliminate the need for multiple vendors and moving parts while tightening their security measures through nimble cloud-based solutions. Now is the time for banks to make the switch and evaluate how they can provide the highest level of banking for their customers.