Award-winning financial services technology executives Matt Zufelt and Jeremy Green team up in the latest instalment of Digital Financial’s Future of Finance insights series to walk through the critical elements of planning and executing a successful digital transformation.
In the first installment of Digital Financial’s Future of Finance insights series, veteran banker Robert Frederick draws upon 40 years’ experience at leading financial institutions across the Caribbean to craft a roadmap toward accelerated migration to digital banking in the heavily cash-dependent region.
Challenge An international industry standards-setting organisation needed to offer comprehensive guidance on the use of digital identity in digital financial services. This was in accordance with United Nations Sustainable Development Goal #16—the creation of effective, accountable, and inclusive institutions at all levels—which includes a requirement to provide legal identity for all by 2030.
Challenge The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in a West African nation needed to strengthen security, reduce corruption, and improve delivery of agricultural vouchers to subsistence farmers. However, most of the target segment lived off-grid with neither mobile data nor electricity and possessed limited identity documentation.
Challenge A market-leading bank with multiple business lines—including deposits, secured and unsecured credit, payments, investments, and insurance—had siloed digital channels that created an uneven customer experience and a poor sales environment. The bank aimed to improve efficiency, increase sales, and hold onto its market share vs. both traditional rivals and emerging fintech challengers.
Challenge A country in southwest Asia wanted to improve access to financial services for both citizens and for a significant refugee population. Concerns about inclusion and efficiency, along with the important role of cross-border remittances, indicated that digital financial services would offer the best solution. To enable the roll-out of DFS, the country’s central bank—backed financially and technically by two international development institutions—required the creation of an appropriate regulatory framework.
Challenge A national bank in a region where financial services players were racing to embrace digital technology urgently needed to create an efficient and well-regulated payments ecosystem that accorded with global best practices and standards.
Challenge An economically challenged nation was struggling to recover from significant natural disaster that caused severe hardship and loss of life. To drive growth and financial inclusion, the central bank, in partnership with a global development institution, sought to enable the launch of digital financial technology.
Challenge A major international bank, with operations in 22 countries, needed to significantly improve customer experience and increase efficiency in order to maintain good profitability in a challenging revenue environment.