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 A major international bank operating in multiple markets was faced with tightening margins, flat-lining economic activity, and unsatisfactory productivity ratios. Each of the bank’s operations was standalone, with branches carrying out the majority of their own mid- and back-office functions. Regulation differs and is evolving in each of the bank’s markets, making it increasingly complex to stay up-to-date and ensure compliance.
Challenge A second-tier bank with a strong multichannel platform that was focused on the mid- to low-income retail and SME market enjoyed a decade of rapid growth during a buoyant economy. While the bank’s credit and market risk management capabilities successfully kept pace with its expansion, its efforts to manage interest rate risk, liquidity, and profitability resulted in divisionally siloed solutions: a clear vulnerability as it entered a more uncertain period for economic growth and interest rates.
Challenge Growth in a national mobile money platform had flat-lined after launch. With minimum viable product in the market, the creators were seeking a plan for new products and services to reignite interest and user enrolment, particularly among the underserved.
Challenge A South Asian government was seeking to bolster formal financial inclusion and digital service offerings for small players. To that end, the state bank, in collaboration with two international development institutions, planned to launch a high-volume micropayments gateway, in the understanding that any such platform would have to adhere to the strict guidelines of governance, interoperability, and inclusion required by the donor partners.
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.
Commercial & Retail Products & Services
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.