The financial services industry has gone through enormous transformation during the past few years, not only in terms of regulation but also in terms of technological advancement. There are lots of innovations that have redefined not only the industry, but also the world of work in this crucial sector. Mobility and connectivity are opening up new avenues for the business of financial institutions.
More than any other industry, the financial services sector has moved further towards digital in a bid to tackle increasing customer expectations, changing regulations and heightened operational costs. Regulators have increased their demands from the industry, and have started to adopt sophisticated tools to monitor individual institutions’ activities and the overall action in the industry. Moreover, banking institutions have long been using artificial intelligence to detect payments fraud; now they are tapping into AI’s ability to identify abnormal behaviour to detect practices of market abuse.
Eliciting patterns of customer behaviour was once based on traditional methods such as surveys and focus groups. Nowadays, with the advancement of technology, businesses harness the power of data derived from multiple channels to unlock key information that will help them understand what clients really want by deploying big data analytics. Clients and prospects generate huge and diverse data across a variety of channels, and financial institutions will sift through available data to discover trends, patterns and other insights that matter most to them.
Customer intelligence is seen as a key indicator of profitability and this necessitates firms to have a robust technological infrastructure in place to get more intelligent about their customers’ needs. Experts foresee that organisations will increasingly rely on the full spectrum of automation to carry out various laborious processes and improve the overall efficiency of the business, mitigate risks, and enhance innovation and, ultimately, growth.
Robotic process automation (RPA) is well on its way to invading the modern workplace and organisations need to devise a proper workforce plan that takes into consideration all the transformations in the way work is done, as well as effective strategies that would minimise negative disruption. Above all, organisations need to orientate their workforce to the new state of affairs by clearly defining roles and responsibilities, and setting measurable goals for the new ecosystem to ensure its success.
“At Tickmill we have a strategic plan in place to deal with all these changing forces, and we are building the right infrastructure to leverage emerging technologies in a bid to streamline business processes and refine clients’ experience,” says Duncan Anderson, CEO of Tickmill UK Ltd, an FCA UK-licensed Forex and CFD provider.”
He adds: “Forex traders are more sophisticated than ever today, because they also use AI and automation to make trading decisions and execute trades, therefore we strive to provide products and services that create value and maximise satisfaction for also this new growing breed of traders. At the same time, we are equipping our workforce with the right skillset to be able to smoothly adjust in the new reality.”
London fintechs dominate the latest entries to a government-backed start-ups programme as the capital’s fintech sector continues to boom. Monzo, Starling Bank, Revolut and Salary Finance were among the companies selected for this year’s Future 50 programme, which helps British tech businesses to scale up by providing access to a peer network and contact with senior government decision-makers. This year’s cohorts reflect the continued success of London fintech firms, which made up 10 of the 24 new entries.
Head of marketing and community at Monzo, Tristan Thomas, said: “We’re excited to have been included in this year’s Future 50 programme and work with and learn from other high-growth companies in the cohort. As we near 2 million customers in the UK, we’re preparing for the next stage in our company’s growth trajectory.” The announcement comes after a bumper year for venture capital investment in the UK, with start-ups pulling in $7.9bn in funding last year.
The Future 50 programme was founded by government project Tech Nation in 2013 in a bid to promote British tech talent. The scheme counts Deliveroo, Skyscanner, Shazam and Just Eat as notable alumni. Minister for Digital, culture and Media, Jeremy Wright said: “The UK has a fantastic track record of producing globally successful tech companies and I’m pleased to see another diverse and impressive group of firms in Tech Nation’s 2019 Future 50 programme.”
(The author is our foreign correspondent based in the UK. He can be reached at andyjalil@aol.com)
Oman Observer is now on the WhatsApp channel. Click here
