Innovation In The Financial Retail Banking Industry Are Banks Taking Over Fintechs Or Are Fintechs Taking Over Banking

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2016 in the subject Business economics - Banking, Stock Exchanges, Insurance, Accounting, grade: 1,3, University of Frankfurt (Main) (Fachbereich für Wirtschaftsinformatik), language: English, abstract: The thesis focuses on how Fintechs are disrupting the financial retail banking industry and how banks react to these changes. In this context, challenges and opportunities of their actions will be analyzed and discussed. Furthermore, it will be derived how aspects of innovation influence the Fintechs success in this process and how innovation takes place in the financial industry in general. Finally, this thesis discusses the implications of the current situation for both Fintechs and banks, and identifies potential outcomes and consequences for all involved parties. Since the beginning of the 21st century and the spread of the internet whole industries have been transformed or became obsolete. Disruption in the form of digitalization has taken place in the music, book, media and movie industry. Online and mobile services, offered by start-ups and technology companies are changing one industry at a time. Retail-focused companies like Apple, Netflix, Google, Amazon and Twitter have changed the way people think and use music, films, books and media. They also changed the consumers’ general perception of good service, usability and of how companies are doing business. Despite all these improvements in our everyday life, the financial retail banking industry has remained relatively constant, even though it caused people to adapt to new circumstances, in the form of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), resulting in a Global Recession and higher regulations for the industry. Since then, the industry missed the opportunity to regain the customers’ trust by changing their habits and improving their services. Instead, customers are increasingly unlikely to buy products or refer their bank but are increasingly prepared to leave their bank within the next six months. This state of stagnancy inside the financial retail banking industry seems to have changed. New entrants have caused uproar in the industry. Fintechs, an acronym for financial technology, are entering the retail market, forcing banks to adapt and innovate. Online and mobile banking services are now considered to be the future of financial retail banking. Fintechs threaten to take away customers by offering better and cheaper services with higher usability. As both the number of Fintechs and their customers increase, banks realize that Fintechs are going to be a threat for them.

Emergent innovative financial technologies are profoundly changing the way in which we spend, move and manage our money, unlike ever before, and traditional retail banks are facing stiff competition. The global financial crisis in 2007–2009 led to large losses, and even the collapse of a significant number of established banks shaking the trust of financial customers worldwide. The Digital Banking Revolution is an insightful look at how financial technology and the rapid rise of financial technology companies have brought welcome changes offering flexibility to the banking industry. The book offers a unique perspective on the consumerization of retail banking services. It delves into the many changes that financial innovations have brought about in banking, the main financial disruptors, the new era of "banking on the go," and financial innovations from countries around the world before concluding with a discussion on the future of banking including optimizing structures, new strategies for business outcomes, and human resources in the digital era.

Over the past decade financial service innovations have contributed to a completely new way in which customers can bank, threatening the status quo of traditional retail banks, and redefining a banking model which has been in place for generations. These new technological advancements have facilitated the rapid emergence of digital banking firms and FinTech companies, leading to established banks being forced to swiftly increase their pace of digital adoption to stay relevant and stop mass client attrition to these agile financial start-ups. These threats come at an inopportune time for banks due to mature markets currently experiencing stagnant growth. This coupled with decreasing profit margins due to the competitive pricing of new entrants, and financial customer loyalty becoming ever increasingly more tenuous.

For many years, retail banks have been secure, highly profitable businesses. However, recent industry disruption has come knocking at the door of these financial giants. The turning point was the global financial crisis experienced between the years 2007 and 2009 which not only led to large losses, and even the collapse of a significant number of established banks, but has shaken the trust of financial customers worldwide to their core. These factors, combined with the fact that banking has been relatively undisturbed for centuries, meant it was time for change, and that change has been the rapid rise of financial technology companies. Emergent innovative financial technologies are profoundly changing the way in which we spend, move and manage our money, unlike ever before. The digital transformation and its pace of change have been truly astounding, dramatically shifting customer behaviors and expectations of their financial service provider. Retail banks must now become positioned to fulfill their customers' every financial need, especially as the millennial generation is poised to soon command the largest purchasing power of any age group, and banks will need to become cognizant of this generation for a multitude of reasons.

This Palgrave Pivot analyses the evolution of strategies and business models adopted by financial operators that employ technological solutions to deliver financial products and services. The analysis is performed on a proprietary dataset built on different sources that highlight important differences in strategical approaches taken by FinTech companies, TechFin and BigTech, and banks (traditional and digital native). For each type, the authors underline their distinctive patterns, strengths and weaknesses. The main focus of the analysis in on the European market that is investigated also in the light of the difference and similarities with other markets (such as US and China). The unbundling and re-bundling of productive processes in finance, the treatment of information and the level of innovation in the customer relationship highlight the intense change that the banking activities of new financial services providers are currently dealing with, especially the retail segment. Despite the main international banks’ implementation of innovative strategical approaches to take advantage of the digitalization of business and cope with competition, so far the level of the disruption brought by FinTech is not fully understood or widespread. This holds especially true for the smaller banks: the latter need to take a proactive approach to individuate a business model able to satisfy the new customer needs and the competitive pressure that are destined to increase and further evolve. This book addresses this and would appeal to academics, researchers and students of banking, FinTech and financial innovation alongside policy makers, regulatory authorities, FinTechs and banks.

How FinTech companies are rapidly transforming the traditional retail banking industry through disruptive financial innovation.

This book exemplifies the potential of FinTech to deliver important economic and societal gains, such as enhancing competition and financial inclusion to deliver tailored financial products and services at more affordable prices and at greater convenience. The emergence of FinTech directly challenges the business models of incumbent financial intermediaries like banks, which are adapting by developing their own FinTech offerings and partnering with FinTech and large technology firms. FinTech also constitutes both known and unknown risks to financial stability and challenges regulators to evaluate whether existing regulations are sufficient. The emergence of FinTech as a global phenomenon requires insightful cross-country analysis and different perspectives to evaluate its development and associated opportunities and challenges. This book will be of interest to practitioners, regulators and students of this essential enabling technology that is a major component of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.