Banks are rebooting their strategies amid the COVID-19 pandemic to capitalize on the rapid digital innovation taking place, according to a July report from Forrester, “The Future of Banking is Built on Trust.” Banks will play to their strengths, using established relationships and trust with their customers to sustain growth as financial boundaries become blurred with tech companies, as Apple and Google begin to provide banking experiences, according to the market research company’s report.

The four big takeaways are:

1.       Banking will become invisible and autonomous.

Customers will expect banking to be embedded in their smartphone devices for ease of access, and autonomous finance will allow customers to determine the level of involvement banks have with their finances. Some banks might take a back seat and become the “platform and rails that other firms run upon,” while larger banks will compete with tech giants for customer primacy and engagement. Customers will have few direct interactions with their banks, as financial institutions look to collaborate and integrate with other companies, much like Ally partnering with Authority Brands or Citi integrating installment loans on Amazon. 

2.       Banking will be more connected.

As banks look to digitize, they will remodel their branches as engagement hubs where customers can go for a human touch in their banking. “Consumers will expect blended human and digital experiences over natural language processing-driven conversational interfaces,” according to the report. “The human must not get lost, though — knowing when to escalate to a trusted human for advice or guidance is crucial.” Banks may even use temporary hubs to meet consumers at their point of need.

3.       Banking will be insight-driven.

Institutions able to sustain customers’ trust will gather data to deliver better insights to them about their finances. Banks will look to integrate ethical, explainable artificial intelligence on their platforms for more personalized insights, and will offer real-time risk and credit management to proactively manage credit quality and risk for the consumer. Consumers will be able to limit data sharing to control the level of insights that they want from their financial institutions.

4.       Banking will be purposeful.

While customers will seek out brands that align with their values, banks will look to embed ethical values into their operations. Institutions will have a proactive focus on inclusiveness and offering holistic financial well-being services as customers look for banks that are socially responsible and community-focused.

Bank Innovation Build, which takes place Sept. 9-10 as a virtual experience, is a must-attend industry event for professionals overseeing financial technologies, product experiences and services. Register here.