Transaction banking is the ‘new’ sexy #TLTActiance

This Thursday’s Thought Leader Actiance (#TLTActiance) guest blog is by Elizabeth Lumley, special projects editor at financial services newswire Finextra, based in London. Follow her on Twitter @LizLum

According to research from the Boston Consulting Group, revenues from global transaction banking are expected to grow from $189 billion in 2011 to $509 billion in 2021 – an increase of 170%.

This renewed focus on the transaction bank has brought up several key trends. To highlight these I’m going to look at two trends from Finextra’s Global Banking Transaction Survey.

Most banks are combining cash management, payments, trade finance (and sometimes securities services) into one business unit.

Almost 90% of the banks surveyed in 2012 have created a transaction banking group, combining these business, or plan to in the near future. That number has grown exponentially. In 2010, 57% of those surveyed had merged, or were planning to merge, their trade finance and cash management business. That rose to 77% in 2011.

Now, there are a few issues I have with these statistics. And it’s from a technical, rather than a business strategy standpoint.  

The client-facing sides of the bank are now concerned with this idea of ‘customer-centricity’. Banks need a ‘customer view’ of their services, not a product-view of their services. Why?

So that banks can enable a stronger strategic focus on customer service, channel and product innovation. So that banks can ‘cross-sell’ their services. It is not a giant leap to suggest to a cash management client, that ‘oh by the way…we also offer supply chain.’

However, saying that a bank is now ‘customer-focused’ rather than product-focused, is very different from re-engineering decade’s old, legacy-heavy, enterprise-wide infrastructure that has been aligned along product lines.

Piecing together your old ‘product’ systems with some dodgy middleware, sticky tape and chewing gum, or moving your cash management guys to the same floor of the building as your trade finance gals – does not mean you are now operating in a serene, holistic, IT paradise (complete with angels and cotton candy.)

In 2013, most banks ‘want’ to combine their business under the neatly packaged ‘transaction banking’ umbrella – because of all the reasons cited including ‘better press’. (I mean who will admit, to the media, that their business is struggling to cope with changes in customer behaviour; with ageing systems that were probably built when people thought having a phone in your car was the height of innovation?)

But many banks are still struggling with real issues concerning complexity their IT environments. In fact 57 per cent of respondents, to the survey, said IT and system complexity is a hindrance. Any business within the bank, can offer cool, smart, innovative products – but if the infrastructure supporting them is, for lack of a better word…creaky, then the whole house of cards will fall apart.

Mobile channel development is a growing trend, with 45 per cent of banks ranking this a priority in the coming year, while 63 per cent said expanding self-service channels such as mobile would be part of their strategy over the next three years.

Conservative IT people – and let’s face it most bank IT people aren’t your young guns in hipster jeans and retro glasses (not that I’m saying that’s a bad thing) – tend to deal with innovation in terms of ‘products’. The digital revolution that has been going on around us, in the consumer world, is often seen in banking as a mobile revolution.

The questions that are being asked in innovation and development teams right now are:

• How do you get payments on the phone? 
• How do you engineer a ‘Wallet’ on the phone?
• How do you allow a corporate treasurer to authorise a payment on the phone?

This is the ‘mobile as a channel’ view of the world – which has led many banks to make the mistake of trying to shove the online banking experience into the mobile. (Or to shove the card onto the phone via NFC)

You should not think of mobile as a channel, but think of it as the channel. Whether you’re a retail customer or a corporate customer – you’re not looking for banking services ‘on a mobile’ you are looking for ‘mobile banking services.’ There’s a difference.

The cell phone, tablet or smart phone is merely the device of today.

According to last year’s Capgemini World Payments Report only two percent of mobile phone users have ever made a payment using their phone. Customers are not crying out for more apps – where they are moving towards is being able to access banking and payments services wherever they are.

It is people who are mobile. If your innovation strategy is bogged down with the device – it will move in the wrong direction.

That revolution in consumer banking is having an immediate impact on what corporate customers are demanding from their banks and how banks plan on focusing their investment in innovation.

Elizabeth Lumley is a global specialist commentator on services, regulations, risk, data and technology in investment, retail, and global transactional banking. She is an internationally recognised reporter, tweeter, blogger and broadcast journalist. Elizabeth Lumley is currently special projects editor at financial services newswire Finextra, based in London, where she is responsible for all the multi-media output.

The Journey of a Social Commuter

Today’s #TravelTuesday post comes from Mitchell Muro, Social Business Associate at Actiance.

The life of a commuter. For me, it really is a love-hate relationship. I’ve never been opposed to long distance automobile travel, as I’ve been commuting 30 minutes plus, daily ever since high school, and now I’m already one year out of college, still commuting to my second home here at Actiance. One thing I am grateful for is that I’m fortunate enough to have a carpool. I suggest taking this tactic for anyone who plans to commute 30+ minutes to work and you know for a fact, there’s going to be traffic…every morning! Finding my carpool is actually a funny story. About the second or third day on the job, I was going through orientation, meeting everybody and listening to presentations from my future colleagues as they taught me everything there was to know about the company. As I’m listening to a “Facebook Best-Practices” presentation given to me by none other than Actiance’s pride and joy, @VictorGaxiola, I see on his Facebook timeline, “Moved to Morgan Hill, California – 2008.” ARE YOU JOKING ME! I come to find out one of my colleagues (who has now grown to be one of my partners in crime), Victor, lives literally 5 minutes away from me in Morgan Hill. Coincidence? No, I think he’s followed me here. Okay, back to the topic.

As an experienced commuter, I’ve seen my share of absurd, enraged, and flat out ridiculous drivers, and even passengers! It might just be me, but there’s something absolutely hilarious about driving on the 101, relaxed, in traffic, listening to music on your way to work, when suddenly you look out of the window to your right, and see a grown man singing his heart out to @CarlyRaeJepsen’s #CallMeMaybe…although it did sound amazing. Jokes aside, I do appreciate how social commuting can actually be, physically as well as social-networkingly (yes, I made it up). Let me explain, on my 40-45 minute ride up to work with my colleague, we ALWAYS talk about random things – the latest trends on twitter, who won which #Oscars2013, how the weekend was, the new social network of the week, etc. It’s great to just relax and talk to someone freely before you arrive at work. If you think about it, the freeway/road is almost a social network of its own. One huge road successfully connecting everybody to their destination so they can see the people they need to see, as they communicate with other drivers on the road with hand gestures, car-blinkers, signals, etc.

This brings me to one of my favorite apps that should be on every commuter’s iPhone or android smartphone, because I know you have them! 

@WAZE (www.waze.com). The FREE GPS Navigation App with Turn by Turn, but that’s not all it is.Waze connects you to the largest community of drivers on the road, where you can share real-time traffic information with other users around you. This app can help you and others avoid traffic and give you road-alerts so you can get where you need to go faster and possibly keep you from getting that dreaded traffic ticket! One of my favorite parts of Waze it that it learns your routes as you drive them more often, so when traffic is up ahead, or someone has submitted a road alert, Waze will automatically give you a better route to take if possible. I wouldn’t leave home without this app on my iPhone, it’s such a cool idea and helps out tremendously, I recommend!

I think a lot of us look at the commute as a monotonous yet necessary chore and sometimes even take it for granted, we should transform that notion. I typically like to find the silver lining in things that seem rather dull and tedious. Rather than sit in traffic enraged, I challenge you to find something fun to do while on the road, find a way to contribute to the social commuter’s community. Maybe find a fellow commuter who is stuck in the same traffic you are, then wave and smile at them, make their day. Use your commute to get in the right mindset before you arrive at work or school. Think of the commute almost like a buffer that provides you that border, separating home from work.

Introducing Socialite for iPhone and iPod touch

Your smartphone is your right-hand man. It helps you do your banking, shopping, and socializing when you’re on the go.

By the end of 2013, there’ll be 1.4 billion smartphones and 286 million tablets actively in use around the world. (Source: ABI Research, via TechCrunch). With just shy of 7 billion people on the planet, that means at least 1 of every 5 of us has access to a constant stream of information from almost anywhere.

If you’re selling a product or building a brand, that’s also a constant stream of opportunity that can give you a competitive edge. But sometimes regulations, legal departments, or strict information governance policies can stand in your way. You need to post, tweet, and comment in a way that keeps you and your company out of trouble, and you need to do it from anywhere, any time.

That’s why we built the Socialite® Engage mobile app for iPhone® and iPod® touch.

Socialite® is already the best, most complete social networking compliance and engagement solution available. Now we’re making that experience even better with this free app, available today in the Apple App Store.* It’s a fast, intuitive, and convenient way to keep in touch with your Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter connections.

It gives you mobile access to great features like:

 Easy Content Publication

• Post to multiple networks right away or schedule posts for later, all from one place.
• Share pre-approved content from your organization’s library.
• Ensure the authenticity of your voice while remaining compliant.

Powerful Engagement

• View and interact with your consolidated newsfeed.
• Manage and follow key connections and their life events.
• Receive notifications of Comments, Likes, Retweets, and more.

So if you depend on your mobile devices to get things done, check out Socialite and the Socialite Engage mobile app.

It’s the best right-hand man your right-hand man will ever have.

*Requires a Socialite account provided by your organization. Your organization must be provisioned by Actiance to use the mobile app. For assistance with your login, contact your IT administrator or support help desk.