From personalisation to virtualisation: tomorrow’s banking is here today

Checking out this morning’s news , I discovered this new innovation from Wells Fargo where you can get
personalised ATM messages.

The new ATMs include customised screens based on customer
preferences and “favourites” that are highlighted on the screen based on the
personal usage of ATM’s by the customer. 
There’s also a tool called “ATM Cash Tracker”, which allows customers to
visually track their monthly withdrawals and appears on the main screen automatically.
The tool allows customers to set a monthly withdrawal target and view details
about how much they withdrew the prior month and their average over the past 12
months.

The new interface has been introduced on more than 500 machines
across several states and will make its way onto all 12,000 Wells Fargo ATMs by
May.

Interesting.

It made me think about the fact that we have discussed
personalisation in finance for over two decades and are now finally delivering.

From personalised ATMs to personal financial management.

Fantastic.

In fact, real innovation leadership can be seen at the other
extreme in Alior Bank, Poland.

Alior Bank launched just over four years ago – the formal
launch was in November 2008– with the aim to gain market share of 2-4 percent of the retail banking sector
in Poland and win the business of one million customers. 

By November 2012, the bank had more than achieved these
aims:

• 4.0% market share in mortgages (new volumes), 3.2%
  in consumer loans and 3.8% in current accounts;
• It has 1.4 million clients and is the #1 bank by
  new client acquisition
• The Bank achieved break-even in just 22 months

Checkout their management briefing for more, as this bank’s story is something 
else.

The IPO went well.

The shares were issued at 57 zlotys and rose to as much as 61.80 zlotys before falling back to close at 60.90 zlotys – up 6.84 per cent on the day.  Today, they are trading at over 70 zlotys, and the IPO proved to be the largest IPO by a private company on the
Warsaw Stock Exchange ever!

One of the keys to Alior’s success is their virtual bank
offer, which recently beat Barclaycard Ring and FIDOR Bank to the BAI’s
innovative banking disruption of the year.

Here’s what the BAI said about it:

With the launch of Alior Sync brand, Alior Bank is changing banking
services in Poland.

Alior Sync is the first fully virtual bank and offers new
standards of innovation in customer service, as well as a modern means of communication
with the customer.

The Bank is a fully virtual, 24/7 branch with a complete variety
of contact options including video conversations and video chats. The Virtual Branch
is not only about conversation or advice, as customers can buy products and
request consultants to complete application forms for them when necessary. The
forms are displayed on screen as they are processed, so the customer can easily
follow the progress of the application. The processes involved in offerings and
sales of products and services such as deposit and credits are fully on
line.  In the case of credit based
products, this is the first such implementation in Poland.

Alior Sync’s customers have the opportunity to use the
social network channel, such as using Facebook to transfer money. There are
dedicated mobile applications for that, available at the Apple App Store and
Google Play. These apps provide full accessibility and integration of the bank’s
services through smartphone devices.

• Mobile applications offer a number of additional
  features:
• look up of personal saving status by shaking the
  smartphone,
• quick domestic transfers (also instant
  transfers) via mobile,
• money transfers with the use of the camera on a smartphone
  (by simply taking a photo of an invoice),
• OCR or bar code identification.

Apart from these banking solutions, Alior Sync customers
also have access to non-banking goods.

The entertainment zone offers free music, movies, and cinema
tickets. Moreover, you can buy the best smartphones, vacations and other
products here with a special discount and 0% APR instalment plan.

Alior Sync is a comprehensive approach to incorporating the
most modern technologies and devices for the bank’s target customers between
the ages of 20 and 35.

It just goes to show that from personalisation to virtualisation,
the bank of tomorrow is here today.  I’ll
expand this theme shortly by looking at the third factor in banking today:
socialisation.