HOW TECHNOLOGY HAS CHANGED THE FACE OF THE BANKING INDUSTRY

Global economy is expected to expand 5.6%, but will be uneven, vaccines are critical: World Bank
Global economy is expected to expand 5.6%, but will be uneven, vaccines are critical: World Bank

You may not have even noticed a change to your bank, and the shifts that they are taking. The money and time that they have spent to meet your demands has, more than likely, not given you any reason to even pause while completing your banking needs. You have probably noticed the growth of the neobanks, and the online based companies that have been flooding the market. Maybe you even opened an account with one of them.

Statista states that 1.9 billion people across the globe use online banking in one way or another. One main shift that the industry has seen in the last few years has been moving away from basic online banking to mobile applications. Everywhere that you look you can see people with some form of mobile device in their hands.

There are many ways that technology has changed the face of banking. Far too many than can be covered in this short article. There are five top ways, though, which we will cover next.

  1. Customer Service-You would not think that online services would require any type of customer help, besides for the occasional chat with the bot on the site. This can not be farther from the truth. Customer service is the number one way that companies gain, and retain, their customers. Every bank, or neobank, has a page that lists how to contact them directly if you are not able to do so through the chat bot feature.
  2. The World-The world is at your disposal. You can transfer money across the globe in the blink of an eye. You can add funds from one account into another. You can order checks if you even use them anymore. You can open new accounts, or close old ones. Loans are available with a few questions answered, and a computer acknowledgement sent to you from an AI brain. Business loans are a snap to apply for, and get, with the lending institution that manages your accounts. You no longer must stand in long lines waiting to make a deposit. You can withdraw money from your account anywhere in the world that has a bank machine that accepts your card.
  3. Errors-Humans make errors. It does not matter how much we pay attention. Counting money twice is not always a guarantee that the amount is correct. Have you ever gone through the drive-up window and realized when you got home that you had been given an extra twenty-dollar bill? Most of us have at one time seen a mistake made. Computer technology, along with devices and machines that work through the main system, decrease the mistakes made by a substantial amount. If you do happen to get an extra bill in your withdrawal the bank can do some simple checks to find out why their registers are off for the day.
  4. Data Protection-The shift to online banking has raised concern for data security. State of the art software makes it virtually impossible for a common hacker to gain access to your information. Programs linked to the accounts monitor and search for breaches and will stop them before they get started.

The future of the banking industry will be dependent on their ability to offer all their current services online. Society is pushing all the financial institutions to update their services so they can complete all their transactions through the internet. The older generation has shifted towards this form of banking to ensure that they do not get sick through the covid-19 pandemic, and its variants. The younger generation is pushing for technological advances in all fields that allow them to do everything online.