Latest news with #retailbanking
Finextra
2 days ago
- Business
- Finextra
Win-win banking: Unlocking value through advanced product, pricing, and billing
0 This content has been created by the Finextra editorial team with inputs from subject matter experts at the funding sponsor. In today's fast-moving and hyper-competitive retail banking ecosystem, product and pricing agility is no longer a luxury for financial institutions: it is now a necessity. Innovation-first challengers, evolving customer expectations, and regulatory pressures have forced banks to rethink how they design, price, and deliver products. Advanced product, pricing, and billing capabilities are crucial for modern retail banks to overcome complex product management challenges, rigid pricing, and fragmented billing. Optimised product management, dynamic pricing and centralised billing allows retail banks to rapidly design, price, and deliver innovative and hyper-personalised products at scale. The result is a win-win: banks gain agility, better revenue control, and growth opportunities, while customers receive relevant products at attractive prices, greater transparency, and better rewards. Evolving market demands Today's retail banking market demands agile, customer-centric solutions that prioritise personalisation, transparency, and flexibility. Looking to the future, these demands will intensify as digital-native customers expect seamless experiences, innovative offerings, and value-driven interactions. Hyper-personalisation and value: Today's customers expect financial products aligned with their unique financial goals and lifestyles - from low-fee student accounts to high-yield savings for young professionals. There is a strong demand for convenient, cost-saving bundled offerings such as mortgage and insurance packages or credit cards with travel rewards. Looking ahead, this trend will accelerate into hyper-personalised products, that leverage AI-driven insights to create bespoke solutions at a micro-segment or individual level. This could mean dynamic, usage-based bundles that adjust features or pricing in real-time based on customer behaviour. Dynamic and transparent pricing: Customers are increasingly demanding dynamic and transparent pricing with no hidden fees. They expect benefits like lower interest rates or waived fees that reward their overall relationship and loyalty. This push for relationship-based pricing considers factors such as account types, balances, relationship length, and activity. Looking ahead, AI will increasingly influence or drive pricing models making relationship-based pricing even more sophisticated by analysing predictive behaviours for hyper-personalised offers with real-time adjustments. Streamlined and flexible billing: There is a growing market demand for flexible billing options, including usage-based models and tiered services that reward customer engagement. Looking ahead, the expectation will evolve into seamless and transparent billing systems that integrate across all products, providing a single, real-time view of charges and rewards. Customers today and in the future value being rewarded for their loyalty. Banks are expected to deepen these relationships through effective cross-selling and bundling, tiered programmes offering premium services and attractive pricing, all aimed at encouraging customers to consolidate their financial services for better overall value. Why conventional capabilities fall short Banks today face a critical imperative: adapt to the demands of modern business needs. The reality is banks can no longer ignore critical capabilities that help them manage the intricate web of today's product management, dynamic pricing and offers, and diverse billing structures. The lack of these critical capabilities can create significant roadblocks. They cannot accommodate diverse contract structures and nuanced pricing models that are essential in a highly competitive market. This inflexibility directly impacts a bank's ability to innovate, respond to market shifts, and capitalise on evolving customer expectations. Rigid product management: Complex or hard-coded product definitions for loans or savings with distinct data structures pose significant challenges. Inconsistent product offerings can confuse customers and bank staff, while portfolio bloat from outdated or redundant products increases costs. Additionally, rigid systems with poor interoperability limit innovation by hindering experimentation with new features or integration with third-party partners or ecosystems. Complex or hard-coded product definitions for loans or savings with distinct data structures pose significant challenges. Inconsistent product offerings can confuse customers and bank staff, while portfolio bloat from outdated or redundant products increases costs. Additionally, rigid systems with poor interoperability limit innovation by hindering experimentation with new features or integration with third-party partners or ecosystems. Inflexible pricing structures: Inflexible pricing rules create rigid and inconsistent pricing models, making dynamic or personalised pricing challenging. Banks also struggle to tailor pricing to customer segments, behaviours, or overall lifetime value. Adjusting pricing to respond to market trends or competitor offerings is slow and complex. Inflexible pricing rules create rigid and inconsistent pricing models, making dynamic or personalised pricing challenging. Banks also struggle to tailor pricing to customer segments, behaviours, or overall lifetime value. Adjusting pricing to respond to market trends or competitor offerings is slow and complex. Inefficient and opaque billing processes: Siloed billing or applying inconsistent fee structures, complicated consolidated billing, and transparency. This leads to a negative customer experience or even attrition due to opaque or unexpected fees, eroding trust. Disparate systems also cause revenue leakage through difficulties in tracking and reconciling fees. The lack of a holistic view of customer activity prevents relationship-based billing. Reconciling billing data across systems is labour-intensive, increasing operational costs. Siloed billing or applying inconsistent fee structures, complicated consolidated billing, and transparency. This leads to a negative customer experience or even attrition due to opaque or unexpected fees, eroding trust. Disparate systems also cause revenue leakage through difficulties in tracking and reconciling fees. The lack of a holistic view of customer activity prevents relationship-based billing. Reconciling billing data across systems is labour-intensive, increasing operational costs. Scalability challenges: Traditional systems often lack the scalability to handle high transaction volumes or new product lines, leading to performance issues and downtime. Driving innovation with advanced product, pricing and billing capabilities Advanced product, pricing, and billing capabilities can help power innovation and future-proof a bank. Banks can roll out new and innovative products, promotions, or pricing models more rapidly without the need for extensive and time-consuming overhauls of their existing systems. Banks can create dynamic and compelling bundled offerings, significantly aiding customer acquisition and retention. These bundles can take various forms, including cross-product packages (e.g., mortgage, insurance, and loyalty programme), lifestyle-based bundles tailored to demographics (e.g., student accounts with travel rewards), tiered services for premium customers, and dynamic usage-based bundles that adjust based on customer activity. With the right pricing capabilities, banks can quickly adapt to market changes, customer demands, or regulatory requirements. Dynamic pricing strategies based on various factors like customer segments, behavioural patterns, or lifetime value help offer new value to customers and establish competitive advantages. Relationship pricing can be elevated with tiered programmes, product bundling that incentivises multi-product usage, and personalised offers. Streamlined billing helps banks eliminate revenue leakage. Integration with existing CRM, ERP, and accounting systems, helps provide a unified view of customer data and sales processes. With quote creation, pricing calculations, and offer management being automated, sales teams can dedicate time to close deals and manage customer relationships. This improves customer experiences and allows banks to adapt and scale. The data and AI advantage Key considerations when evaluating solutions with advanced product, pricing and billing capabilities include seamless integration with existing bank systems through robust APIs and data synchronisation. A well-defined data migration strategy for accurate and complete data transfer, supported by strong governance and security is essential. Solutions must also be highly scalable and performant to handle the bank's full transaction volume with low latency, while strictly adhering to all relevant compliance regulations. AI can help banks identify profitable segments, understand customer needs, and predict future behaviour, leading to the creation of more relevant and personalised products. For pricing, AI can facilitate dynamic strategies by analysing demand, competition, and customer willingness to pay. A win-win: What is in it for banks and customers? Faster time-to-market: Banks can roll out new products, promotions, or pricing models more rapidly. Personalisation: Advanced capabilities make it easier to implement dynamic, customer-specific pricing, or tailored billing models, enhancing customer experience and competitiveness. Flexibility and agility: Banks can quickly adapt pricing and billing structures to market changes, customer demands, or regulatory requirements. Improved portfolio analysis: Banks can collect and analyse granular data on pricing, billing, and product performance. Dynamic product adjustments: Banks can experiment with pricing models, bundling strategies, or new product features. Customer-centric optimisation: Banks can better align their product portfolio with customer needs by leveraging data to design personalised or segmented offerings. Streamlined rationalisation: Banks can rationalise and optimise complex product portfolios by reconfiguring or discontinuing products reducing costs and risks. Scalability: Solutions that scale across the banking enterprise can more easily handle increased volumes or new product lines. Innovation enablement: Easier integration can power innovation in product offerings and enable partnerships with fintechs or other third parties. A strategic imperative for the future Advanced product, pricing, and billing capabilities help banks move beyond a one-size-fits-all approach. Granular product definitions, flexible pricing, targeted offer creation, and precise billing help banks tailor offerings to specific customer segments' needs and preferences. In a digital-first world, where expectations are measured in milliseconds and loyalty is won through experience, such capabilities are not just an operational upgrade, it is a strategic imperative. Retail banks that embrace these capabilities are positioning themselves to thrive amid disruption. Those that do not risk being outpaced by nimble competitors who build with agility at their core. As customer expectations rise and the pace of innovation accelerates, banks must rethink what it means to be product-driven. The answer is data and dynamic personalisation. And advanced product, pricing and billing capabilities are how modern retail banks get there.
Bloomberg
3 days ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
HSBC Leads Charge as Banks Push UK to Soften Ring-Fencing Rules
The biggest UK lenders are pushing regulators to allow them each to use as much as £35 billion of their retail deposits to fund their investment banking activities, a move they say would put them on more level footing with the likes of JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. The charge is being led by HSBC Holdings Plc, according to people familiar with the matter. The proposal is being presented as a potential compromise in the ongoing row over the UK's ring-fencing regime, which since 2013 has forced the separation of the largest banks' UK retail businesses from the rest of their operations, the people said.
Zawya
3 days ago
- Business
- Zawya
PAObank Appoints Mr. Ronald Iu as Chief Executive and Executive Director
HONG KONG SAR - Media OutReach Newswire - 30 May 2025 - PAO Bank Limited ("PAObank") announces the appointment of Mr. Ronald Iu as Chief Executive and Executive Director of the Board. Mr. Iu will lead the management team of PAObank to further leverage advanced financial technology, expanding our presence in small and medium-sized enterprises ("SMEs") and retail banking, thereby creating greater value for our customers. Mr. Iu has over 20 years of solid experience in banking and finance. He held various leadership positions in global and local financial institutions, including China CITIC Bank International, Standard Chartered, PrimeCredit and GE Capital (HK). Prior to joining PAObank, Mr. Iu served as the Chief Executive of Airstar Bank and ZA Bank. His extensive experience spanning business management and strategies, risk management and product innovation has given him a deep understanding of customer needs and market trends, bringing unique insights and substantial experience in the development of digital banks. Mr. Ronald Iu said, "I look forward to working together with the management team and colleagues at PAObank to create better products and user experience for SMEs and individual customers. As PAObank marks its fifth year, we are embarking on the next phase of our business direction and strategy, placing more emphasis on retail banking services. PAObank strives to become 'the convenient wealth management digital bank' in everyone's mind, offering innovative financial solutions that are efficient, hassle-free and flexible. While continuing to offer competitive deposit interest rates as part of client rewards, we will expand into diversified financial services and products to fully develop our retail banking capabilities. Together with my team, we will continue to drive innovation to lead PAObank towards the next milestone." Looking ahead, PAObank will continue to be the reliable business partner of SMEs, and create better retail banking products and user experience for customers. By leveraging financial technology and ongoing innovation, PAObank will continue to support the development of digital banks in Hong Kong, serving customers in Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area. Hashtag: #PAObank #Appointment The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. PAO Bank Limited PAO Bank Limited ("PAObank"), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Lufax Holding Ltd ("Lufax") (SEHK: 6623; NYSE: LU) and a member of Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China, Ltd. ("Ping An") (SEHK: 2318; SSE: 601318), is committed to fostering financial inclusion and establishing a digital banking ecosystem by leveraging its extensive experience in SME banking services and its leading financial technology advantages. PAObank was granted a banking licence by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority in May 2019 to offer banking services via virtual channels. PAObank is expanding diverse business segments including retail banking and SME banking. PAO Bank
Malay Mail
3 days ago
- Business
- Malay Mail
PAObank Appoints Mr. Ronald Iu as Chief Executive and Executive Director
HONG KONG SAR - Media OutReach Newswire - 30 May 2025 - PAO Bank Limited ("PAObank") announces the appointment of Mr. Ronald Iu as Chief Executive and Executive Director of the Board. Mr. Iu will lead the management team of PAObank to further leverage advanced financial technology, expanding our presence in small and medium-sized enterprises ("SMEs") and retail banking, thereby creating greater value for our Iu has over 20 years of solid experience in banking and finance. He held various leadership positions in global and local financial institutions, including China CITIC Bank International, Standard Chartered, PrimeCredit and GE Capital (HK). Prior to joining PAObank, Mr. Iu served as the Chief Executive of Airstar Bank and ZA Bank. His extensive experience spanning business management and strategies, risk management and product innovation has given him a deep understanding of customer needs and market trends, bringing unique insights and substantial experience in the development of digital "I look forward to working together with the management team and colleagues at PAObank to create better products and user experience for SMEs and individual customers. As PAObank marks its fifth year, we are embarking on the next phase of our business direction and strategy, placing more emphasis on retail banking services. PAObank strives to become 'the convenient wealth management digital bank' in everyone's mind, offering innovative financial solutions that are efficient, hassle-free and flexible. While continuing to offer competitive deposit interest rates as part of client rewards, we will expand into diversified financial services and products to fully develop our retail banking capabilities. Together with my team, we will continue to drive innovation to lead PAObank towards the next milestone."Looking ahead, PAObank will continue to be the reliable business partner of SMEs, and create better retail banking products and user experience for customers. By leveraging financial technology and ongoing innovation, PAObank will continue to support the development of digital banks in Hong Kong, serving customers in Hong Kong and the Greater Bay #PAObank #Appointment The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. PAO Bank Limited PAO Bank Limited ("PAObank"), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Lufax Holding Ltd ("Lufax") (SEHK: 6623; NYSE: LU) and a member of Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China, Ltd. ("Ping An") (SEHK: 2318; SSE: 601318), is committed to fostering financial inclusion and establishing a digital banking ecosystem by leveraging its extensive experience in SME banking services and its leading financial technology advantages. PAObank was granted a banking licence by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority in May 2019 to offer banking services via virtual channels. PAObank is expanding diverse business segments including retail banking and SME banking.
Finextra
16-05-2025
- Business
- Finextra
Originations, evolved: Blending digital and banker touch for modern retail banking
0 This content has been created by the Finextra editorial team with inputs from subject matter experts at the funding sponsor. Retail banks stand at a crossroads. To win the trust and loyalty of next-gen customers, they must transform onboarding and origination into a seamless, customer-centric journey that balances digital convenience with human expertise. The time to act is now: those who prioritise the customer will lead the future of retail banking. Winning next-gen customers involves offering onboarding and origination that delivers seamless, proactive customer-centric experiences by blending the convenience of digital self-service with the expertise of banker engagement. Further, these digitally-enabled self-service and human assisted capabilities must be powered by automated data capture and propagation, rapid processing and decision-making to reduce drop-offs, transparency throughout the application lifecycle, and regulatory compliance – efficiently and at scale. Alongside this, with AI being increasingly leveraged in all areas of business, banks must also consider leveraging subsets such as machine learning and generative AI for use cases embedded within processes and workflows to offer insights, predict outcomes, and enhance decision-making. Banks need to integrate technology in a smart way to offer fast, frictionless, and personalised origination journeys that meet modern customer expectations and operational needs. The rise of the 'You Ought to Know' customer The era of 'instant service' as a differentiator is over; it is now table stakes. Today's competitive banking environment demands a shift beyond just responding to immediate requests. The new imperative is 'you ought to know' -leveraging data and insights to proactively anticipate customer needs and deliver hyper-personalised experiences that are digital-first and convenient. While digital self-service options are valued, customers still expect personalised guidance when navigating complex financial decisions and seamless engagement across multiple channels – and that's online, mobile and in-person. Financial institutions must evolve to understanding prioritise understanding customers' individual needs and wants and offer tailored financial products and advice that align to these unique requirements. Proactive solutions are the future, and in addition to consistent and convenient engagement across different channels, decision-making needs to be fast, processing, automated, and paperwork, minimal. Whether through self-service or with assistance, today's banking customers expect proactive engagement with clear, real-time visibility that goes beyond real-time updates. Accustomed to instant notifications, they now anticipate their banks will proactively provide relevant information and insights. Furthermore, this expectation of proactive support extends to human interactions, where customers seek knowledgeable representatives who anticipate their needs and offer solutions before being explicitly asked. All of this requires a seamless customer-centric origination journey that blends the efficiency of digital self-service with the expertise of banker engagement, all while ensuring speed, transparency, regulatory compliance, and scalability. What a seamless customer-centric origination journey looks like From a retail banking customer's experience, a seamless origination journey is fast, smooth, effortless, and consistent. The journey should have these characteristics from initial awareness to final purchase or registration. Friction must be minimised at every touchpoint – digital or assisted – and only relevant information must be provided at each stage to deliver high-conversion origination journeys. Digital self-service: Customers expect origination journeys to be effortless and on their terms. Intuitive, mobile-first platforms are no longer a luxury but a necessity, allowing them to apply for accounts, loans, or credit cards whenever and wherever they choose. Human assisted: While digital tools offer convenience, customers often value the reassurance and expertise of a human touch, especially for complex products or significant financial decisions. They might begin an application online but appreciate the option to easily connect with a banker for clarification on intricate mortgage details or investment choices. Recognising that today's banking customers expect proactive engagement that anticipates their needs, a truly seamless origination journey must hinge on a fluid interplay between digital self-service and banker-assisted engagement. Customers expect the convenience of initiating applications anytime, anywhere through intuitive online and mobile platforms. However, for complex queries or when seeking personalised advice, a frictionless transition to knowledgeable human support that proactively offers relevant insights and solutions via channels like video calls or live chat is paramount. This synergy, where digital tools empower initial steps with anticipatory insights and human expertise provides tailored guidance that pre-empts customer concerns without requiring customers to restart their journey, builds trust, enhances efficiency, and drives successful originations. To achieve this, banks must focus on five critical capabilities, as detailed below: Five pillars of seamless origination Omnichannel integration: Banks must ensure a smooth and consistent experience across all channels (online, mobile, in-branch, phone, etc.), allowing customers to start in one channel and seamlessly continue in another without losing progress or having to repeat information. Personalisation at scale: Banks can leverage machine learning to segment customers, personalise product offers, and predict optimal times for outreach, as well as use generative AI to analyse applications, compare scenarios, and suggest tailored recommendations in real-time. Automated data capture and propagation: Banks can leverage existing customer data to pre-fill forms with optical character recognition (OCR) and natural language processing (NLP) in an automated manner, and so customers are not asked for the same information twice. Real-time decisioning and processing: Banks can reduce turnaround time with AI-powered credit scoring and automated underwriting, which in turn, will reduce drop-offs and improve customer satisfaction. Transparency and control: Banks can allow customers to feel in control of their origination journey by providing real-time status updates, proactive notifications, and digital tracking tools. The role of AI and automation in reducing drop-offs Expanding on the benefits of AI and its subsets, there are ample opportunities for banks to adopt technology to reduce drop-offs and improve conversion. Using the lending market as an example, machine learning can help segment customers and tailor loan offers to customer profiles. This will boost conversion through personalisation, as discussed. However, the introduction of generative AI has the potential to transform the origination journey. Again, using the lending market as an example, this form of AI can support qualitative analysis of a loan application. By speeding up holistic application reviews, minimising delays and in turn, approvals – customers are not exposed to uncertainties for a long period of time. Generative AI can also help banks optimise loan terms by comparing applications, lowering abandonment, and improving acceptance. Further, with loan application tracking, transparency is enhanced with real-time updates and encourages completion. If these elements are operating as automated as they should, customers should not need to speak to a customer service representative. Measuring what matters What does success look like? What are the key metrics that banks should use to measure the success of onboarding and origination? By considering metrics, insights into the efficiency and effectiveness of the process can translate into future improvements and increased client satisfaction. Here are key metrics that can help inform future innovation and progress: Percentage of customers who successfully complete the onboarding or origination process. Average time taken from initiating to completing the onboarding or origination process. Percentage of customers abandoning the process at specific stages. Average operational cost to onboard a single customer or originate a product. The higher the percentages are and the lower the average time to first value is, banks can use these metrics to measure how quickly new clients experience the bank's services, as well as reveal potential bottlenecks and areas for improvement. Scaling with confidence By strategically blending digital efficiency with the indispensable human touch, banks can transform and scale their origination processes with unprecedented confidence and deliver meaningful proactive engagement. Prioritising customer trust, operational resilience, and continuous technological innovation fuels this evolution. Seamless omnichannel integration ensures a consistent customer journey across all touchpoints. Scalable personalisation with AI delivers tailored offers and real-time recommendations. Automated data capture using OCR/NLP minimises effort and repeated requests. AI-powered real-time decisioning accelerates processing and improves satisfaction. Transparency and control through updates and tracking empower customers, Alongside this, by minimising repetitive tasks, delays and miscommunication, and proactively meeting customer needs, banks can create a 'click-to-close' origination experience that meets demands for proactive engagement with speed, transparency, and personalisation.
