Since 1969, the banking industry has undergone tremendous changes. Banks have shattered their traditional functions and have been coming out with the new services to serve to the increasing needs of their customers. Enormous branch enlargement in the rural areas, utilization of savings and expansion of credit facilities to small-scale industrial and agricultural areas, other preferred sectors like export sector etc. have caused in widening the financial infrastructure and have transferred the major character of ‘class-banking’ into the ‘mass-banking’.
The recent trends are growing competition, reinforcing risk management systems, product branding, and emphasis on technology. Many safety features, such as advanced cryptography and biometrics, will effectively provide protection against the bank scams, and remote applications to perform banking operations without visiting a branch and this experience will prove to be more customer-friendly.
Blockchain Technology
Blockchain technology is all ready to renovate the banking and financial services. It disperses the financial management from a central authority to a vast network of computers. In this technology, the financial transactions are fragmented into ‘blocks’ which are converted into the computer code which is then encrypted to achieve enhanced Cybersecurity. With its high potential to improve numerous facets of banking, there is no doubt that Blockchain will change the face of the banking industry.
Chatbots
Various banks are now embracing AI (Artificial Intelligence) and deploying it across multiple business process functions whether it is front-end or back-end functions; which reduces the response time to the customers considerably. Chatbots and intelligent digital assistants with M2M (Machine-to-Machine) learning capabilities and self-learning concept are providing seamless customer interactions for many banks and players in the industry.
Upgraded ATMs
The concept of ATM was incepted in the bank-tech system in 1967. Since then, it has been undergoing various up-gradations serving the banking customers with the efficient and unique services. Furthermore, the next astounding revolt of ATMs is going to involve contactless payments with which one can easily perform contactless ATM transactions with a smartphone. Latest inventions like biometric authentication are already executed in India and iris recognition technology is implemented in UAE’s National Bank ATMs. This way, the technologies are uplifting the overall bank security by preventing ATM hacks.
Mobile & Digital Banking
The mobile and digital transformation in the banking space has just begun and its growth is explosive. Today, banks are investing largely in the digital banking technology, in which the customer can access the banking services through mobile, web, or digital platforms. According to a recent survey, around eighty-percent of banks indicated that these types of services show their top technology investments.
Partnerships
Irrespective of the banks’ high investment in technology, the fastest way to bring in the financial innovation is probably going to include strategic partnerships. The evolving companies that are undergoing a new wave of tech or social media platforms could create excellent partners for traditional banks which would boost the customer experience. Various marketing companies which involve in data analytics, is partnering with several financial institutions to influence secure purchase data r to tailor the marketing based on consumer’s use of the card.
Smart-Wearable
Smart-watches will probably bring the booming future for the retail banking experience, according to a recent survey.  For an instance, the banks could use the bluetooth beacons to push personal greetings to the customers’ smart-watches when they enter a banking location. Smart-glasses which is another unique wearable invented for the bank tellers would process customer banking information for the employee when they are busy performing other customer service tasks.
The trends in smart devices and consumer behavior are gearing the banking technology in the direction of convenience. The application of remote technologies will allow one to interact with the bank right from the palm of the hand. From dwelling over the email inbox to visiting a branch, one can expect to encounter a whole new transformed customer experience in the coming days.
The Rise of Non-Banking Organizations
With the advancements in the technology, banks are anticipating faster delivery methods as well as transparent experience to the customers. Nevertheless, a huge portion of their resources is essentially devoted for dealing with the security, compliance, and other industry-specific requirements, with which the non-banks or financial service providers to embellish the banking industry. The non-banking companies can contribute a larger percentage of their assets to the enactment of financial technology; as they might bring in rapid innovations than the traditional banks and might attract tech-savvy customers in the process.
Transcendent Future
Today, banking system is re-constructed with the information technology and it is obvious that the future of banking will offer more sophisticated services to its customers with the continuous product and process innovations. Implementation of strategies like strict prudential norms and higher capital standards, better risk management systems, reception of internationally accepted accounting practices and the increased disclosures as well as transparency will ensure the Indian Banking industry cope with other developed banking systems. The industry will further multiply its growth and complexity while being an important agent of the economic growth and combining different segments of the financial sector.
