Banks’ technological change accelerates with pandemic | Business | The sun

This means businesses can focus on spending, careers and housing with young clients, but gradually investing and teaching them how to set financial goals.

Banks are juggling technology during or before the epidemic.

According to a November study of more than 47,800 global banking customers – including 2,000 Canadians – only 15% of them made bank video calls before COVID-19.

Today, 46% say they use video calls when branches reopen, and 35% prefer a face-to-face meeting.

Banks may have a reputation in the old fashioned way, but MM. Khalfan and Thomas are of the opinion that the pandemic will continue and grow rapidly.

They found that due to the epidemic the banks had already increased the proliferation of technology beyond their actual time limit, which quickly persuaded reluctant bankers to get out of their beds or bring them to life. Convenient with video calls and messaging bots.

Banks have seen competitors – WealthSimple, Coho and Mogo – come close to them with sophisticated apps and big millennial customer bases, which they have commented on as a signal to leap into innovation. .

Not human touch

Confidence in the digital rush emerges as a potential obstacle. The Accenture study showed that this migration “exacerbated the long-term trend before COVID-19 of declining consumer confidence”.

Only 34% of Canadians say they trust banks to ensure their long-term financial well-being, compared to 47% two years ago.

But Mr Kachen is not saying: “I believe the digital relationship does not impede trust in any way.” Instead, he believes technology will boost confidence because it will make it faster and easier to get expert support.

“In a traditional investment relationship where a client has a financial advisor, that consultant may have as many as 200 clients, and the first 20 clients in that advisory book represent 80% of his income,” he says.

“In a crisis, they spend 99% of their time on these top 20 customers, so all we can do is communicate with customers instantly via email, with our message, with webinars.”

Despite having a large number of customers, Thomas insisted that the human touch was not going away. “It is very important to allow people to choose how they want to do their banking with us.”