The 5 Hottest Technologies In Banking For 2021>
Forbes – Ron Shevlin
In Cornerstoneâs Whatâs Going On in Banking 2021 study, the top five technologies for 2021 are: 1) Digital account opening; 2) Application programming interfaces (APIs); 3) Video collaboration; 4) P2P payments; and 5) Cloud computing.
1) Digital Account Opening Nearly halfâ44%âof banks and a quarter of credit unions expect to add a new or replacement consumer digital account opening system in 2021.
2) Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) APIs jumps from the #5 spot last year to #2 on the list for 2021, with roughly one in four institutions planning new investments.
About half of credit unions have developed or invested in APIs prior to this year, and banks are finally catching up. Going into 2021, only 30% of banks had deployed APIs, but thatâs up from the 21% that had done so going into 2020.
3) Video Collaboration One in four financial institutions are planning to invest for the first time in this technology in 2021. Going into 2020, only 20% of banks and credit unions had already deployed these toolsâheading into 2021, that percentage is roughly 30%.
The problem to solve: Without good video collaboration tools, itâs been hard for consumers to find the right person to talk to, and then actually interact (if and) when they do find the right person.
4) Person-to-Person (P2P) Payments For 2021, about a quarter of banks and a fifth of credit unions expect to select a new or replacement P2P tool. Thatâs down from the roughly 30% who expected to deploy one in 2020, which, in turn, was down from the 35% who planned to do so in 2019.
Bottom line: P2P payments isnât a winner-take-all game. Consumers use different apps depending on who theyâre paying or getting paid by. Protecting the current B2C payment revenue stream (i.e., interchange fees) may be one reason for banks to focus on driving up their revenue-less P2P volume, but the interchange flow is being attacked from multiple angles.
5) Cloud Computing The percentage of banks that have deployed cloud computing increased significantly in 2020, going from 32% at the end of 2019 to 40% at the end of 2020. Half of credit unions are already there.
What About Artificial Intelligence (AI)? For all the hype surrounding AI-based technologies like chatbots, machine learning, and robotic process automation, few financial institutions beyond the 25 largest are doing much with these tools.
Cornerstoneâs consumer research has found that roughly 15% of Americans hold some form of cryptocurrency like Bitcoin. But that was three months ago.
The answer is ânot yet,â but there is some movement here. Although just 2% of banks and credit unions said they were âveryâ interested in fintech partnerships that provide cryptocurrency investing services, about one in five said that theyâre âsomewhatâ interested.
Link: https://www.forbes.com/sites/ronshevlin/2021/01/18/the-5-hottest-technologies-in-banking-for-2021/?sh=3984134a35c4