‘Personalisation of banking services: a long way to go’

It’s all about offering solutions for a customer by understanding his or her financial journey and the situation at a particular time. It’s when a bank is able to embed its services into the life moment of its customer, says Riddhi Dutta.

There was a time when we had to visit a bank to make any financial transaction. To send money to someone, we needed a demand draft, and to get that, we had to make at least a couple of visits to the bank over two or three days.

Banking operations have become a lot easier now. In 2022, India topped the world with 89.5 million transactions, 46% of global real-time payments, according to MyGovIndia.

However, considering that we have had online banking for nearly three decades, is the banking sector yet to realise the full potential of digitisation? E-commerce, social media, and food delivery platforms offer us high levels of personalisation. In comparison, is the banking sector lagging behind?

IDC’s recently released Asia Pacific-focused report highlights the disconnect between banks and customers. For example, without a unified system, customers often have to fill in the same information for different services of the same bank. Also, it is a challenge to access multiple services through disparate interfaces.

One of the fintech companies that specialises in the personalisation of banking services is Backbase. Its Engagement Banking Platform helps banks to accelerate their digital transformation.

Set up in 2003 in Amsterdam, Backbase is working with more than 150 banks and financial institutions in more than 40 countries, including India, where it is looking to expanding its presence.

The Hindu spoke to Riddhi Dutta, Regional Vice President, Asia, of Backbase, on the personalisation of banking, its benefits for customers, challenges for banks and the way forward for them. Excerpts: