The Acutely Digital Bank: Mechanisms for a New Reality

The new normal of financial services necessitates a broader understanding of what it means to be digital. Environmental changes continue unabated, and traditional business models are increasingly unable to cope. A critical element to digital effectiveness is an intentional organizational shift to make the business more digitally savvy. Most banks have started to transform their organizations to cope with digital challenges, but the market is moving slowly. Financial institutions need to adapt.

Digital transformation is not an easy proposition. The cultural and business model changes required for some institutions are daunting, and inertia always has a seat at the table. Without orienting the business toward digital, banks risk losing out to more agile and digitally adept competitors, both from other banks and from nonbank challengers.

In the report The Acutely Digital Bank: Mechanisms for a New Reality, Celent helps guide institutions looking to make their firms more digitally savvy. Celent provides examples of various mechanisms employed by institutions, as well as a proposed model for evolution.

“Banks will need to set clear goals in order to attain the desired outcomes because no one approach will work for all,” says Stephen Greer, an analyst with Celent’s Banking practice and author of the report. “Digital needs to be a fundamental part of the way banks view the industry, yet resistance to the idea that digital transformation is inevitable still clouds the decision-making of many institutions.”

This report looks at digital transformation in banking by outlining mechanisms to achieve this goal. Celent also offers a view into transformation by building a generic model for maturity.

This report contains 10 figures.