Model Bank 2017: Small Business and Corporate Digital Innovation Themes

This is the fifth article in a weekly series highlighting trends and themes from Celent’s Model Bank submission process. For more information on how the Model Bank Awards have evolved, see the first two pieces from Dan Latimore and Zil Bareisis. This particular article is focused on innovations in small business and corporate banking: two critical market segments for financial institutions as they seek revenue growth and relevance in the evolving digital B2B marketplace.

When evaluating this year’s Model Bank submissions that are targeted at small business and corporate clients, we identified a number of excellent initiatives in each of the five overall categories:

Customer Experience

Products

Operations and Risk

Legacy Transformation / IT Platform Innovations

Emerging Innovation

For these two segments, the Model Bank award candidates come from Europe, North America, the Caribbean, Asia Pacific and the Middle East. Despite the wide geographic spread of the submissions we received, certain common themes became evident that are important to highlight,

Enhancing client experience is paramount: Banks are intensely focused on how to deliver solutions to clients in ways that are convenient and easy to use in order to meet the emerging expectations of business users based on their consumer experiences with technology. Creating a consolidated point of access for all corporate banking services using portal technology that eliminates the need for multiple logins and security procedures was just one of the types of initiatives that were submitted. Mobile and tablet access are becoming mainstream channels for employees of business and corporate clients to effectively manage their daily workload no matter where they might be located.

Improving digital channels is not enough to succeed: The initiatives that demonstrate significant quantifiable benefits to banks and clients are those that address the inefficiencies in the way that bank employees interact with their clients but also involve the elimination of paper-intense, manual workflows both for the client and the bank. From the use of videoconferencing technology to access experts in trade finance for advisory services to the replacement of faxed instructions with digitally signed transactions initiated on mobile phones, banks are finding innovative ways to contribute to their own efficiency while also improving client productivity. Another critical element of the digitization of these processes is speed. Automation enables faster decisions (for example for credit approval) and this provides business with a superior service and the ability to manage their businesses rather than managing their banking relationships. These initiatives drive revenue growth and loyalty because the bank’s services provide quantifiable benefits to clients that are seeking to leverage technology advances in order to more effective manage their working capital.

Reinvention in Small Business Banking: I was struck by several of the initiatives that represent an entirely new way of thinking about how to enable entrepreneurs and small business owners to succeed. Rather than tweaking traditional banking solutions that are designed for consumers or larger businesses, several of the banks submitted initiatives that reflect an entirely different way of meeting the needs of small business clients. Recognizing that the needs of entrepreneurs and start-ups fall well beyond the services that a bank traditionally offers (i.e. credit, payments, cash management), a few innovative banks have attempted to reinvent business banking by offering a complete, integrated package that combines traditional banking activities with non-banking services that extend beyond even the adjacent types of solutions that banks typically make available through partnerships (e.g. payroll services). The goal of these packages is to offer a business owner every piece of business functionality and technology they would need to grow their business. What makes these solutions especially impactful is that they are designed from a business owner’s perspective and don’t reflect a bank-centric view of how the client should manage their business.

I hope this brief description whets your appetite for more discussion on our award winners in small business and corporate banking at the 10^th annual Innovation and Insight Day on April 4^th in Boston. I look forward to seeing you there.