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Location
London
Member since
2011
Reads
StGilesResident Blog on Tumblr Bank Marketing Strategy Searching Finance Financial Services Club Blog
Writes about
Retail banking

Alex's blog archive

2018 (2) 2017 (2) 2016 (3) 2015 (1) 2014 (3) 2013 (8) 2012 (4)
Alex Bray

Alex Bray

AVP, Omni-Channel Acquisition & Servicing at Genpact
Message Message me Posts: 23 Comments: 4
Bio Omni-channel banking expert at Genpact. Career History Prior to Genpact, worked at Misys as global director of retail channels, at IBM as a Managing Consultant in the Digital Banking practice and I spent 10 years at Lloyds Bank.

Blogs

Trends in Financial Services

Outside-in - The Key to Customer Onboarding

29 Jun 2018

The giants of ecommerce have brought about the most radical change in how the world works since the industrial revolution. Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Alphabet, PayPal, and so on have transformed the way businesses and consumers interact. Consumers today are increasingly leading digital lives, with access to technology and information to help them ma...

Digital Banking Trends

Is Monzo’s new IFTTT service the Initial Operational Test for IOT in banks?

12 Jun 2018

Monzo, the British neobank, this week announced an integration with one of the world’s largest automation platforms, IFTTT. Their objective is to give customers the freedom to build their own integrated services, bringing together their devices, apps and financial data. For example, customers will be able to reward themselves every time they visi...

4

Futuristic Banking

Are there branches in the Star Trek universe?

27 Mar 2017

The big news in U.K. retail banking last week was that the Royal Bank of Scotland is planning to close another 158 branches. The bank states that basic transactions have fallen by 43% in 7 years. Yet again, this announcement throws into relief the old discussion about the place of the branch in an omnichannel world. There's been much written on bo...

1

Innovation in Financial Services

Skinny and cuddly? How can your omni-channel experience be lean and customer-centric?

06 Jan 2017

As we leave the Christmas season behind, my mind has turned to the inevitable thought of dieting. It is sad and depressing. As ever, I want to eat more and still obtain the perfect physique (which is a long way off!). It is the same in the omnichannel world. Gartner has estimated that by 2017, 50% of consumer product investments will be redirected...

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Alex is Commenting on

Is Monzo’s new IFTTT service the Initial Operational Test for IOT in banks?

  The full list is on the IFTTT website. https://ifttt.com/search/categories/Finance%20&%20payments - I think Monzo is the first retail bank on the list.

13 Jun 2018 Reply Read article

20 Dollar Smartphone - what does it mean for mobile banking?

  Hi Andrei - great to hear from you - and thanks for the comment! I agree that many users of $20 smartphones will be on low incomes. However, I believe that there are certainly benefits to banks. First of all is the revenue from money transmission. Banks have been disintermediated by telcos and have lost this revenue, which they can now win back. It also leaves them less exposed to USSD service providers. Further to this, you make a point that mobile banking apps do not offer revenue generation opportunities. Without mentioning brand names (!), some leading products do offer product sales via mobile. There are a number of 'one-touch' sales processes which can be rendered very effectively on mobile devices - e.g. credit cards, overdrafts, insurance etc. Based on the feedback I have had from banks in a number of markets, there is huge interest in growing mobile banking volumes. I believe that the $20 smartphone will move customers off featurephones and will lead to the demise of USSD, SMS and browser based mobile banking - as well as opening up mobile banking to entirely new users. However, I would love to hear more opinions...

01 Aug 2014 Reply Read article

Multi-channel banking strategies are failing to convince - CEB TowerGroup

  I think this research is extremely timely. To paraphrase a line I used in a white paper on multi-channel banking in 2011, trying to deliver a multi-channel experience across all channels and processes is like eating an elephant in one bite. Banks need to break it down into small pieces. They also need to be more focussed on value. Why are they enabling a specific customer journey to be multi-channel? Mortgage applications are a great example of a process ripe for multi-channel enablement. They are high value transactions which run over a period of weeks. We know customers will want advice and to be able to track the progress of their application. They may want to do this on the phone, in a branch or over the internet. That means that multi-channel enabling long running sales processes like this is very sensible. Not only will a mortgage sale be made – but a relationship will be deepened. Buying a house could not be more important to a customer. Providing a good experience at this time is critical. So in this case, the cost of multi-channel would be justifiable. However, a bank should not multi-channel enable a process when the benefits case doesn’t stack up. Multi-channel enabling low value sales and transactions will increase costs for a bank without providing a meaningful return. Nor should multi-channel strategies distract from the fact that most customer needs should be fulfilled with a single touch. Most non-sales transactions and many sales process should not require to be multi-channel enabled at all. Instead banks should focus on making it easier for a customer to complete their transaction without needing to move channels. Multi-channel banking is still an important goal for banks – but it should be implemented judiciously, where it will add value.  

14 Sep 2013 Reply Read article

Augmented Reality in FS - got your goggles?

  Thanks for the comment! I guess the main benefit of Glass over a smartphone or tablet when it comes to AR is that it is hands free. I think that makes the experience more seamless - and by extension more pervasive. With regards to Glass on top of glasses - as a spectacle wearer myself, I was encouraged by these pictures of glasses wearers using Glass. (Apologies for the odd name of this Tumblr blog). http://whitemenwearinggoogleglass.tumblr.com/

03 May 2013 Reply Read article