Day two of the SBS Summit 2025 continued to prioritise customer experience, but this time with a specific focus on data usage and inclusive efforts to serve the unbanked.
This began with a talk from Valmina Prezani, head of product, digital core, SBS and Dana Lunberry, head of data, analytics and AI, SBS. Comparing data’s evolution to the story of Cinderella, Lunberry said: "Cinderella is up there in the attic doing all the work, and no-one’s paying attention. Suddenly, Cinderella is the belle of the ball. Everybody is talking about data. Everybody recognises the value of data, because data is the foundation for AI. Data is the foundation for unlocking all the objectives that you want to get out of your business."
Accompanying this fact, both agreed, is the need to rethink banking models, including a modern strategy that emphasises greater flexibility, and the integration of ethical and responsible AI. The requirements for this future are undeniably changed and, according to SBS, the applications of quality data should be focused on fraud management, financial wellbeing, customer service, instant credit decisioning, offer personalisation and product profitability. All of which are core to the platform they displayed during this talk.
Seamless origination and tailored segmentation
The remaining morning talks focused on how the integration of data into the KYC process enables both time-saving and cost-saving from avoiding customer losses. Nicholas de Genot de Nieukerken, product management lead, open banking, SBS, talked about how open banking data can create better experiences via integration into unexpected apps, similar to Klarna on AirBnb, Revolut with investment integrations and Visa and its petrol paying collaboration with Mercedes.
Speakers Yann Metz-Pasquier, CSO, general manager, digital banking, SBS and Shalien Kishore, head of product design, SBS, later followed this up by discussing the inherent benefits of using data in this way. Pasquier mentioned that in his home country of Sweden, the digital giant Amazon is not so giant, because the Swedish commerce opportunities have long offered similar speeds of experience and personalisation. Central to this, Metz-Pasquier said, is the strategic use of data and embedded finance.
Kishore splits personalisation into 4 levels:
- Usability (responsive browsers, adaptive layouts),
- Segmented personalisation (demographics, location),
- Behavioural personalisation (recommendations and offers based on previous user actions or transactions), and
- Contextual personalisation (tailored content, dynamic recommendations across time of day, location).
Ignoring the profitable: miseducations around regulatory change and financial inclusion
Similar to the way that data had previously been ignored, the afternoon focus more centrally on some of the fundamental areas that many in the industry have viewed pessimistically: regulation and financial inclusion.
Sebastian Polese, general manager, reporting and risk, SBS and Camil Bennani Smires, general manager, amplitude core, SBS set out some facts they labelled alarming: $200m in annual costs for regulatory reporting compliance in 2025 for large banks and 5x the number of reports submitted in 2025 vs 2015.
These, Bennani Smires said, were often complex and cumbersome and continued to create key tensions in the industry towards regulators. Polese and Bennani Smires were more optimistic, however, and believed that these numbers can instead be seen as an investment into the much-needed evolution of the banking sector.
With data points drastically increasing, the pair starkly warned that every bank must evolve its regulatory reporting to survive. Ending this session, a slide read "reporting isn’t the end of the process, it is the start of smarter decisions" and Bennai Smires bookended this by re-emphasising that this work and investment is not optional, but rather the only way to survive.
In a refreshing and informative selection of curated speeches, Neetu Wadia, CMO and global head of alliances and partnerships, SBS returned to the stage joined by Louise Barton, head of landlord, mortgage and financial wellbeing operations, Nationwide Building Society; Caroline Edwards, financial wellbeing lead, NatWest Group and Axelle Lemaire, head of corporate responsibility and sustainability, Sopra Steria.
The core of this discussion was the importance of increasing spending and attention on the unbanked and those with limited financial access and literacy. Addressing the scope, Wadia said 1.4 billion was the number of adults in the world who are unbanked, split across those on low income, with disabilities, those struggling with addiction, with mental health struggles and those in more rural areas. Barton added to this by describing the statistic that only 34% of adults globally reached the minimum target for financial literacy.
Edwards said that the UK was the sixth largest economy in the world, with some of the largest banks, but nearly half of the UK does not feel confident managing their money. Lemaire discussed her experience as a politician who made digital accessibility mandatory, also clarifying that, amongst the unbanked, most are women.
Each speaker described the various efforts their organisation is prioritising to solve for many of these issues, from free workshops to educational programmes and greater platform accessibility tools, like BSL translations. As part of these talks, each emphasised that it is not just a human effort, but an essential business activity: Edwards said that £2 billion is lost per month on ignoring these unbanked customers.
Customer solutions over products
Sharing their vision for the future, split across two closing talks, Andrew Steadman, CPO, SBS; Xavier Rebeuf, CPTO, SBS and Raouf Mhenni, CCO, SBS all reiterated the importance of using data and AI to better understand the customers banks serve. Central to all topics mentioned, each described, across transparency, trust, data, regulation, and serving the financial illiterate or unbanked, it is only in framing innovation through the sight of customer solutions first, products after, that evolution can be sustained.
Committing to transparency, innovation and long-term partnership, Mhenni told the audience: "Hold us accountable."