How to achieve seamless and secure digital banking experiences

February 04, 2025

As the first of the millennials reached their 30s in 2010, they became the first generation to expect intuitive applications and paperless processes that require little to no training. Today, even baby boomers expect digital tools to help them easily manage their money as it securely rests in deposit accounts, moves through the payments system to take care of financial obligations or is put to work in investment accounts. As a banker grappling with how to meet customer demands for more digital capabilities, one thing is clear: You’re no longer just competing with JPMorgan Chase, Barclays or the bank down the street; you’re competing with the digital bells and whistles dreamed up by the likes of Amazon and Uber.

Delivering the wow factor

The 2024 FIS® Global Innovation Research¹ captured insights from 2,000 executives across financial firms and corporations.

More than 50% of C-level leaders are currently utilizing digital technologies such as chatbots, personalized user interface, personalized marketing and customer segmentation tools to elevate the customer experience.¹

Banks that successfully meet their customers’ rising digital expectations are recognizing the need to place emphasis on human-centered design, and that every interaction must be intuitive. While you must keep up with your competitors, keeping up is just the start.

To attract customers, you must think differently. In the digital era where things move at lightning speed, you can’t set your bank apart by merely executing on road map enhancements that come to fruition once a year. You must focus on continual, marginal improvements that surprise the customer when they log in and see a new feature that is fresh, exciting and solves a need in a unique way.

In your efforts to leave a lasting impression on customers, it goes without saying that resiliency and redundancy are essential because customers have no patience for a system that doesn’t respond. Mind the store, get rid of the back-end “spaghetti” and maintain a clean tech stack.

Think big, act small

For many banks, internal discussions about digitalizing a capability begins with a review or even a deep dive of available technologies. While that sounds fundamental, this approach can backfire because a myopic focus on the technology itself can ultimately define and limit what you can do.

A better approach would be to start thinking about what you want your customers to experience, and then work backward to determine the best technologies to facilitate that experience. Expressed another way, the best results can be achieved when you keep the customer at the center of everything you do.

Digitalization in the business banking arena

Great strides have been made in digitalizing banking on the retail and consumer side, which has been driven by the capability of and growing reliance on mobile devices, as well as the demand for smooth, frictionless e-commerce transactions.

The business banking side, however, is at a much earlier stage because the stakes are higher and risk tolerance is lower. If a consumer downloads an app, gives it a try and doesn’t like it, there is no downside. By contrast, businesses must operate according to corporate guidelines, endure implementations, orchestrate rollouts and train users. A wrong decision is costly and introduces chaos into the operation.

Still, a lot of work is underway to come up with digital solutions for business customers. Financial institutions, often in concert with their fintech partners, are making steady progress on digital innovations in the areas of managing credit terms, collections, disputes, working capital and more.

Forging a friendly coopetition

During the throes of the 2008 financial crisis, fintech disruptors became serious about challenging the traditional banking establishment. Unencumbered by outdated legacy systems and heavily armed with digital tools, they came on strong and began chipping away at your customers’ allegiance.

As it turns out, fintechs and traditional banks need each other.

To operate legally and securely, fintechs need the banks’ regulated back-end infrastructure and compliance experience. Conversely, banks need access to the fintechs’ leading-edge digital innovations and the agility to provide instant, convenient financial services.

As you hone your digital strategies, remain open to the possibility of joining forces with synergistic partners: those that address clear needs within your customer base, share important values with your bank’s culture and demonstrate an established market presence with a history of successful partnerships.

Digital defenses against digital threats

As your institution and its customers continue to embrace digital tools, concerns about fraud and cybercrime increase in direct proportion. According to the 2024 FIS Global Innovation Research, the remedy seems to be fighting fire with fire.

A healthy three-quarters of the C-level financial executives who participated in the study report using digital banking technology – 74% in the U.S. and 87% in the U.K. Among them, more than one-third expressed concern about cybersecurity threats and the daunting responsibility for securing transactions and customer data.¹

Despite their concerns, most of them (90% in the U.S., 95% in the U.K.) are very or somewhat confident in their ability to manage this risk because of the controls they’ve put in place. More than half report employing tools such as real-time fraud detection, AI-powered security measures, cybersecurity threat detection and predictive analysis to monitor risk. Other remedies mentioned were biometric authentication, risk modeling and automated decision-making.¹

The good news is that around one-quarter of the respondents perceive that their risk levels are declining because of the digital technologies they’ve chosen.¹

Banking innovation: It’s about more than just technology

There are many ways financial firms should be innovating, beyond just using AI, says Peter Boyer, Enterprise Strategy, FIS.

Unlock digital transformation

Powerful forces are fuelling the need to digitalize your bank, among them customer demand, competitive ingenuity, rising costs, regulatory pressures and financial crime. Modern technologies can help you meet each of these challenges. Create new ways to surprise and delight your digital-native customer on both the retail and business banking side. Be open to partnerships with fintech achievers with revolutionary ideas and nimble methods. When criminals unleash their newest digital weapons, meet them head-on with powerful digital safeguards.

Finally, don’t just design technology; design technology for humans.

While your systems are machines, your customers are not. Never forget that they’re real-life people who need you to help them meet financial challenges and achieve their goals.

¹FIS, Global Innovation Research 2024 surveyed 2,000 firms across financial services and other industries in the U.S., U.K., Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia.