We are presenting excerpts from the op-ed by member of the Board of Directors at Modulbank, founder of UX design studio Angry Kirill Paraska. The article was published on Banki.ru.

Banks can no longer afford staying just banks: they are transforming into IT companies and going into the shadows, offering native decisions, trying to be friendlier, and educating.

Offer every required service

For a long time banks adapted traditional products, services and business models for digital channels. Now is the time for digital native scenarios and development through platforms and ecosystems.

The new craze if the banking sector is to create a digital universe and become the only point of entrance, which satisfies all needs of the client. The web and smartphones are becoming the epicenter of implementation of strategies.

In late 2019 Tinkoff and VTB announced the launch of Russia’s first superapps. These are aimed at satisfying not so much the financial needs, as the daily requirements of the clients: calling  taxi or a doctor, shopping, choosing tours for vacation.

In the next few years we will have 2 to 5 superapps on our phones instead of 2 to 5 banking apps we have now, and the superapps are going to have the range of functions of 20-30 other apps.

Become easier

The change of financial generations causes modernization of the banks: financial apps actively integrate interface and communication principles from social media and messengers.
InternationalbankWells Fargo has integrated with Facebook and now uses its messengers in conjunction with the chatbot: for instance, it provides information about the closest ATM and the client’s balance.

Simplification of the language and the format of communication, introduction of chats and stickers, familiar interface of social networks – the banks are diluting their conservative activity with the informality of communication.

Educate the client

The need to increase financial literacy has been a topic of discussion for many years. Banks are introducing more and more native tools to show the clients that saving money is not scary and teaching them to account and plan – with comfort and use.

For example, Tinkoff and Rocketbank launched such solutions in 2019. The clients don’t notice how savings accumulate, because it is done via allocating small amounts of money to the savings account. The process does not affect the quality of life, so it does not seem a psychologically difficult step for the clients.

U.S.-based Discovery Bank has gone even further, calling itself the world’s firstbehavioral bank: it promises to “revitalize” the clients’ finances. The bank’s app contains Vitality Money program that guides the clients toward correct financial decisions: the user can monitor the expenses and receive rewards for progress in the form of discount for banking products.

Talk to the client

Media reports occasionally tell about the gems of voice assistant “Oleg”, which Tinkoff launched in 2019. “Oleg” is self-educating with the help of open data, which explains the rudeness of some of his remarks, but the bank promises the voice assistant will learn with time.

Digital banking is not enough anymore for clients. They need personal assistance and faster service. Bots and assistants enhance personal banking: they reduce the waiting time and the document flow, fulfill tasks quickly at any time and in a convenient format.

The banks are going to offer new communication formats and migrate from graphic interfaces into the voice ones.

Be invisible

The borders are fading between plastic cards, mobile banking and phones with smart watches. The banks are forced to switch to a service model that does not imply a focus on the main product: the organizations are learning to become an invisible part of all aspects of life of the client.

For instance, FoodPlex platform that features Sberbank, Rambler Group and a number of private investors as shareholders has launched mobile app SberFood, which allows booking tables in the restaurant, ordering food, paying bills and tipping without direct communication with people.

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