Redefining Retail Banking: Adapting Products and Processes for the Modern Era

Do you consider today’s retail banking products to fit the modern world? What should be changed in the near future?

In the current fast-paced retail world, there is no chance that banking products will survive if they do not meet customers’ needs. Banking products will, in the near future, be increasingly geared towards financial services and it is important to take into account that there are three key drivers, which are security, transparency and regulation. Companies, which are looking to collaborate and create value chains with fin-techs, online platforms and data providers will write their own success stories in the coming decade.

How to develop a product that is appealing to customers and at the same time relatively inexpensive to produce?  

There are simple yet effective ways to understand customer wants and needs. These include; empowering employees to engage directly with the environment, investing in technology and data, supporting diverse perspectives for better vision and creating cultural shifts between strategy team members and other teams. Identifying a customer’s basic needs and being a financial consultant to that company on their journey is the least expensive way to decide on a product choice. It is cheaper and more useful to produce a product with the support of data and well-invested technology, as mentioned above.

How to modernize development processes to tackle the challenges introduced by the increasing product complexity?

One of the major reasons for the complexity of producing financial products is the lack of identification and mastering data. On the other hand, the companies who locate the customer at the centre, align themselves with the members of the financial ecosystem and cooperate with these fin-techs, are able to comprehend the customer needs. Furthermore, the product development process will be facilitated by compliance with the Regulation and by good data and security infrastructure. Lastly, it will be strengthened by investment in staff, as well as setting up a company culture which supports and rewards product development efforts.

Murat Yaya is a Vice President of Marketing in SME Banking at Akbank based in Istanbul. As a Marketing and Sales professional with 13 years of solid experience in the banking industry, he is responsible for building a connection between customer needs and product ideation and creation, while observing the performance of the financial products portfolio. After graduating from Sabanci University Executive MBA program, he also attended Executive Leadership Program at Columbia Business School. Being a member of a blockchain ecosystem, exploring fusion cuisine with his wife and walking at least five-digit steps with his dog in a day are some of his hobbies.