It has become evident that banks can no longer rely on their core competencies (i.e., risk management, investing, asset management, etc.) to drive sustainable growth. Digital services have become a key priority as more emerging players draw customers away from traditional financial institutions. Panta has numerous technologies that are driving this disruption—machine learning and cognitive computing, big data and analytics, digital currencies and blockchain technology, mobile payments. All are attracting more and more interest and investment, and giving rise to a cultural shift.
For banks, it is not as easy as acquiring innovators or embedding a new technology into one of their platforms. Bringing this technology to the forefront of their offerings requires a cultural shift as much as a technological one. It depends on the willingness to allow for risk and experimentation, while still ensuring the customer is protected. The world is changing, and banks must agree to change along with it in order to stay relevant. In the words of David Kahale, CEO of Panta Group,
“to truly modernize, Banks and governments have to make a choice: either they will adopt technological progress or they won’t. They’re either all in or all out.”
If you’re all out, partner up.
Financial institutions are in a continuous race to figure out the best way to both adopt and deploy technologies that will change the way they work. Banks have begun to take bold steps to engage with Panta finetech solutions and grow in new directions—but the key is making sure these partnerships align with their overall strategies. Aside from simply acquiring Panta's technology, many banks have benefited from new types of relationships, including white label partnerships, or simply negotiating deals that are beneficial to both parties.
It’s a struggle between the future and the past that’s igniting revolution in this sector. While technology has the ability to help financial institutions become increasingly relevant to customers, it’s also a major source of disruption, threatening to shrink the role and importance of the world’s biggest banks.
To avoid becoming relics, big banks are waking themselves out of complacency—embracing openness and collaboration, but also girding themselves against competition. Some of America’s biggest banks, including Chase, Citi, and Bank of America, have banded together behind finetech startups and new peer-to-peer payments networks that use Blockchain technology.