Bankloch

Fintech and customer-centricity go hand in hand . The Fintech movement originated from the observation that traditional incumbent banks insufficiently served their customers and focused too much on their own interests. This customer-first focus of the early Fintech pioneers is still at the heart of most Fintechs today, which means also that customer-centric design is a top priority for most Fintechs. Although every company preaches to be customer-centric, very few companies have properly implemented it. While simple at first sight, i.e.   continuously listen to your customers and design according to their needs , in reality this is much easier said than done. In certain cases it might not even be the best strategy, i.e. a product-centric approach, where a Fintech start-up pushes its own product vision towards the customer, might be a more successful recipe. In this blog, I hope to give some   pitfalls and best practices   in adopting a customer-centric approach. Obviously...

The rapid growth of the Fintech industry in recent years happened in a decade of   exceptional economic climate , i.e. extremely low interest rates (close to 0% or even negative), exceptionally low inflation (less than 2%), a flooding of cash by central banks and an abundance of VC cash. This resulted in: Challenging times for incumbent financial players as interest   spread was very low . Negative interest rates on business deposits and certain bonds , resulting in scenarios, which put all traditional banking rules upside down. Credits and saving accounts with interest rates close to 0 , making it exceedingly difficult to make a competitive difference on the interest rate offered for current or saving accounts. As a result, value-added services and UX experience became more important, i.e. domains in which neo-banks traditionally excelled. Insurers facing issues to still   pay-out the guaranteed interest rates  on long-term life insurances and pension plans. An ...

A few years ago everyone was predicting the end of the consumption-economy and the rise of the sharing (and in extension rental) economy. Today, we see definitely a rise in sharing and renting platforms and products as a service, but not to the extend it has significantly changed the regular economy. When looking at the sharing and rental economy, you can identify a number of elements, which psychologically push people still to possess their own goods, i.e. Convenience : when you are sharing (or renting) an item, you need to reserve it and there is no guarantee it will be available. At the same time, you need to go fetch the product (or get it delivered) and most likely you cannot fetch it 24/7, but rather only during office hours. Hygiene : with the Covid-19 crisis still fresh in everyone’s mind, sharing products has a hygienical risk. But apart from the risk of diseases, there is also the feeling you have no idea who used it before. Fear for damage : people fear when they rent someth...