Banks and Fintech on Platform Economies: Contextual and Conscious Banking

Paolo shines with his latest addition on the topic. I spotted a person on a plane during the holidays reading the book and it was the perfect conversation starter for a 7 hour meeting of souls. In summary - get the book for the content, but just having it with you is already a signaling effect for meeting great minds!

É um livro para degustar, ler devagar e refletir muito.A visão do autor sobre a "Quarta Revolução Industrial" é muito bem apresentada, trazendo os conceitos de (i) Plataforma CONTEXTUAL e (ii) Plataforma CONSCIENTE para a oferta de produtos financeiros.Muito interessante também as pontes com economia comportamental na oferta, escolha e contratação dos produtos financeiros em plataformas. (quem já leu Daniel Kahneman ou Dan Ariely vai adorar!)Sua conceituação de Financial Market Transparency (FMT) tem grande potencial de ser um guideline para os próximos anos do mercado.

This book will not change your business model or help you create a breakthrough product and service. Unless you start following the recommendations of Paolo Sironi, who is the author of "Banks and Fintech on Platform Economies. Contextual and Conscious Banking" a combination of practical and theoretical insights into the future of the financial sector. I have already once written about the "amazonization" of financial services (click1; click2 - in Polish), which has great potential and is in line with the direction of changes that are taking place in the context of doing business (not only eCommerce) and customer expectations. However, the author of this post went much further and not only inspire but also show the path to contextual and conscious banking.While reading, I wrote down about 100 quotes that seem to be key to understanding Paolo Sironi's message. The author does not make a clear thesis about the future of the banking sector (and certainly does not claim that banks will pass away, as some proponents of decentralized finance claim - click - in Polish). He is rather of the opinion that changes are necessary, not only in the area of infrastructure (legacy systems) but most of all in the area of business models, which should transform from being based on the product (output economy) to focusing on the result (outcome economy). This leads to another observation - in the "new" reality we should focus on people and the value we generate for them. Not only in the context of his experience (user experience), but also in terms of support in everyday life. A human should be in the very center - at every stage of the development of financial products and services.There also appears the notion of the so-called HUMANTECH, which puts a human being at each stage of using technology. Everything that we create using, for example, artificial intelligence or blockchain is just for us.Well, exactly. Should we create products and services here or rather experiences? Paolo Sironi believes that something like hyper-personalization is the only direction. The results of business development should use "artificial intelligence" to learn about customers' expectations (big support here will be the oft-cited concept of open finance, which should start to be realized in the European Union this year) to generate added value. What does this mean? The customer does not want to "buy" a loan for an apartment. He needs support in buying an apartment. The role of the sector is to streamline this process and make it as frictionless as possible. This does not mean that the financial institution should not make money on it.No alt text provided for this imageThis brings us to the concepts of contextual and conscious banking, the meaning of which can be reduced to two issues - the "invisibility" of financial services and the conscious use of finance (and understanding the added value it provides). All of this, however, requires great effort and a real digital transformation, which is not just a technological change, but above all a cultural and competence change. There is also a need for greater openness, both internally (organizations) and externally - for example, regarding openness with the use of APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) that allow for the creation of truly digital platforms that generate value for basically everyone.Paolo Sironi also draws attention to - for me extremely important - the topic of so-called Financial Markets Transparency, i.e. transparency (for the customer). The author rightly pointed out that the financial services market (especially the investment market) is not predictable and the element of surprise is natural. What does it mean? Any prediction, even the most "accurate" and based on the "best" historical data, will not prepare us for the unexpected. This is why it is so important to show this fact to clients and to do so in the most accessible way possible. Clients need to be aware of the risks but also be aware that they are taking risks that are not always 100% predictable.We also find a clear emphasis on the role of ethics. Paolo Sironi even points out that the involvement of ethics specialists (new technologies) could be a good direction - this postulate I completely support. The use of information (data analytics, big data) and communication (to customers and internally) will be the core of the "new" finance based on hyper-personalization, so ethics will be extremely important. It is a pity that "in our country" there is not yet an approach that takes into account the changing environment, including technology.The recommendations in the book can be used both to create "new" banking, whose innovation is not based on changing the "skin" of a mobile application, but also fintech solutions of a non-banking nature. The advice is universal, although a lot of space is devoted to the transformation of the banking sector, which will have to change in the face of change and the "lurking" of BigTechs. The product-based approach will start to lose its importance, while personalization and the use of different sources of information will become natural.In this context, it is worth noting that the (EU) Digital Strategy for Finance assumes that the tenets of open finance will emerge as early as this year. The European Banking Authority is increasingly looking at the platformization of the sector, and supervisors and regulators see changes on the side of banks and their models. The book sums it up perfectly. Everything contained therein is close to my "professional" heart. If you want to talk about transformation, I encourage you to join the discussion.

A must read for anyone interested in Financial services industry.Banking Reinvention Quadrant is one of the key new concept developped by Paolo Sironi in this book. It will guide you in value proposition Transformation in an industry where the boundaries of competition and cooperation between Financial Institutions and new players such as BigTechs and Fintechs are shifting.

Banks and Fintech on Platform Economies is the compass for navigating the present and future of financial services. With a scientific method, the author perfectly describes the main trends that will irreversibly define banking in the future.Anyone who wants to have a future in financial services, from student to manager, should read it.

Many industries and organization acknowledge the importance of a Platform Economy with the aim of creating customer experiences through a service model that owns the long-term customer relationship. Today most companies, irrespective of Industry, belong to a Platform – either one they created or one someone else created.This book is not only a rich resource to understand the important interconnected dynamics at work with Platform Economies, but it challenges the reader to think through possible adoption paths for Financial Services. At its core the author challenges the nature of the Banking relationship, also considering important business, regulatory and technology industry nuances for Financial Services when looking to compete within a platform economy.I strongly recommend adding this one to your collection!!!