As AI is moving forward the need for marketing in financial services is diminishing. Generative tools use computers and algorithms and are widely used within Financial Services. So why does that mean financial services marketers are doomed? AI does financial work by simply crunching thousands of data points, factoring in current constraints, predictive models for how things are going to change, and the individual’s goals. AI is making all decisions. Marketers are probably not going to start marketing to AI. More likely, marketers would shift focus to trying to influence the parameters humans input into the AI.  By providing an appropriate media mix to AI we can achieve goals within the budget. AIs are used by both consumers and the companies. Consumers will leverage AIs to optimize their lives and businesses will use AIs to create more personalized products and services. In this future, marketers will ultimately end up marketing to the AIs directly.Read more at : http://www.business2community.com/finance/will-ai-make-financial-services-marketing-obsolete-01855073#LExeE9rhBiBleQLc.97

Organizations which create maximum employment tend to be the most disrupting. Like the agricultural sector, which employed nearly 40% of the population in the 20th century now it employs less than 2%. As we know financial services form a big part of the workforce. Is it going to disrupt too? A new technology, Block-chain technology is threatening to disrupt it. So how does this technology work? The key point being encryption and storing them in an append only method. The basic concept is a user first encodes a message Using a private key and then shares a corresponding unique public key with anyone authorized to read the message. The public key not only allows the authorized person to read the message, but also verifies without a doubt as to who the source of the message is. The data should be updated at regular intervals, thus making the data immutable, tamper proof removing the need for any mediators. The biggest challenge of Block-chain is its integration with other systems and phased roll out. Read more at: http://cio.economictimes.indiatimes.com/dobig/news/detail/1472

BFSI is expected to pay out large this time, unlike the last time.  After the IT sector BFSI is on the top for its salary increment. Reactions are different for different sectors. There has been low supply and high demand for the blue-collar jobs, sophisticated profile jobs have also emerged. Variance between temporary and permanent salaries have narrowed sharply. E-commerce and educational services are both additions to the list, these focus on talent acquisition and pay high salaries to acquire it. Project managers and analysts are the roles that get the highest salaries. Certain new job profiles are taking away the focus from IT roles. Read more at : http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/jobs/bfsi-sector-edges-out-information-technology-to-become-top-paymaster/articleshow/58172956.cms?from=mdr

The growth and development of digital financial services or modern banking platforms as we see today is a continuous evolutionary project unlike traditional software projects , it doesn’t have a beginning or end.To maintain a competitive edge, an organization must consider the following :

User Experience : Every single cent of investment in well designed customer experience would generate a huge rate of return.

Simple Personal Finance Management : A large proportion of banks still cannot offer 100% online account opening facility which shows the potential in this area. Banks should tread carefully and do not rush just for the sake of winning the competition in market.

Bots and Data :  Bots can hold intelligent conversation with your customers using natural language. Integrating bots on your financial platform would help you to achieve competitive edge.

Context : Banks should aim at varying the channel of their services according to the product.Users are more likely to access content on their mobile phones and  banks must take this fact into account.

Modern day banks need to adapt these changes and at the same time take care of current trends and experience of competitors, Simply cherry-picking best solutions doesn’t guarantee long-lasting success.Read more at : http://dataconomy.com/2017/03/choosing-digital-banking-platform/

The growth and development of digital financial services or modern banking platforms as we see today is a continuous evolutionary project unlike traditional software projects , it doesn't have a beginning or end.To maintain a competitive edge, an organization must consider the following : User Experience : Every single cent of investment in well designed customer experience would generate a huge rate of return.

Simple Personal Finance Management : A large proportion of banks still cannot offer 100% online account opening facility which shows the potential in this area. Banks should tread carefully and do not rush just for the sake of winning the competition in the market.

Bots and Data :  Bots can hold intelligent conversation with your customers using natural language. Integrating bots on your financial platform would help you to achieve competitive edge.

Context : Banks should aim at varying the channel of their services according to the product. Users are more likely to access content on their mobile phones and  banks must take this fact into account.

Modern day banks need to adapt these changes and at the same time take care of current trends and experience of the competitors, Simply cherry-picking best solutions doesn’t guarantee long-lasting success.

Read more at : http://dataconomy.com/2017/03/choosing-digital-banking-platform/

The stability of financial services in Asia is at stake because of the growing threat of cyber crime. The challenge is the high cost of defending mechanism against low cost cyber-attack ($1million/$1000). These attacks fuels the expansion of the cyber security market with a CAGR of 14.1%, which will be worth $33 million by 2019. Major drivers could be. 1. Financial gain through theft of money or information.  2. Politically motivated attack. And 3. Destructive attack to core business.  Unfortunately, financial sectors in the Middle East and Asia are mostly threatened by cyber threat. So to combat this crime, there must be a community defense model, i.e. sharing of cyber threat info among Financial institutions in an effort to identify and block attacks which are already initiated by US and European companies and followed by Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan & Australia. To read, follow:  http://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1912324/asias-financial-services-industry-must-unite-against-threat

A recent survey on customer retention revealed that insures lose as much as 20% of their customers each year. For the insurance agency this corresponds to approximately £500,000 to £1 million in lost premiums for every 1,000 policies. Customer retention is thus an important issue facing the industry. Three key points can help insurance companies to eliminate customer churn.
• Firstly, they need to properly understand their customer, which means determining overall market segmentation to understand cross sell and up sell opportunities at individual policyholder level.
• Secondly, insurance companies must be able to provide tailor made policies for each individual and also have a unique selling point in comparison to their rivals.
• Lastly, companies need to realize that they have to listen to their customer’s preferences rather than the customer having to choose from the list of policies the insurer has to offer.
Should the above be kept in mind in a company’s planning and operations customer churn can certainly be minimized if not completely eliminated.

For more information visit:
http://blogs.sap.com/banking/2015/06/19/preventing-customer-churn-with-better-data-analytics/

A recent survey on customer retention revealed that insures lose as much as 20% of their customers each year. For the insurance agency this corresponds to approximately £500,000 to £1 million in lost premiums for every 1,000 policies. Customer retention is thus an important issue facing the industry. Three key points can help insurance companies to eliminate customer churn.
• Firstly, they need to properly understand their customers, which mean determining overall market segmentation to understand cross sell and up sell opportunities at individual policyholder level.
• Secondly, insurance companies must be able to provide tailor made policies for each individual and also have a unique selling point in comparison to their rivals.
• Lastly, companies need to realize that they have to listen to their customer’s preferences rather than the customer having to choose from the list of policies the insurer has to offer.
Should the above be kept in mind in a company’s planning and operations customer churn can certainly be minimized if not completely eliminated.

For more information visit:
http://blogs.sap.com/banking/2015/06/19/preventing-customer-churn-with-better-data-analytics/

Bitcoin (BTC) is the first decentralized peer-to-peer payment network that is powered by its users with no central authority or middlemen. This digital currency, designed by Satoshi Nakamoto, has seen a huge rise in trading volume since 2013. This rise can be attributed to different types of merchants that use Bitcoin like online marketplaces, payment and funding services worldwide, social services, media sources and travel companies. Besides merchants, Wall Street players and investors are also using BTC wallets.

To know more, read the following article by Jamie Tolentino (Digital Marketer at a Global Asset Management firm), which talks about the advantages and disadvantages of using Bitcoin:

http://thenextweb.com/future-of-communications/2015/04/13/how-safe-are-your-bitcoins/

Over the last two years, Big Data and technological advancement have transformed the way industries operate and compete. Financial Services industry, in particular, has adopted big data analytics to inform better investment decisions with consistent returns. It is widely used by investment banks, asset management firms, insurance firms and stock exchanges, to name a few.

The Investopedia article by Trevir Nath, talks about 3 V’s of Big Data i.e. volume, variety and velocity, how they are applied by financial services industry, algorithmic trading and the challenges faced by this industry in the increasing embrace of big data. In the nutshell, this article explains that despite the challenges, the financial services industry is trending towards Big Data and Automation.

Read more at:

http://www.investopedia.com/articles/active-trading/040915/how-big-data-has-changed-finance.asp

Several financial services clients currently are successfully building a robust suite of information platforms to offer a superior variety of resources for its researchers. With a unique platform that offers value to users, the job of researchers to help clients with current, assorted needs for market data is enhanced. The need for robust information platform is clearly due to a continual demand for market data. Other than the immediate availability of the data, researchers also need the data to be presented in a complimentary layout that boosts the usability of the data, which is a principal requirement of platform functionality. Read more at: http://blog.marketresearch.com/how-market-research-solutions-complement-financial-services-firms%E2%80%99-existing-data-resources

Different financial services suffer high operational risks when there is market failure and industry transformation. In order to reduce the cost of risk management operations, financial organizations are seeking new models and methodologies. FMEA (Failure Mode and Effect Analysis) and Control charts are two very powerful Six Sigma tools which not only help to identify and prioritize risks but also monitor the risks. To know how FMEA and Control charts help in risk management, please go through the following article written by Abhishek Soni, a certified Six Sigma Black Belt and Project Management Professional.

http://www.isixsigma.com/industries/financial-services/leverage-six-sigma-to-manage-operational-risk-in-financial-services/

Big Data was the talk of the town in 2013 and the trend is likely to continue in 2014 as well. Though Big Data has been used in the finance domain earlier, it has been limited.But this year it is expected to take a giant leap in terms of its applicability.

Using the power of social media and analyzing the vast amounts of data generated by them, financial companies can directly interact with their retail clients to provide them with an insight to the customers’ experience. Finance sector being data-centric, Cloud technology will help companies store large volumes of data which was otherwise not feasible given the cost and technological setup constraints. The sophisticated mobile technology will help in generating more data from the customers within an exceptionally short span of time. And finally, Analytics will do the most interesting part – forecasting and predicting results with the help of Predictive Modeling and beyond. Together, the Social, Cloud, Mobile and Analytics (SMAC) will close in and will redefine the financial sector operations.

Additionally, Big Data and Analytics will be used more and more in solving different financial cases and also studying investment practices with the help of Semantic Analytics.

 For more information,read http://www.wallstreetandtech.com/data-management/big-data-use-cases-across-financial-serv/240165075 to know on how Big Data is about to change the Financial world.