The new digital drivers, which are zealots of customer experience and cost savings, will further disrupt existing business models, so it pays to be prepared.

Revised payment service directive (PSD2) regulation and the Open Banking frameworks are creating new challenges for financial services players.

These changes stipulate that individual customers can allow third parties access to their financial data and thereby provide innovative services to customers. This has been a boon for newcomers to the banking and – especially – payments spaces. Digitising the payments value chain is creating new opportunities for this new breed of payment innovators, and revolutionising traditional fiat payments is just the beginning.

Blockchain and tokens are impacting every industry by supporting the move to customer experience disintermediation (removing the middleman), greater use-case efficiency, new open systems and cost savings, and new economic models where participants will have incentives to use the system.

Challenger banks such as Revolut and N26 and mobile payment systems such as Alipay, Tencent and PayPal, among many others, are executing precisely these changes in the financial services sector. They are zealots when it comes to customer experience and cost savings, and these new digital drivers will further disrupt existing business models.

While blockchain and crypto are still emerging technology layers with a disruptive impact of challenger banks or mobile payment systems to be proven, we see five critical takeaways:

  1. Customer focus – Amazon, Tencent, Revolut or N26 are not going away, so learn from them or risk losing your customers.
  2. Blockchain is around the corner and the impact on tech infrastructure must be reviewed, just as the internet changed the tech world.
  3. Mobile payment/banking and the move from fiat to crypto will be a small step once the technology is mature.
  4. Tokenisation economics can bring economic development impact to individuals, businesses and economies with greater market liquidity, broader market participation and better consumer control.
  5. Companies need to understand and initiate a cultural change to be more adaptive.

The digital age is upon us and the role of I4E is to prepare our clients and partners to succeed both in the near and longer term. We help them understand, build, test and implement solutions for this new digital age. We suggest some points where existing digital layers and emerging technology-based projects could impact industry segments.

I4E is working on thought leadership with industry leaders and academics. Alongside the TM Forum, I4E is running the stream related to creating new value and growth from blockchain and the token economy to assess and trial how these technologies and value systems can be leveraged to remain competitive over the next five to 10 years.

Contact [email protected] to learn more about I4E’s expertise and services

This article was originally produced and published by Business Reporter. View the original article at business-reporter.co.uk