10 tech trends tee-up 2016 agenda

Looking back at 2015, the banking industry addressed a number of pivotal topics in financial technology, including evolving customer expectations, data analytics, channel convergence, security breaches, and heightened competition for small business relationships from non-bank entities. Each of these will play an integral role in how banking technology progresses in 2016.

Looking ahead, Jack Henry Banking provides Banking Exchange’s Tech Exchange e-newsletter with its forecast for what’s coming in 2016. The vendor derives this list from its more than 1.200 client institutions spanning the spectrum of asset sizes.

Channel strategy

• The bar will continue to rise for providing a single and simple digital account strategy that meets consumer demands. Account-as-a-Service platforms will emerge as a fast and competitive response.

• Data analysis will continue to improve call centers, enabling bankers to further enhance efficiency and responsiveness for overflow and after-hours.

• Traditional branches will continue to blend with digital channels as enterprise-wide native apps streamline processes by addressing up to 80% of front-line employee tasks in a simple one-click environment.

• Lending channels will open the lines of communication and provide fast responses that improve banks’ reputations as small business lenders.

Payments evolution

• Business services will continue to improve in 2016, and bankers will better leverage business mobile capture opportunities.

• The EMV liability shift was a relatively simple rollout from the credit side, but it introduces many complexities for debit that will be addressed throughout 2016.

• Device-based wallets will continue to grow, challenging banks to keep their cards top of wallet.

• Mass adoption of new card and payment technologies will present new and growing sources of transaction fraud.

Risk and security

• The rate of cyber security threats will force banks into more comprehensive planning around data and system loss prevention; consequently thorough documentation of testing and incidence response will become critical per guidance from the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council.

• More banks will turn to outsourcing as an answer to more secure operating environments, better business resiliency, more predictable costs, improved customer service, and added flexibility to expand infrastructure as business needs change.