Banks Need to Stay Competitive Through Digital Transformation

David Donovan, formerly a senior Fidelity Investments trader, joined the Boston-based offices of Publicis Sapient in 2005. Currently the executive vice president, he brings wide-ranging experience in handling technology, logistics, and regulatory issues to his work. In addition to his frequent media appearances as an investment and general financial services expert, David Donovan serves as a regular columnist for the online industry publication ValueWalk.

On September 29, 2020, he wrote about the need for banks and other financial institutions to achieve an effective digital transformation if they are to continue to outpace the quickly shifting demands of their customers. According to the research and advisory company Gartner, Inc., by the beginning of the next decade, 80 percent of today’s legacy financial services firms will be out of business or operating with a vastly reduced scope. To stay relevant, these firms must understand the need to deliver the flexibility and accessibility that a new generation expects.

To evolve successfully in this new ecosystem, banks should put their energy into four key areas: building and maintaining customer trust; achieving strong partnerships with already-successful consumer and tech platforms to add value; creating seamless, frictionless digital experiences; and developing the tools and the ecosystems to support such experiences.

As the Gartner team noted in 2018, the future of the banking and financial industries “is increasingly weightless.” The urgency to move operations into cyberspace increases daily, along with fierce competition from emerging fintech players whose digital presence has already changed the face of the industry.