Dan Robinson, head of Retail Banking and Wealth Management at HSBC, speaks to The Sunday Times of Malta about banking in the digital era.
The global banking sector, like many other industries, is being disrupted by new technology, with some saying that established banks will need to change fast to survive. What are your thoughts?
Disruption is the norm now with new technologies changing the way we operate faster than ever before. Banking is no exception. We have seen through the 1970s ATMs and credit cards; the 1980s debit cards; the 1990s, internet banking and now with the latest technologies in payments we are seeing how some EU countries have gone almost completely cashless.
What I believe is different now is the pace of this change, the direction of the change to focus more on the customer’s needs as opposed to the service providers and therefore finally the expectations that our customers have and how we meet them.
It’s fair to say that established banks have found the pace of this change difficult at times through the challenge of legacy systems that have needed complete transformation to meet these demands and ensure they are ready not just for today but the changes expected in the future. Whilst change and competition are not new, I believe that the established banks, including HSBC, are demonstrating that they are able to rise to the challenges being posed by some of the newer challenger banks.
Turning specifically to Malta, do you think enough is being done to ensure the sector remains up to date with customer expectations? How are established banks like HSBC adapting to the changes brought about by technology while simultaneously keeping customers as the centre of their developments?
Malta is well exposed to the changes in digital innovation and that creates an understandable rise in overall expectations. What is key is helping our customers get these types of experiences when banking too. I think we have done a good job of introducing new technology while retaining our customer focus. In fact technology is helping us to be more customer focused, but we need to do more and faster.
The regulatory landscape remains complex
We have, for example, taken important steps to make as many services as possible available online and the recent launch of our new mobile banking app, should further help to ensure that customers are at the centre of everything we do.
In addition to changing the way customers interact with their banks and how they conduct business, do you think new technologies will also necessitate any significant changes to the regulatory frameworks covering financial services institutions, both in Malta and internationally?
The regulatory landscape remains complex but technology and regulation are not opposing forces; in fact, they work hand in hand. For example we can create simpler ways of recording the necessary Know Your Customer details, we can capture the necessary documentation via photos taken on your mobile phone.
Both these can be done online at a customer’s own convenience. What is important is that technology and new regulations are developed in line with each other. The recent changes in PSD II are a great example of where this has worked.
HSBC Malta has just launched its new mobile banking app. In the context of our discussion, why is this an important step?
There is an explosive growth of smartphones and with the connectivity they bring, people expect to be able to access their accounts and manage their money quickly and easily. In other words, mobile banking is a must. Our focus is to deliver an easy, fast and secure way of banking with HSBC. Our app offers biometric technology through both Apple and Android devices.
This provides faster and secure access to all of the app’s features. Alternatively, customers can log in using a simple six-digit PIN. We believe that this combination of convenience and security will be a winning formula and save customers time in getting what they need from their bank on a day to day basis. We recognise the need to continue to develop the services we offer via mobile and will continue to develop new features well in to 2020 and beyond.
What comes next in HSBC Malta’s digital journey?
We have increased investment in technology more than tenfold here in Malta. This means delivering new platforms, digital services and applications to support making banking for our customers easier, faster and more secure. We will invest both in our teams to help provide these services as well as the technology itself.
We invest in research to understand what our customers need and want and will remain focused on delivering those services so as to meet the customers’ demands. It’s a really an exciting journey with plenty more to come.