Banks Trailing in Digital Maturity: Infosys Finacle and Efma’s 2020 ‘Innovation in Retail Banking’ Report

Infosys Finacle, part of EdgeVerve Systems, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Infosys (NYSE: INFY) and Efma today unveiled the ‘Innovation in Retail Banking’ report. The report highlights the top trends that are transforming the way banks operate and engage with customers, with a special focus on their plans and actions in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 750 banks and financial services companies from across the world participated in the 12th edition of the report. Jim Marous, publisher of the Digital Banking Report and co-publisher of The Financial Brand authored the report.

With the present medical crisis looming large, the report revealed significant opportunities for digital maturity. Only 7 percent of respondent banks have deployed digital transformation initiatives at scale with commensurate benefits. Further, many banks have shown a dip in their self-perception this year, with only 9 percent saying they were innovation pioneers, compared to 14 percent last year.

Scaling digital transformation, improving customer engagement and cost management, however, have emerged as the top three priorities going forward, for banks, with focus on agility driven by cloud adoption. Respondents have spoken of increased investments in mobility, advanced analytics and open banking APIs, as areas expected to have the biggest impact on banking over the next 12 months. Read the full report here.

Key takeaways from the report include:

• Banks have identified 7 keys to digital transformation, with the most important components being leadership / culture, data and analytics and CX
• While there is an understanding of the importance of digital transformation, most firms rate their efforts as insufficient, with 62 percent stating their digital deployment as partial or digital investments not delivering as expected
• Respondents voted their three biggest challenges for undertaking digital transformation as – time and cost of implementation (71 percent), system integration (66 percent) and legacy technology landscape (62 percent)
• Mobility (73 percent), Open APIs and AI / Advanced Analytics / Machine Learning (64 percent) were seen as the most important technologies having the biggest impact on banking over the next 12 months, with cloud computing (58 percent) being an area of great importance in the future.
• Much of the innovation in 2020 was seen as having taken place in Lending (40 percent) and Payments (38 percent)
• Over 64 percent identified product delivery channels as an area which would see an overwhelming preference for innovation over the next five years

Sanat Rao, Chief Business Officer & Global Head, Infosys Finacle - “Amidst the pandemic challenges, ensuring employee safety, fulfilling remote service delivery and extending credit lines to help business clients have consumed banks’ attention. At the same time, banks have also had to allay shareholders’ concerns about growth, profitability and valuations. The Efma-Infosys Finacle Innovation research results highlight that the only way to balance these priorities is to scale digital transformation, across customer engagement, cost management, business model innovation and people empowerment. While digitizing at speed and scale is the only way for banks to survive, revive and eventually thrive, the study reveals that banks have a long way to go on the implementation front.”

John Berry, CEO at Efma - “This year has proven that more than ever the financial services industry continues its evolution towards digital banking transformation. Even the most innovative players are now facing strong competition from tech companies and fintechs and must continuously innovate to stand out. Customer engagement is centre stage for future success.”

Jim Marous, Owner and CEO of the Digital Banking Report – “With the onset of COVID, building an innovative culture became more important than ever in banking. As organizations ramp up their digital transformation efforts, the application of data and advanced analytics, combined with the deployment of new technologies to support redefined business models will set leaders apart from followers in banking.”

About Efma

A global non-profit organization established in 1971 by banks and insurance companies, Efma facilitates networking between decision-makers. It provides quality insights to help banks and insurance companies make the right decisions to foster innovation and drive their transformation. 120 financial groups in 133 countries are Efma members. Headquartered in Paris. Offices in London, Brussels, Andorra, Milan, Stockholm, Bratislava, Warsaw, Moscow, Istanbul, Beirut, Dubai, Tokyo, Singapore, Sydney and Montreal. Learn more: www.efma.com

Infosys Finacle

Finacle is the industry-leading digital banking solution suite from EdgeVerve Systems, a wholly owned product subsidiary of Infosys. Finacle helps traditional and emerging financial institutions drive truly digital transformation to achieve frictionless customer experiences, larger ecosystem play, insights-driven interactions and ubiquitous automation. Today, banks in over 100 countries rely on Finacle to service more than a billion consumers and 1.3 billion accounts.

Finacle solutions address the core banking, omnichannel banking, payments, treasury, origination, liquidity management, Islamic banking, wealth management, analytics, artificial intelligence, and blockchain requirements of financial institutions to drive business excellence. An assessment of the top 1250 banks in the world reveals that institutions powered by the Finacle Core Banking Solution, on average, enjoy 7.2% points lower costs-to-income ratio than others.

To know more, visit www.finacle.com

Safe Harbor

Certain statements in this release concerning our future growth prospects, financial expectations and plans for navigating the COVID-19 impact on our employees, clients and stakeholders are forward-looking statements intended to qualify for the 'safe harbor' under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties relating to these statements include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties regarding COVID-19 and the effects of government and other measures seeking to contain its spread, risks related to an economic downturn or recession in India, the United States and other countries around the world, changes in political, business, and economic conditions, fluctuations in earnings, fluctuations in foreign exchange rates, our ability to manage growth, intense competition in IT services including those factors which may affect our cost advantage, wage increases in India, our ability to attract and retain highly skilled professionals, time and cost overruns on fixed-price, fixed-time frame contracts, client concentration, restrictions on immigration, industry segment concentration, our ability to manage our international operations, reduced demand for technology in our key focus areas, disruptions in telecommunication networks or system failures, our ability to successfully complete and integrate potential acquisitions, liability for damages on our service contracts, the success of the companies in which Infosys has made strategic investments, withdrawal or expiration of governmental fiscal incentives, political instability and regional conflicts, legal restrictions on raising capital or acquiring companies outside India, unauthorized use of our intellectual property and general economic conditions affecting our industry and the outcome of pending litigation and government investigation. Additional risks that could affect our future operating results are more fully described in our United States Securities and Exchange Commission filings including our Annual Report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2020. These filings are available at www.sec.gov. Infosys may, from time to time, make additional written and oral forward-looking statements, including statements contained in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and our reports to shareholders. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements that may be made from time to time by or on behalf of the Company unless it is required by law.

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