Nations Trust Bank CEO talks on ‘next-gen banking’

Nations Trust Bank PLC strongly believes that change is needed within the organisation and the financial services sector as a whole for it to survive and thrive in the future.

Nations Trust Bank CEO Renuka Fernando said: “Globally there is significant disruption happening in the financial services industry, especially in the commercial banking sector because of innovative technology. Products and services which are not compliant to operate within the financial services regulatory framework such as payment wallets and mobile payment platforms are now competing directly in the same space. As such, banks are now beginning to realise that they will need to disrupt their own business models and think different if they are to keep pace with these trends.”

Renuka believes that technology is reshaping the way the bank interacts and engages with its customers, and that some industries have managed to embrace these changes far more effectively than others. Although banks have been slow to adapt to the digital environment, perhaps due to legacy systems and the regulatory framework in which they operate, it can be seen that a lot of transactions that happened through manual processes are being rapidly automated. Technologies in financial transactions have brought enormous customer convenience and ease, through mobile and online channels as well as speed and accuracy which could not have been achieved manually, she explained. 

“In Sri Lanka, I’m really proud to say that Nations Trust Bank has introduced the first fully digital banking proposition through our recently launched ‘FriMi’ which is a fully-fledged bank account which is also a direct mobile payment and money transfer platform available for day-to-day transactions and purchases. 

We will continue to enhance this digital offer with other banking products being added in the future,” she continued. “Nations Trust Bank has always considered customer service as the key to success and have woven its entire proposition based on bringing convenience to customers and understanding them better. 

But now we are determined to take this to a whole new level, using data analytics and technology to help understand customers intimately and design their experience with the bank based on their personal preferences and requirements. 

We are converting our bank to change the way we understand and service our customers from a product and channel based experience to a holistic seamless experience across our entire bank.” Renuka further described that, today a lot of choice is given to customers, on how they can interact with the bank, from traditional channels, call centres, electronic channels and digital channels like mobile, online and social media. 

She believes that customers should be able to choose from a mix of channels they are comfortable with and be able to have an omni channel experience which will enable them to start the interaction with one channel and end it with another absolutely seamlessly.

Renuka concluded by stating: “This can’t be done in isolation without transforming the way we work internally. 

So, we have already started re-engineering our processes which include bringing robotics into some of our processes and bringing innovative, collaborative technology which will help us to integrate the way we service and manage our customers. 

It also means that we will need to re-skill our staff to think and work differently and more proactively, using these technology tools. 

Technology brought to our customers in a simple, intuitive and easy to use manner and the way we personalise our customer experience will be the keys to succeeding in the future.”