Financial needs are really driven by non-financial desires. People do not desire a housing loan or a fire insurance policy. People desire a house. To provide complete, holistic solutions, you need comprehensive customer data and you need a deep understanding of the customer journey. T h e customer data that most banks have are simply not sufficient to develop a good understanding of the financial situation or needs of their customers. Customers have multiple relationships, with deposits and loans, investments, insurance policies, and retirement plans, spread across many financial institutions. How many financial institutions advising a customer have a complete picture of the customer’s balance sheet – all his assets and liabilities? Some banks have started to offer aggregator services which consolidate financial information such as bank accounts, credit cards, loans, and investments from all the financial institutions serving their customers. This allows financial institutions to provide holistic financial planning. BBVA provides its corporate customers with a consolidated view of all their financial information from about 90 financial institutions. 3 / 10  BIS central bankers' speeches  Next, understanding the customer journey. Some banks have begun to offer their corporate customers complete, end-to-end solutions, based on a keen understanding of their customers’ work processes. United Overseas Bank in Singapore provides its corporate customers an integrated digital platform that enables the customer to: generate purchase orders and invoices with a few clicks; streamline its payroll process; and get up-to-date views of its financials.

Technology is akin to Porthos, the fearless musketeer who is eager to try new ways for a better future. In a similar vein, Technology presents us opportunities to revitalise Finance: the opportunity to enhance customer experience; the opportunity to strengthen risk management; and the opportunity to improve cost efficiency. Let me elaborate on each of these opportunities. First, enhancing customer experience. This has become a critical success factor in many industries, including finance. Why? Basically, technology firms have reshaped the way businesses interact with customers. They have empowered customers and set higher bars for customer satisfaction. Whether they are established Big Tech firms or small FinTech start-ups, they pose a competitive challenge to financial institutions. If I have to name one thing these technology firms do very well, much better than financial institutions, it would be that they are obsessively customer-centric. Tech firms embed themselves in the customer journey and use data analytics to deeply understand customer needs. They then provide end-to-end solutions, often customised to individual circumstances. They have agile IT systems, efficient processes, and a culture that emphasises speed. Essentially, tech firms think of themselves not as being in a particular industry, but as platforms, upon which they provide access to the services their customers need. Traditional banks tend to be largely product-centric. The credit card division tries to sell you unsecured credit, the wealth management division tries to sell you mutual funds, the lending division tries to sell you a mortgage.