This thesis represents the result of a graduation project for the master programme Strategic Project Design of Delft University of Technology, carried out in collaboration with INNOPAY. The approach that is used to successfully complete the graduation project, is based on the Double Diamond model. According to the conducted iterative design process, the main topics of the thesis are summarised.
INNOPAY
INNOPAY is a consultancy agency which is committed to creating a world in which all people and organisations confide in and use digital transactions. The company's corresponding mission is to guide organisations worldwide to fully embrace the opportunities of the digital transactions ecosystem. The originally Dutch company often operates at the cutting edge of business, technology and legislation. Payments, digital identity, e-business and cybersecurity, are digital transactions related areas in which the company excels.
The challenge
The retail banking industry is transforming to a more open ecosystem. Due to the implementation of new European regulations, mind-blowing new technologies, increased competition and a change in customer behaviour and expectations. However, it is unclear what new products and services could emerge in the Dutch Open Banking ecosystem that are of true relevance to customers. To stay at the forefront of digital transactions, INNOPAY seeks to obtain a better understanding of innovative products and services that can be realised as the openness in the financial landscape will move forward. Therefore, the aim of the graduation project is to design a representative concept from the retail banking customer's point of view that could fit in the future emerging Dutch Open Banking ecosystem.
The Dutch retail banking industry
Dutch retail banking is generally known as mass-market banking and is strictly regulated and dominated by a small number of large national banks. The financial landscape originally has a very conservative and closed character, and is typified by a lack of innovation. Within the boundaries of the law, the banks are fully in control.
The four emerging forces
The transformation of the retail banking industry is caused by four emerging forces, namely: the implementation of new European regulation (1), an increase of competition (2), technological advancements (3) and a change in customer behaviour (4).
The implementation of Payment Service Directive 2 (PSD2) and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) act as a catalyst for the concept of Open Banking. PSD2 is introduced in order to improve customer protection, stimulate innovation, lower costs in the payments value chain and increase the security of European retail payment services. A controversial key aspect of this regulation is, that it obliges retail banks to grant licensed third parties access to the customer online accessible accounts, if the customer has given explicit consent for this. GDPR is a privacy regulation which aims to strengthen and unify data protection for all customers within the European Union.
Non-traditional players are entering the retail banking industry. FinTech and BigTech companies are upending the status quo by surpassing the expectations of the retail banking customer. In order to prevent becoming a back office utility, retail banks are forced to develop truly relevant innovations.
The rise of open Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) provides the possibility to securely share data, content and functionalities. Additionally, multiple business rationales stimulates parties to open up their digital doors.
The ongoing digital transformation causes that the customer expects to be offered personalised support and seamless to use digital products and services.
Open Banking
Open Banking ecosystems stand for the totality of interconnected systems of individual customers, third parties (non-banking) and other financial institutions, which by means of multisided platform business models enables exchange of value and data via open APIs.
Open Banking embodies a real evolution which stimulates innovation, enables openness and puts the customer in control over their financial data. Combining banking resources with non-banking resources, enables parties to develop truly relevant products and services for the customer.
The voice of the customer
The voice of the customer is represented by a customer profile which consists of the following key aspects:
The most important jobs to be done concern the control and management of financial transactions, the activity to get the most out of their money, the optimisation of time spent to recurring activities and achieving savings goals.
The most extreme pains related to doing banking business are caused by a lack of context, a lack of continuous feedback, a lack of discipline and the absence of an incentive.
The most essential gains are a more informative overview, relevant guiding advice, products or service that are flexible in use, more informative updates and motivational incentives.
The Dutch retail banking customer needs to be supported in pursuing optimal control over their finances, because they want to be enabled to live now and be prepared for the future in a time efficient and effortless way, so they can get the most out of their money.
MoneyMaster
The voice of the customer is translated into a representative concept, which is called MoneyMaster.
MoneyMaster is a customer-driven Open Banking service which via a conversational interface proactively the Dutch retail banking customer empowers to have optimal control over their finances in a time efficient and effortless manner. MoneyMaster utilises banking resources, non-banking resources and advanced cognitive technologies to serve optimally as the customer's digital financial assistant in a contextual enriched and intelligent manner. The smart chatbot is channel agnostic, 24/7 available, has an unconquered response time and is capable to mimic human behaviour.
MoneyMaster does not solely offer an interesting perspective for the customer, but moreover opens up new opportunities from a business perspective. The opportunities that MoneyMaster creates, are both financially and non-financially related and applies to both business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-customer (B2C) context.
However, with regard to the final design of MoneyMaster, also multiple challenges are identified. The biggest challenge relates to the public's increasing privacy awareness which makes people hesitant to share (financial) data. Therefore, new innovative products and services such as MoneyMaster need to be provided by reliable parties that clearly communicate which data is used for what reason.