The year 2021 has been coined the darkest years of our time. The pandemic caused by Covid 19 has caused us many unexpected displeasures and chaos.
The increasing dependence of people on technology is not a surprise and it was our biggest ally during the pandemic. With the lockdown in practice and everything being shut down, technology was the only way through which people could by.
A similar crisis occurred in 2008 with the Lehman Brothers crisis. The global disruption caused by the pandemic can be seen in a similar sense. Back in 2008, this crisis had led to a change in the economic regime and has forced the authorities to make any changes. The same can be said for the 2020 pandemic. The threats caused by it were very real and disturbing.
Covid 19 has crippled many industries but banking was one of the worst industries that were affected. In fact, the same can be expected from the second wave of the pandemic. In the light of such uncertainties, many banks today are focusing heavily on the use of technology and are trying to enhance their management capabilities and risk monitoring. In fact, 2021 is being reimagined with some of these technological advances and how they impact every aspect of the banks and certain managements.
Key technological trends helping banking and financial services in 2021:
i. Architectural transformation: The Indian banking architecture of 2021 is set to be very different from the old era. Next-generation banks are also trying to be flexible.
ii. Exploring new horizons with a cloud: There are many flexible options for banks to choose from. Hybrid Cloud, for instance, offers lower Capex. With the introduction of better cloud security, banks could even look at public cloud ecosystems as long term option.
iii. Blockchain to safeguard data sanctity: There have been many trends that showed the inclusion of blockchain in banking. It has the potential to reduce certain operational costs. It has also been improving efficiencies.
iv. Open banking gains in popularity: As customers have been exploring ways to bank according to their interests and convenience, many radical developments can be expected. All roads in open banking have been leading to data democratization.
v. AI turns humane: AI-driven financial models have been very efficient for the last decade although they are not transparent. With the introduction of feedback-enabled AI, we can expect to see this paradigm change.
The unpredictability of this situation will help in all aspects of risk management and more efficiency can be expected.