Financial Services Sector: Purpose-led from the beginning

At this point in its history, the banking and financial sector is at a crossroads. Filipinos now embrace online payment options more than ever before, while banks continue leveraging technology to ensure seamless transactions. Digital payment methods, for instance, rose to 30.3 percent in 2021, a 10 percent increase from 2020, according to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).

Five things to make for a more purpose-led banking experience

This steady increase in digital payment goes to the BSP’s goal of achieving 50 percent digital transactions by 2023. However, some Filipinos prefer over-the-counter transactions, especially for other banking services. This is not surprising since online transactions, whether as retail payments or traditional banking services like deposits or money transfers, can be impersonal for apparent reasons. The challenge now is on how to make the overall banking experience more purpose-led to entice more people to avail of this financial service.

While it’s easy to think that achieving maximum profit has always been the goal of not just the financial sector but all businesses, this hasn’t always been the case. It might be surprising to some, but the first banks have made it a goal to create harmony between their customers and their investors.

However, this purpose-led way of doing business has slowly transformed over the years, especially with some economists believing that banking and financial institutions’ responsibility is to generate profit for themselves and their stakeholders. But as we head further into an uncertain future, it is now apparent that this mindset is no longer relevant.

For Fujitsu, several factors drive banking and financial institutions to ensure purpose-led business practices. First, companies nowadays realize that they should serve not only their shareholders but also deliver to their customers, invest in employees, deal fairly with suppliers, and support the communities in which they operate.

Second, customers and employees alike are now more concerned about social issues and the way financial institutions help address them. For instance, they are not looking at the profits of the company alone but also information on Environment, Society, and Governance (ESG) initiatives.

Lastly, financial institutions also recognize that purpose-led operations bring people together. It also enables them to cross boundaries with confidence and creativity. A well-constructed ecosystem of partners – inspired by their purpose - can change the world. Financial institutions can’t drive change independently but can contribute substantially to the change we all need and want.

Achieving Purpose-Led Financial Services

Fujitsu is no stranger to purpose-led financial services, especially with its vast experience in this helping financial institutions ensure that they provide better banking experience. This is achieved through the company’s expertise in leveraging financial service tools to create the ideal and versatile model for the client’s needs.

A few ways that companies can ensure a more purpose-led banking experience are:

1. By knowing the customer. Leveraging on freely provided customer data to gain better insight regarding what a typical customer wants is key to success. This leads to service that is truly sensitive to the customer’s needs.
2. By enhancing customer experience. Everyone does not want their customer experience to be rigid. Therefore, any service should be flexible enough to be changed at a moment’s notice to meet a customer’s unique needs.
3. Through complete security. Security and safety are paramount, especially when dealing with online financial services. Therefore, keeping your customer’s data secure is necessary if you want to create a great experience and foster goodwill.
4. Through meaningful customer engagement. From the customers’ standpoint, engagement can be a welcome experience, but only if it’s meaningful. It can be achieved by making engagement tailored to the individual rather than cookie-cutter and generic. 
5. Through employee care. This factor can seem unrelated to customer experience but in truth, caring for your employee empowers them to make the right decisions on how to take care of your customers best.

As the world becomes more uncertain, financial institutions must now clearly show that it is no longer in business for profits alone but that it is in business for the betterment of their customers, employees, and even the community, as a whole.

To find out more about Fujitsu, visit www.fujitsu.com.