The financial crime ecosystem is evolving as criminals adopt new and innovative ways to commit crime. Additionally, regulators continue to tighten the compliance regime and toughen criminal penalties. Traditional and siloed prevention methods are no longer protecting consumers from complex and sophisticated financial crimes, and this reputational damage can severely compromise financial institutions.

Financial institutions need to embrace advanced technologies such as analytics and artificial intelligence to improve threat visibility and detect fraud effectively.

It is said that data is power. Although data is plentiful, it’s often not easily accessible, clean enough, or integrated. And opening up customer transaction data to third parties is likely to have profound effects on traditional retail banking, requiring organisations to make strategic choices around business-model impacts and customer retention.

New technologies are drastically changing the banking and capital markets industry in the front, middle and back office. AI and automation are proving to be valuable in ways we never thought possible. Blockchain has led to innovation across the business and will continue to do so. Cloud is changing the industry and has implications we have not experienced.

Companies are trying to understand these technologies, see where and how they can be used and how they may work with legacy technologies which are in place already.

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Digital transformation might be the buzzword of the day, but for banks it can be a critical imperative to succeed in a changing business environment. While many banks are experimenting with digital, most have yet to make consistent, sustained and bold moves towards thorough, technology-enabled transformation. Technology will continue to be the driver of business growth and central to delivering a wide range of services through strong customer experience.

The accelerated pace of technology innovation is giving rise to new business models at an even faster speed. Today’s competitive advantage doesn’t come from being big, but from being fast and nimble and that should hold true in 2030. Banks need to embrace change and harness the power of digital forces to innovate in smaller, bolder cycles.

What will the future work and workforce look like? Financial institutions are embracing new technologies and investing heavily in digital transformation initiatives. Automation and artificial intelligence are replacing human thinking and urging institutions to revisit their talent landscape and the skills required to stay ahead of the curve. Additionally, trends such as the gig economy and crowdsourcing are changing the way work is done.

How can institutions successfully integrate the digital and human workforce? How will they change their operating models to remain relevant? How can institutions retain and grow talent in this ever-changing environment?

How can banks offer clients what they need, when they need it, in a way they want to receive it? Institutions are looking at ways to improve customer experience and as we head towards 2030 the issue is becoming more difficult to solve. Data is power. How can firms use data to optimise their products and services, and sell in a way that customers want?

Banks will need to decide how they want to utilise platforms, and the data behind them, in order to grow.

The financial services ecosystem is growing. Regulators, fintechs, big techs, banks and others will need to work together as we move towards 2030. Each offers skills and services which others will need to serve customers. The importance of a deliberate ecosystem strategy and the effective orchestration will be critical.

Firms will need to select how and where to partner. But how can one embed and operationalise optionality and flexibility into their strategy?