During the last fifteen years, banks, like other economic sectors, have only had this word in their mouths: innovation; with its cohort of associated blended words, such as “agility.” However, today, where are we? A very recent example forces us to ask ourselves this question.
In terms of innovation, banks have favored technological solutions. “Digital”, in this case, which made it possible to automate and make accessible online offers and services that were already automated but to which customers only had access through a human intermediary. Therefore, it was mainly about developing interfaces, since in many cases the (obsolete) processing systems have hardly been changed. In any case, “digital banking” has developed well and if banking applications still require improvements, it is quite normal since most of it has already been done.
From there, banks are now striving to automate at least some of their customer service, using generative AI. The results are not yet very convincing (in fact, studies show that clients are increasingly finding it difficult to simply contact their advisor), but the development of these new services is just beginning.
“Financial well-being”
But still? Another perspective that has been widely explored in recent years is that of personalizing customer relationships. A perspective that, in the banking world, where offers and their pricing conditions are completely standardized, runs the risk of quickly becoming exhausted.
But there is “well-being”. In short, it is about the personalized assistance provided to clients so that they can better manage their expenses and finances, freeing them from the stress that this can generate and that in turn generates bad decisions. Of course, the current context is particularly suitable for this and more and more banks are making promises of “financial well-being”.
However, this objective cannot be achieved by resorting to technical solutions alone. It is necessary, above all, to put yourself in the client’s shoes, understand their expectations and be willing to thoroughly review certain offers if necessary (overdrafts, for example). Is this why the innovations of French banks in this area remain rather timid?
Take the case of BforBank, Crédit Agricole’s online bank, which has just been completely relaunched. Positioned in the “accessible high-end” segment, BforBank apparently had just over 200,000 customers at the end of 2022. Not exactly a success for a bank launched in 2009. Thus, BforBank has just completely revised its offers and also its promises . financial well-being.
A promise because, at the moment, practically only BforBasic and BforZen account offers are offered, in addition to a Bfor+ savings account, which are not very distinctive and therefore not very decisive – except for expert clients, capable of arbitrating on limits. transfer and others between banks.
The other offers (including the free Visa Premier, which seemed to be the flagship product) have almost disappeared and will be reintroduced later, without us fully understanding why.
The phenomenon of budget allocations
What about financial well-being? You’ll also have to wait, although “tips to better manage your money” appear at the bottom of the home page of the BforBank site. And one of them analyzes the phenomenon of budget allocations.
They now have a name in good French: “cash stuffing”, which sounds much more serious because it is really nothing more than a return to the way our grandparents or great-grandparents managed their budget. You withdraw all your money in bills and divide them into envelopes, each of which corresponds to an expense (food, car, etc.). This is supposed to give you better control over your budget.
Starting with TikTok, the trend has spread rapidly in the last two years and not only in France. A trend that most banks initially completely ignored despite its rapid growth, but that some wanted to support with subaccounts in their applications, assistance in predicting inflationary effects on certain expenses and other conveniences. The examples, however, are quite strange and in the case at hand, BforBank is content with finding the envelope method simple and quite effective, indicating that, to do so, it has ATMs available to its clients.
Although we do not say it so clearly, a bank invites its clients to withdraw the money they have in their account and keep it at home. We had never seen this before and it seemed almost comical. If innovation is about evolving your offerings to generate new associated uses, there is still much to do.
Source: BFM TV
