Category Archives: Finance News

FInance, Finance News, News

Wesleyan Bank provides new block facility to support Genesis’ CBILS drive

Genesis Asset Finance (Genesis) has secured a new £1 million block discounting facility from Wesleyan Bank. The additional funding will enable Genesis to continue to support businesses under the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS), as well as underpinning its own growth ambitions.

To date, Genesis has approved over £1.1 million of CBILS facilities for existing and new customers in a range of sectors across England and Wales. Since its formation in 2000, the independent family-run business has provided over £10 million of funding to UK SMEs.

Wesleyan Bank launched its block discounting offering at the beginning of this year. Despite the impact of COVID-19, it has approved a number of significant wholesale finance facilities for asset related investments and general working capital requirements. In addition, the specialist commercial finance provider has expanded its back-office support and wholesale expertise to meet rising demand.

Richard Baker, Head of Block Discounting at Wesleyan Bank, comments, “We’ve remained open for business and have been talking to potential new customers throughout the pandemic. In addition, we’ve utilised this period to proactively develop and speed-up our internal processes and systems. We’re building facilities around our partners’ needs and are pleased to complement Genesis’s existing portfolio of wholesale funders.”

Andrew Frost, Director at Genesis Asset Finance, says, “This new facility from Wesleyan Bank complements our existing financing sources and enables us to continue to support businesses let down by other lenders at a time of significant economic uncertainty. The facility terms offered were very competitive and Wesleyan Bank’s service focused approach mirrors our own business model in going the extra mile to put customer relationships at the heart of all we do.”

COVID-19, Finance News, News, Research

60% of leaders re-evaluating investment in change & transformation since COVID-19 – but only a third are committing to higher spend

New research from Gobeyond Partners, the consulting firm focused on customer journey transformation, and Webhelp, Europe’s leading provider of outsourced customer engagement services, has today revealed that over 60% of business leaders are re-evaluating how much they will be investing in change and transformation since COVID-19, yet only a third of survey respondents are committing to a higher spend in this area.  

Gobeyond Partners and Webhelp surveyed 500 respondents at director level and above across a range of industries about the impact of COVID-19 on their businesses. By combining Webhelp’s expertise in customer engagement with Gobeyond Partners’ customer journey design and transformation capabilities, the two organisations were able to evaluate the impact of COVID-19 across a number of key areas and offer recommendations to businesses as they start to plan towards a post pandemic world. When it comes to the issue of transformation, the research highlights the value of an intelligent use of rightsourcing* which will be crucial for businesses to establish the most cost effective and relevant solutions to support the flexibility and speed needed during this transition period. 

Change and transformation are two of a number of data points highlighted in the joint research and accompanying report by Gobeyond Partners and Webhelp which explores how consumers arenow demanding more human experiences, even in digital environments, and why organisations must balance agility and adaptability against a clear focus on maximising value from investment in transformation.

Mark Palmer, CEO of Gobeyond Partners comments on the findings: “As the urgency for change and transformation intensifies in our new reality, it raises some pivotal questions. How different willservice look and feel in the future? How will businesses and their operations need to adapt? And how can employers engage and support their colleagues to deliver on new customer promises? The engineering of an authentic human experience in the digital world will need a delicate balance, and companies will need to work hard to create service transformation that satisfies both these needs. This may expose a lack of capability and flexibility inherent in many organisations, due to a lack of investment. For brands to survive, leaders can no longer pay lip service to digital transformation and digital must be fully integrated into the overall operating model.”

Other key findings from the joint research include:

  1. 70% of businesses have seen a direct impact to their bottom line as a result of COVID-19, with more than half being negatively affected. 
  2. These financial impacts are expected to last, with more than 80% of respondents believing they will be financially impacted for six months or more and 50% expecting their finances to be affected for more than a year. 
  3. Companies that have been affected negatively by COVID-19 are twice as likely to expect cuts to their transformation budgets after the pandemic has subsided.

Craig Gibson, Chief Growth Officer at Webhelp Group continues: “Overall whilst budgets may reduce, spend on individual change and transformation programmes should not be reduced commensurately. Instead, the entire change portfolio should be reviewed and reprioritised. Now is the time to focus on and invest in a critical, clear and concise set of priorities, which the whole organisation can communicate and contribute to. This will ensure that the most critical agenda items will accelerate, without depleting vital cash reserves.”

*Rightsourcing is the process involved in selecting the best way to deliver services based on what a business needs resulting in the most appropriate sourcing arrangement to help organisations meet their strategic goals. 

Finance News, News

Why alternative lenders mustn’t be frozen out during Covid-19 crisis

By Douglas Grant, Director of Conister Finance & Leasing Limited

There are around 5.9 million small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs, or any business with fewer than 250 employees) in the UK according to the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills. Seen to be the backbone of any healthy economy, they drive growth, create a group of skilled and semi-skilled workers, generate competition and encourage innovation across a range of industries, as well as supporting future industrial and business expansion in the country. They keep the business sector energised, generating a healthy flow of new skills and ideas.

Since 2008, alternative lenders have risen in prominence, working alongside larger more traditional clearing banks, offering a funnel of vital liquidity through tailored and flexible lending solutions to SMEs. Today there are significant amounts of private capital (often referred to as dry powder) waiting to be invested in resilient SMEs and the market share of clearing banks has fallen significantly in a far more diversified lending sector. In the last 12 years, banks have also become much better capitalised than during the Global Financial Crisis. Previously businesses could service debt from remaining cash flows with little or no capital for investment which resulted in a zombie status for many UK SME borrowers. Today, the environment is very different although this trend has not disappeared. In fact, as a result of Covid-19, it is estimated the trend could develop further given the potential that businesses may build up £100 billion of debt1 by next March.

The UK Government has been quick to back sectors post Covid-19 that are resilient to recessions and market volatility, providing financial security and protection through initiatives such as the bounce-back loans scheme. This is where alternative lenders that understand the very basic needs of specialist SMEs, often in their lending infancy and operating in sectors such as infrastructure, technology and renewables, can provide the additional support and natural lending progression alongside the larger clearing banks. Alternative lenders understand the characteristics of specialist SMEs and with the flexibility they offer, empower their staff to make judgement calls on capital requirements.

The economy though is facing a double dip recession that could last well into late 2021 and it will need these resilient sectors to be protected with their existence guaranteed. Many clearing banks are working tirelessly to process emergency loan applications but with pressures piling up – for example from within their mortgage lending divisions – a lot of SMEs will become unsustainable, with some estimates predicting 780,0001 insolvent SMEs. It was concerning therefore to see that alternative lenders are potentially unlikely to receive much financing from the Bank of England to deliver emergency government loans. It is crucial that clearing banks pass on finance from the Bank of England to alternative lenders and find a way to make it work on commercial terms. SMEs must have a tripartite level of support from Government, alternative and traditional lenders working together in these difficult times.

As traditional banks deal with the impact of Covid-19 around their balance sheets, it is likely that they will have to pause financing discussions around succession and growth financing as well as recapitalisations, in order to redirect resources to addressing an enormous influx of CBILS applications from capital-starved SMEs. Those resilient SMEs who have weathered the pandemic best in their sector will be able to benefit from the potential acquisition opportunities to increase their market share and will need capital to carry this out. Alternative lenders have the know-how and flexibility to help process this type of financing quickly and effectively. Without legacy loan books and unencumbered by CBILS applications coupled with high levels of dry powder, alternative lenders working together with clearing banks can help to execute rapid credit decisions on flexible terms.

The UK business sector as a whole needs both more financial support for the alternative lending sector which is working together with traditional banks but also more sustainable initiatives to support SMEs in more resilient sectors from the Bank of England as we come to terms with an increasingly capital hungry economy – an issue that necessitates urgent attention.

FInance, Finance News, News, News from Wales, North Wales, Recruitment News

Flintshire recruitment company is the right candidate for post-COVID growth thanks to RBS support

Recruitment and training services provider, Enbarr Enterprises, has secured a £300,000 funding package from Royal Bank of Scotland Invoice Finance to support the business through the coronavirus pandemic and drive forward growth plans.

The Flintshire-based company, which specialises in recruitment and upskilling workforces in organisations in the manufacturing, distribution, innovation and space, engineering, and third sector industries, will use the funding to boost cashflow until lockdown restrictions are fully lifted.

Enbarr’s Managing Director, Vicki Roskams, founded the business in 2015 to help clients with their recruitment, training requirements and upskilling their current workforce. The business also works with candidates in the local area looking for new roles. Before the coronavirus pandemic hit, the firm expected to turnover up to £3 million this year.

However, the impact of lockdown meant hiring ambitions for many of Enbarr’s clients were put on hold. And, while the business quickly pivoted into training key sectors like skilled cleaning for COVID-19 to secure workplaces, demand for Enbarr’s core services dropped in lockdown.

The funding from NatWest will allow Enbarr to see through this challenging period while providing enough supporting capital to allow the business to continue its growth plans once lockdown restrictions are lifted. The funding has also been used to upgrade Enbarr’s IT and digital connectivity to make it easier for its customers to access its services online.

The additional capital will also support the recruitment and training firm as it brings its two key members of staff back from furlough.

Vicki said: “The last six months have been challenging to say the least and without this funding and support, I believe the future sustainability and story of our organisation would not have been so positive.”

“The team at NatWest have supported us from the beginning of the pandemic and as a result, we should be in a strong enough position to continue with our growth ambitions after lockdown and once our full team have returned to the office.”

Bathgate Leasing Limited introduced Vicki to Business Development Managers, Maria Fraughan and Steven Phillips.

Steven said: “Recruitment & Training businesses like Enbarr rely on a strong economy and active job market, so when both were impacted by lockdown, it was important that we stepped in and helped as much as possible.

“Considering the company is only five years old, Enbarr has an impressive turnover and that’s testament to Vicki and her team’s drive to grow the business. We’re confident they’ll come out of this stronger and meet the company’s future growth ambitions.”

Contract Wins, Creative News, Finance News, Marketing, PR and SEO, News

OpenMoney appoints Havas Media Manchester as media planning and buying agency of record as it seeks to revolutionise the financial advice and mortgage categories

OpenMoney, the financial platform with a mission to make financial advice affordable and accessible for everyone, has selected Havas Media Manchester as its media planning and buying agency of record, with a significant seven-figure annual spend. The appointment follows a competitive pitch against three agencies.

Havas Media Manchester will now partner with OpenMoney to develop media planning and buying strategies to support the launch of a major brand campaign as well as its new mortgage proposition, Home by OpenMoney.

The ground-breaking mortgage product will be aimed at first time buyers who have no experience and little access to the mortgage world. Home by OpenMoney will offer these consumers completely free and impartial support and advice on every aspect of the home buying process, with access to real-time updates via its app and portal.

OpenMoney’s media planning and buying was previously handled by Wavemaker.

Anthony Morrow, CEO, OpenMoney, said: “‘We were hugely impressed by Havas Media’s strategic approach, which centred around positioning Home by OpenMoney as an enabler for community, as well as their understanding of our brand and business challenges. We’re very much looking forward to partnering with them as we continue to disrupt the financial advice industry in order to make it work better for everyday people.”

Stuart Lunn, Managing Director, Havas Media Manchester, said: “We’re delighted to have been appointed by OpenMoney. They’re making ground-breaking strides in providing exceptional and affordable financial advice to everyone, and they’re an inspirational business, with great products and even better people. As two likeminded, disruptive brands, we cannot wait to begin our journey together.”

FInance, Finance News, Fleet Management

The Countdown to PSD2: Expert opinion

With the next phase of the second Payment Services Directive (PSD2) still set to take place on December the 31st, financial services(FS) organisations across Europe are running out of time to ensure compliance.

Intended to promote “the development of innovative online and mobile payments, more secure payments and better consumer protection” PSD2 is designed to “modernise Europe’s payment services”. This particular deadline will include a new regulatory requirement; Strong Consumer Authentication (SCA) – designed to tackle fraud and make electronic payments more secure. It represents an essential step towards increased consumer protection.

But, under this Payment Service Providers will become fully responsible for payments that are not correctly executed. Unless users of these services act fraudulently, or out of gross negligence, they will be responsible for refunding consumers. In order to avoid the potential financial and reputational damage that non-compliance would bring, FS organisations need to be prepared.

With the deadline looming, here are the thoughts of some industry experts:

Simon Marchand, Chief Fraud Prevention Officer at Nuance Communications 

“The PSD2 not only seeks to reflect technological change, but to promote digital innovation by facilitating the market entry of new types of service providers. It aims to provide greater transparency over transactions in order to improve consumer protection and strengthen the security of payments. 

“In order to achieve this, in its next round, the legislation will include a new regulatory requirement aimed at making online payments more secure; Strong Customer Authentication. This will call for the relevant parties to incorporate at least two of the following three elements: a password or PIN, smartphone or hardware token or biometric authentication. Today, organisations will be asking themselves, how do we maintain compliance and meet that December deadline while – at the same time – reducing friction for our customers?” The answer to that is, in our opinion, the “something you know” aspect should be avoided.  

“PINs or passwords can be forgotten, often leading to a bad experience. Using technologies – such as voice and behavioural biometrics – makes for a seamless customer experience, whilst ensuring the highest levels of security. Users will not need to remember something specific and can simply speak a sentence to be authenticated. And their voice can’t be stolen, unlike passwords. Deploying biometrics provides an opportunity for FS organisations – and others that need to comply with the PSD2 – to clearly sign-point their commitment to tackling fraud and safeguarding their customers’ information.” 

Alberto Pan, Chief Technical Officer at Denodo 

“The next phase of the PSD2 will signify another important step in terms of increased consumer protection. However, for financial organisations needing to comply with the regulation, it’s likely to create some challenges.  

“One of those challenges will come in the form of managing and controlling APIs. The PSD2 normative forces financial organisations to create open APIs in order to expose consumer data to authorised third-parties. These authorised parties can utilise the APIs to initiate payments from customer accounts and to aggregate customer’s financial data.With thousands of users and applications needing access in order to make these transactions, it’s imperative that these APIs are both secure and able to perform, especially with PSD2 making Payment Service Providers fully responsible for refunding consumers when payments are not correctly executed.  

“However, ensuring this high level of performance and security using traditional methods can be a long and costly process, not helped by the fact that financial organisations often store data across many different disparate systems. This is where modern technologies, such as data virtualisation, could help. By providing unified data views across multiple data origins and automatically generating secure APIs to access them without needing to manually create complex custom codes, data virtualisation could be one answer for financial organisations looking to prepare for the newest chapter of PSD2.” 

Monica Hovsepian Global Industry Strategist, Financial Services at OpenText

“The global pressure for open banking is clear. Regulatory bodies around the world are looking for ways to de-monopolise the financial industry to stimulate innovation and provide more options for consumers.

“The introduction of PSD2 means, with customer consent, their data is released in a secure, standardised form, so that it can be shared between authorised organisations online. The purpose is that this information can be used to make more relevant and personalised offers quicker when switching between banks, rather than having to build up a long history with each institution.

“Whilst the FCA recently announced an additional six month delay for PSD2 SCA enforcement, due to the exceptional circumstances of the COVID-19 crisis, PSD2 should no longer be seen as an option; it is something that is on the critical roadmap of every financial institution that wants to stay competitive.

“Globally, some traditional financial institutions are embracing open banking already, such as BBVA, Citi Bank and JPMC. However, others are at risk of falling behind. They are risking the unpleasant possibility of losing customers to newer or more agile competitors.

“They would be well served by embracing change and collaborating with new entrants to build a more open ecosystem. This requires incumbents to modernise legacy systems, develop open APIs for information sharing and easy integrations, and to embrace the new products and services that consumers expect. These changes are critical to expedite and increase engagements in the new digital and connected world.”

Jonathan Jensen, Director of Identity Verification at GBG

“The premise behind SCA is to protect consumers and merchants from fraudsters. But as with many good intentions, the outcome risks being something different. The danger the industry faces is that its implementation will lead to the three “F’s” – friction, frustration and fraud among consumers. And when this leads to abandoned transactions, merchants have a problem.

“SCA requires an additional level of authentication in certain ecommerce and online banking transactions, by providing two out of three elements; something you know, something you have, or something you are. (For example: a phone number combined with a one-time passcode or Face ID).

“SCA is usually implemented for ecommerce via 3DS v2.1 or v2.2. The way SCA is currently deployed for ecommerce typically involves sending a one-time code via text message or email to verify online purchases. However, regulators do not see this method as compliant, so alternatives like biometrics are required. One-time codes can likewise pose problems for consumers when there’s poor mobile coverage or limited WiFi availability, leading to a poor consumer experience overall.  

“Furthermore, guidance being given by banks can be vague – I once received an email stating that when using online banking I would ‘sometimes’ be sent a code to login, and I ‘may’ be asked to use my card reader when carrying out certain transactions. This will likely leave many consumers wondering what’s legitimate and what’s a smishing (SMS phishing) attempt by a bad actor.”

“Dynamic linking between an authentication token for an individual transaction, a set amount and a named merchant is another SCA requirement. However, merchant names often do not exactly match within authorisation and authentication systems and final transaction amounts can vary. These variables can make dynamic linking a challenge.

“But it’s not all bad news; technology is helping to overcome these problems. Digital banks are already exploiting the smart functionality in their apps to present consumers with notifications that require a simple tap to authorise the transaction, combined with a biometric. And there’s technology available that seamlessly carries out the authentication on the consumer’s handset in the background, without them needing to do anything. Payment methods like Apple Pay, for example, don’t require any additional authentication and still let you pay with your usual debit or credit card, as the consumer has already authenticated via Face ID or Touch ID. Innovation will be crucial to the successful implementation of SCA, and ultimately, the ability of merchants and consumers to carry on transacting.”

Business Investment, FInance, Finance News, News

Ace Entrepreneurs launches £25,000 crowdfund to support 10 early stage black-owned businesses

A new crowdfunding initiative has been launched by ACE Entrepreneurs to support early stage black-owned businesses. The ‘small diverse business’ crowdfund is for £25,000, being raised on GoFundMe, which will be distributed to 10 small diverse businesses with initial stage growth investment. Led by businesswoman and entrepreneur Nadine Campbell, ACE Entrepreneurs is a community for diverse entrepreneurs and is also a champion of women in business.

The crowdfund has been launched to tackle a funding gap for black-owned businesses. Currently only 0.67% of UK businesses are black-owned despite black people accounting for 3.3% of the population.* The funding will include business support and upskilling to get the selected businesses to a stage where formal investors would be interested. The businesses will be selected by an expert investment panel. Additionally at least 50% of the businesses selected will also need to be female led with female founding teams getting less than 1% of all funding.**

The expert panel selecting the funding recipients includes: Nadine Campbell, serial entrepreneur and marketing expert, founder of the marketing consultancy The Digital Helpdesk and e-commerce business Mummy Kit; Kevin Edwards, Director at Deutsche Bank and senior international trader; Rashida Adbulai, Founder and CEO at Strand Sahara and Xavier Ballester, Director of Angel Investment Network’s brokerage division.

According to Campbell: “I have launched this initiative following requests directly from the black community, to increase opportunities for funding for small business and to tackle the lack of investment in the diverse community. Looking at and speaking to formal investors, I have noticed that the black community is grossly under-represented as accessible angel investors, which is having a knock on effect on diverse businesses being invested in. As a result, I have become a disruptor in this space.”

She continues: “Thankfully, I have seen there is a rise in investment for female led businesses, which are typically proven to be more successful than male only led businesses. For this reason, I want to focus on diverse led and especially diverse female led business. The fact that diverse entrepreneurs are not seen publicly, means there are generations of people who simply don’t believe starting a business is a viable, long term option. This initiative is intended to help break that cycle and help businesses with that vital first step.”

 

FInance, Finance News, Fintech, News

Use existing banking technology for API-led strategies that attract fintechs

Written by Vidura Gamini Abhaya, Senior Director of Solutions Architecture at WSO2 

Putting regulatory compliance to one side, banks are starting to buy into the necessity for genuinely “doing open banking”. Yet strategies to capitalise on already available technology to achieve this doesn’t receive the same attention as operational and community engagement. Open banking APIs enable the secure sharing of customer data (with customer consent), and consumer products built around this will soon become the norm as seen with the popularity of open banking-based credit alternatives like Creditspring and personal finance management apps like Cleo.  

In every regulated open banking ecosystem, all banks will eventually have the same mandated APIs. Even in non-regulated countries, market forces mean that most banks will end up using open banking-style standardised APIs.  However, standard open banking APIs won’t really benefit the bank in the long run because they only deliver minimal benefits for consumers and third-party providers (TPPs).  

So, how can banks look to benefit more from this new ecosystem with their existing technology capabilities?  

 

The power of collaboration and proactive differentiation 

Many banks are looking to collaborate more proactively with fintechs. Fintechs possess the consumer-centric, agile culture required to rapidly prototype and bring to market innovative new solutions that deliver value to today’s savvy consumers.  

Banks can adopt several strategies when working with fintechs. Those most commonly discussed range from programmes to instill an entrepreneurial agile culture within banks, building and engaging extensively with developer communities, and building internal developer capacity.   

This article will look at 3 key areas on how banks can capitalise more on the API technology layer and support the open banking technology infrastructure they have already invested in to attract and fast-track collaboration with fintechs. Adopting such approaches will help banks establish stronger differentiators to ensure that the best developers and most promising TPPs will work with them. Similarly, these approaches can also help attract partnerships with other banks with complementary goals.  

 

1.      Ensuring fintechs do less when they work with you 

With open banking, banks have the capability to share, receive, and produce data using the same interfaces. For instance, a bank may already have a credit scoring system internally. With the API aggregation capabilities of their open banking platform, the bank can now receive and make use of account, transaction, and credit data from other banks as inputs to fine-tune and produce more accurate outputs using their own credit scoring system.  

Third parties developing either B2B or B2C apps for providing consumers new avenues to access personal loans, property rentals, long-term vehicle hires, and leasing services would find this data extremely useful. Previously, their developers would have to collect, correlate and calculate creditworthiness by themselves. Even where credit scoring is done by a third-party service, this still requires additional work such as collating the information and integrating with another system to submit this information and obtain the credit score. Passing data to different systems requires app developers to follow additional security practices, privacy regulations, and other regulatory requirements. All this is time-consuming and expensive. 

Now, developers can access highly refined credit ratings via a simple one-time API integration, delivering considerable savings and much faster time-to-market. Offering such APIs would help the bank to differentiate and build long-term strategic relationships with TPPs.  

While the bank can make this API available for free to all users, it will need to be enforced with rate-limiting policies to ensure fair usage. A premium monetised version of the same API can also be made available. 

From a technical perspective, the bank can use an integration product such as an enterprise service bus (ESB) to integrate with other banks, for example, to share and view accounts and payment information and credit scores. 

 

2.      Providing higher-quality enriched data 

 Aside from mandatory information being made available under regulated open banking APIs, banks can enrich the data offered and monetise it through additional APIs. This enrichment can be achieved by using additional information from other internal systems at the bank, or by collaborating with external services. 

For example, a bank could integrate with an external service that uses AI and natural language processing (NLP) techniques to calculate credit scores. The bank submits information to this service and the processed output provided by the service is used by the bank in its own credit-worthiness checks. This is an enrichment to the bank’s own credit check and this data can be shared with external app developers through a monetised premium API. The bank can create a new API product through which consumers could obtain standard credit scores as well as the AI-enriched credit scores. Usage of this new API can be monetised and charged back to the consumer per usage or absorbed by the third-party developer. 

 

3. Taking open banking functionality to other industries “as-a-service” 

The new technical capabilities banks acquire as part of an open banking platform could be provided “as a service” to organisations that don’t want to invest heavily in deploying, maintaining, and updating such systems. 

An example is strong customer authentication capabilities and consumer consent management. Banks can extend these capabilities as a service to third-party app developers who can integrate with the bank’s identity and access management service for authentication and pay per number of users. Customers, including incumbent businesses and startups, benefit from not having to invest in a product and maintaining it on their own and by the knock-on effect of the trust consumers already place in the bank’s brand. 

Similarly, together with authentication features, consent management could be used by businesses where they require customer consent to share information with third parties. Hypothetically, a medical clinic with customer medical records in partnership with an insurance provider could use consent management features offered as a service by a bank to share those records, subject to consumer consent, with the insurance provider.  The consent management system at the bank would only need to maintain an identifier to the customer record at the medical clinic (data holder) and a reference to the insurance policy (data recipient). The bank’s system does not need to store any personally identifiable information about the customer giving consent. The insurance app needs to redirect to the bank’s consent management system when it requires to grab consent and verify from the user, just as with open banking scenarios. This service would come inbuilt with the same consent management flows that allow consumers to manage their consent preferences. 

I have outlined three API-led strategies that deliver value to consumers by utilising existing capabilities of open banking solutions. These strategies are set against the reality that APIs are already a baseline requirement in banking. To stand out, proactive experimentation and building the technical capabilities along with the right partnerships are core elements for delivering personalised and timely value to consumers, which in turn builds a bank’s competitive growth strategy in today’s fast-paced digital world.