Following the recent KPMG report on UK Challenger banks “The 
game changers” one of the interesting insights presented is that technology will play a significant role to the development and competitive advantage of each bank provided they are focused on cost and differentiation. “The future of Challengers is technology” is mentioned as one key highlight. Download the report
To overcome competition organisations need to differentiate in cost or service, however the results are that the cost levels are similar to both the challenger banks and big five while the utilisation of technology such as digital banking and flexible systems significantly contribute to differentiation. A number of new start-up banks who are emerging aim at focusing on offering a digital experience to the customer with online and mobile platforms. Definitely the branch plays a key role to the consumer however the flexibility and cost efficiencies provided enable the challenger banks to experience return on investment. Such focus on technology as a differentiator is also becoming apparent in other reports and articles from established publications and organisations stating that financial services institutions need to invest in digital technologies and in flexible set-up. Challenger banks have the benefit of creating opportunities for an agile ebusiness environment for both the organisation and their clients with more cost-effective network management. In addition, the financial technology (FinTech) also creates opportunities for the banking sector to provide automation of services directly to end customer, ranging from Investments to payments and more. This is a way to innovate and offer the grounds for further collaboration with financial institutions with a win-win outcome.
FMS.next, Profile’s banking platform, is a modern and agile banking platform that has already been selected by one of the newly launched challenger bank presented in the aforementioned report. Main reasons being the flexibility, modularity, easy integration with other systems and intuitive interface that is offered to both the users and customers.
