Introduction

Has fear of making the wrong decision inhibited truly valuable progression within the financial services industry? Defining and designing a five-year road map of service offerings and consumer journeys in an increasingly complex market is tougher than ever, and often results in a focus
on short-term wins where outcomes can be quantified and recognized much more quickly.

As the pace of change within society operates at a much greater rate than advancements within the industry, shifting the focus from reactive customer services to meaningfully planning for the future quite often requires a new mindset and turning current priorities on their head.

Is Industry Inertia Holding Us Back?

Disruption: an opportunity or a risk?

Digital disruption has led to a huge shift across the banking and payments landscape. In the last few years, digital payments have seen a meteoric rise, powered by new technologies and consumer uptake. Digital progression has also removed many of the barriers between channels, giving consumers more choice and better accessibility than ever before. As a result, fewer transactions now happen in person. Even for those that do, there are a range of available payment options
to choose from.

It’s clear that public opinion on cash varies and whilst some people regularly use notes as one of their payment options, others always rely on digital options. However, for many reasons, cash is still seen as a vital payment method—and it’s not disappearing nearly as fast as predicted. As global GDP rises, the value of cash in circulation is still increasing to meet demand. In fact, research shows that only two out of 47 global economies have decreased the amount of cash in circulation over the last few years1.

It’s also clear that the infrastructure and physical costs of supplying and managing cash can be very expensive to maintain using a traditional approach and legacy processes. With cash operations still accounting for an average 5-10% of a bank’s entire operating costs2, it can seem a painful burden for cost-conscious financial institutions.

Although cash usage is predicted to continue its decline over the coming years, it is still expected to remain at more than four billion cash transactions per year by 20323, so more efficient cash infrastructures and processes are absolutely vital.