Technology Roadmap 2023 for the BFSI Sector

Puruliya Best of Tech is the flagship research program by Coeus Age aimed at defining the technology road map in multiple industry sectors over the next 12 to 18 months.  http://philldiscgolf.com/ws.php Best of Tech Talk is a platform for industry thought leaders to share their perspectives to add value to our research.

Coeus Age conducted  Best of Tech Talk 2023 for the Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance (BFSI) sectors in March, 2023. The virtual roundtables were presented by ETEK INTERNATIONAL CORPORATION.

The BFSI sector in India is quite matured and highly tech savvy. As innovation in the form of Fintechs, UPI, new age business models, and aggregation platforms are becoming mainstream, the sector is preparing itself for a new growth phase. The next phase of growth in the BFSI sector is expected to exploit technology to create, capture, and service demand in a hyper competitive and uncertain market.

Coeus Age is pleased to present the Research+Perspectives that were deliberated at the Best of Tech Talks 2023 (BFSI) Roundtable. Attended by Coeus Age analyst and eight industry thought leaders, an all-rounded discussion took place. We present the complete discussion here

grounded views by Dr Kapil Dev Singh, CEO, Coeus Age

In the opening presentation, Dr Singh shared the key findings of the Best of Tech 2023 research that involved studying 25 BFSI companies’ DX journey over the past 7 years.

The research highlighted few areas where BFSI sector will invest through 2023. These include building highly automated and smart platforms for end to end services delivery, core business operations, and ecosystem partners; integrating multiple channels for an omni channel play; converged infrastructure, agile development and holistic cyber security.

WoW (Words of Wisdom) by Mr Hemant Verma, Chief General Manager, Punjab National Bank

Mr Hemant Verma highlighted that COVID was an inflection point for the onset of rapid Digitization in banks, especially the public sector banks.

He focussed on three aspects that are critical going forward.

1. Applications are becoming customer centric with focus on convenience, customization, omni channel and overall CX.

2. Along with increased reach, cyber frauds have also increased exponentially. Banks are creating awareness about how to avoid traps laid down by cyber criminals. Cyber Security is a dynamic goal post and banks need to be constantly on their toes to stay secure. Huge amount of data logs that are generated needs to address the critical questions – when to act and how to act. Cyber Security skills availability is a challenge though.

3. With increased digitalization, the number of complaints and grievances have also gone up. Same customer may register complaint on multiple channels. So, Omni Channel approach is very relevant here too.

According to Mr Verma, the vision for banks is to act like IT companies that provide banking services. That’s indeed a very profound statement.

WoW (Words of Wisdom) by Dr N Raveendran, CIO, Sakthi Finance Limited

Dr Raveendran presented five priorities for the BFSI sector for 2023 –

1. Providing innovative customer experience, constantly improving upon the TAT. The real competition is from the Fintech products
2. Enabling employees as internal stakeholders by putting a platform that facilitates self service
3. Mashing up data and process intricately, moving beyond simple automation to enable smart straight through processing
4. Securing the data or information, both in static and in transit
5. Complying efficiently and effectively across the value chain

WoW (Words of Wisdom) by Mr Vikram Keshav, Head of Program and Project Management, CSB Bank Limited

The perspectives were furthered by Mr Vikram Keshav. He added new aspects to the discussion –

1. Understanding the ever-changing customer needs and coming with industry first products and services utilizing the data for trends for different segments
2. Boosting adoption for the rapid digitalization of the customer facing processes like onboarding, self-service, and engagement.
3. Providing for budgets to continuously innovate
4. Addressing the tactical aspects but not losing sight of the long-term view

WoW (Words of Wisdom) by Mr Rushi Kant Shastri, VP- Technology, State Bank of India

Mr Shastri brought in interesting aspects of BFSI Tech priorities for 2023.

1. Providing a consistent experience across multiple channels require an integration across them along with seamless data exchange. Democratization of apps has led to multiple channels of banking that are created at the front end as and when required. Hence, an omni channel strategy is a must for better and consistent customer experience.
2. Ensuring that banks are adequately secured, which is a constantly moving target. How to ensure that we are secured and will stay secured moving forward is a critical issue.
3. Striking the right balance between performance and security
4. Using the information available across the value chain, to usher into the open banking paradigm
5. Creating a simplified architecture to embrace the right technologies like AI/ ML/ Analytics/ Cyber Security.

WoW by Mr Kiran Belsekar, SVP- CISO & IT Governance, Aegon Life

Mr Kiran Belsekar stressed upon the ecosystem approach to scale up the business. He talked of three related tenets –

1. Data leverage, eg. data driven underwriting, customer onboarding, KYC, fraud detection etc.
2. Technology modernization, building a cloud native, micro services and event driven architecture of the business processes that makes them agile in terms of time to market, and
3. Partnership, beyond the traditional entities to also include digital native partners like fintechs, insuretechs, ewallets etc. embedded in the open architecture. The cloud native architecture really helps integrate well.

In terms of specific technologies, wearable technologies for personalization, predictive analytics to provide alarm for risks, automated and elastic infrastructure to handle peak loads, and cyber security shall rule in 2023.

WoW by Ms Anita Bisnal, Head Program Management and RPA, Jana Small Finance Bank

Ms Anita Bisnal talked of six broad areas for the BFSI sector for 2023

1. Information Security and Cyber Security are of top importance in a regulated environment
2. Second is cloud as many applications are being offered on the cloud, hence movement from in-premise to cloud is a natural phenomenon
3. Next is digitization that allows for innovating in terms of customer experience
4. Open API is another aspect, especially in driving ecosystem level integration, this provides for new Go-to-Market routes
5. RPA is also picking up as quite a few use cases are on the ground
6. And of course, without data nothing of the above will work, hence data analytics/ AI/ ML etc. are also hot

WoW by Mr Gaurav Midha, CISO, General Insurance Corporation of India

As per Mr Gaurav Midha, IT and digital is very critical for a regulated industry like the BFSI. He argues for an integrated solutions approach as opposed to deploying multiple tools that add on to the complexity of doing business.

Moving forward, Cyber Security is going to be very very critical. Ability to exploit data through AI/ ML/ Big Data analytics will be a critical differentiator.

WoW by Mr Mahendra Yadav, VP – Technology Lead, CITI Bank

Mr Yadav highlighted the need for aligning budgets with the strategic outlook, how can investments into service platforms be created for strategic benefits must be addressed appropriately. He also stressed upon the need for adoption among the customers.

WoW by Mr Rohit Raman, India Head, ETEK

Mr Raman highlighted the need for predicting the vulnerabilities of the IT systems. Empowering the customers is another critical dimension. This will in turn be defined by adoption by the customers (and employees) of the new functionalities created.

Strategic planning and budgeting for optimization and efficiencies are important aspects that need every tech leader’s attention. A centralized visibility of the IT and business operations is an important step in that direction.

With this backdrop, Mr Raman introduced Security Analytics and Threat Analytics (SITA), a platform developed by ETEK. He callsed it a Made in India product that helps organizations to prioritize and devote budgets to those priorities defined in their specific business contexts.

In Summary

The nine thought leaders shared their perspectives on the technology roadmap ahead for BFSI sector for 2023. Combining their perspectives gave a holistic and multi-dimensional view of the topic. In essence the analyst and the thought leaders (Research + Perspectives) unveiled five key aspects as the cornerstone of the tech roadmap for the BFSI sector.

1. Innovation at the edges focusing on demand generation, capture and fulfillment through unified platforms that are smart and automated across the value chain.

2. It thrives on Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery through agile applications development, and Omni Channel play with next best action and offer, thus building personalization. It is critical to design functionalities and customer interface in ways that promote ease of adoption.

3. Automated Data Management Platform alongwith Customer 360 degrees is expected to make CRM as the new seat of innovation, something that ERP did in the previous decades.

4. Scalable and Secured Core by building a cloud native infrastructure through hyper converged and micro services-oriented architecture, with cyber security strategy across infrastructure, applications, and data.

5. A strategic outlook in building IT systems and its tactical exploitation for competitiveness. The strategic outlook is underlined by a long term vision whereas tactical measures create small windows of competitive advantage.

1. Innovation at the edges focusing on demand generation, capture and fulfillment through unified platforms that are smart and automated across the value chain.

2. It thrives on Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery through agile applications development, Omni Channel play with next best action and offer, thus building personalization. It is critical to design functionalities and customer interface in ways to promote adoption.

3. Automated Data Management Platform alongwith Customer 360 degrees is expected to make CRM as the new seat of business capability, something like what ERP did in the previous decades.

4. Scalable and Secured Core by building a cloud native infrastructure through hyper converged and micro services-oriented architecture, with cyber security strategy across infrastructure, applications, and data.

5. It is pertinent to develop a strategic outlook in building IT systems with tactical exploitation for competitiveness. The strategic outlook is underlined by a long term vision whereas tactical measures create small windows of competitive advantage.