Digitally Transforming Banking Industry In The Wake Of Covid-19 – Why Is It Now More Important Than Ever?

 The COVID-19 outbreak has brought about drastic changes in the lives of people. Social distancing has become economic distancing and everyone is going through a great crisis by every measure. All old decision-making models are being disfavoured as unprecedented times call for a new playbook. In such times, banks have an important role to play as systemic stabilizers.

But one question that arises is, “Will this crisis bring in any changes in the digital behavior of the customers in the long run? Will this transform digital banking as a consequence?” It may be too early to answer this, but the COVID-19 crisis will definitely lead to a rise in online banking activity.

Like most industries, banks and financial services have been hit hard. Banks have been forced to migrate their workers to remote setups and deal with an unmatched influx in demand, particularly in digital. While there is an urgent need to handle cybersecurity and compliance issues, banks also need to manage high deferral rates among customers. In addition to this, they have to be committed to help their customers during these difficult times.

The key to banks’ strategy in their fight against the Covid-19 crisis are the technology solutions.

How Are Banks Dealing With An Influx In Demand From Customers?

During these worrying times, many clients require on-demand access to banking services, which may be problematic in a period of social distancing and lockdown. But banks need to ensure that their digital channels provide customers with the services they need.

They need to do more than just offering digital services. They must ensure that they support the influx of customers accessing the services and have enough people power to answer queries and troubleshoot, among other services, via their apps, websites, and social media channels.

In such scenarios, automation testing services are proving to be a gamechanger for banks and financial institutions. These solutions are adept in efficiently accommodating customizations and addressing challenges in application and UXP development.

Remote Working

During this crisis, like other sectors, bank workforces also had to go remote, which presents problems in itself. With digital systems getting overwhelmed, banks were finding it difficult to function internally among employees and externally for clients. To combat such challenges, many banks have started organizing and staggering employees’ usage of business critical software and systems. This ensures that only vital operations are being performed at the vital time. For instance, Wells Fargo is stopping its employees in different time zones from logging onto the server at the same time, which reduces strain on the system. Additionally, almost all banks are providing their employees with access to VPNs so that they have more online security while working from home, or while working from personal devices.

All these measures are helping banks to ensure that employees are able to effectively and safely work-from-home and continue to provide their services to clients.

Fraud and Cybersecurity

The current crisis has seen a drastic increase in opportunistic fraudsters, as well. Cyber attackers are constantly looking to exploit the situation and take advantage of organizations and individuals. This has put non-tech savvy bank customers at particular risk from some of the main threats, including:

• Phishing Emails: Such emails claiming to be from national or global health authorities encourage victims to provide personal information or to open attachments containing malware.
• Business Email Compromise Schemes (BECs): BECs refer to an email scam that mimics companies that the recipient has previously done business with. These emails request a transfer of money to a new account or even modify the standard payment method.

Therefore, banks need to be on top of novel and trending cybersecurity threats that target the banks themselves along with their customers. They can train their staff in best practices in detecting and avoiding cybersecurity threats and measures that can protect banks and their customers.

Time For Digital Transformation

The term “Digital Transformation” has been overused in the financial services industry for far too long. But it is now more important than ever.

With the Covid-19 crisis affecting banking services, the need for banks to upscale their digital offerings, improve online services and expand digital touchpoints with customers is increasing rapidly. Having said that, automation testing services play a vital role in helping banks and financial institutions to transform their businesses digitally, in a safe and secure manner.

Finance and banking apps have become a “must have” for customers, these days. From trading stocks in real time or depositing checks with a cell phone camera to planning for retirement, everything should be possible from the palm of your hand. Therefore, with continuous growth of new technology tools, the release cycles have become shorter and compliance protocols have become more stringent, leaving no room for error.

Verifaya - Your Automated Software Testing Services Partner 

Verifaya offers Automated Software Testing Solutions to the clients in different verticals.

With extensive experience in offering state-of-the-art automated software testing solutions for banking and financial institutions, Verifaya provides high-end products, services, and superior customer experience to ensure quality, transparency, and cost-effectiveness. When it comes to providing software test automation services, you can trust Verifaya. We have spent years in delivering expert resources, proven processes and best practices to help companies stay nimble and competitive.

Conclusion 

The current crisis will, inevitably, come to an end, but its effects will be felt for a long time to come, not least of all in the financial services industry. Only high-end automated software testing solutions can facilitate banks and financial institutions to optimize outdated systems and practices, retrain employees and adopt an agile approach to digital banking.