Even before the events of 2020 pandemic, Australian and New Zealand consumers were embracing banking on the go. A RFI global digital banking study shows that 73% of consumers are using a mobile app to do their banking, with a significant increase of 12% over the past two years. The uptake of mobile banking apps has risen dramatically across all demographics, bringing with it new vulnerabilities.

Michael Phillipou brings a unique combination of skills to his new role as CEO of Sandstone Technology – including that of an Australian Football League pundit. In an exclusive interview with Fintech Finance, Phillipou talk tactics as he maps out his plans to expand on the back of open banking.

The value of a single, authoritative customer view is well established, and offers many advantages, from segmentation to risk reduction and customer retention. But as Sandstone Technology Chief Customer Officer Ross Watts, explains, there are three major hurdles to be overcome for incumbents.

At a time when it’s easier to switch than ever before, single customer view is a powerful retention and capture tool in the fight for market share, according to Sandstone Technology Chief Customer Office Ross Watts. There are two main battlegrounds for banks generally, says Watts. The first is achieving ‘main financial institution’ status with a customer, meaning that the bank holds the customer’s main transaction account. And the second is the home loan.

Straight-through processing (STP), powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), isn’t just going to take the manual element out of loan applications. It’s going to help us turn open banking into an opportunity, it’s going to personalise customer interactions and shape banking strategy well into the future.

Customers today have come to expect a level of personalisation while interacting with everyday brands. Technology companies like Amazon, Netflix, and Facebook have recognised the opportunity personalisation can offer organisations and have advanced their service offering through personalised experiences in order to meet constantly evolving customer expectations.

In the first half of 2021, Australians have experienced a major bottleneck in loan application approvals. Lenders continue to struggle as a hot residential property market fuels consumer demand, and as businesses seek to finance a strong recovery post COVID.

During the pandemic, at a time when many SMEs needed their banks’ support the most, they were let down by a major service gap. Outdated digital banking solutions are a big part of this ongoing problem. Banks have traditionally focused on servicing the high-volume retail and enterprise/corporate segments, and neglected small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs). While neobanks have jumped in to fill the gap with products and services targeted to SME needs and challenges, traditional banks continue to lag behind.

As big data becomes a fact of life for both consumers and banks, it introduces new avenues for creating revenue streams. Banking leaders recognise that the capability to extract and use data held within their business operations - and to automate document processes in their value chain, give tremendous competitive advantage.

The COVID-19 pandemic has left Australia in an environment of low interest rates and reduced stability in earnings caused by government-imposed lockdowns, strategic business changes such as operations, budget cuts and redundancies that affect daily operations and budgets and employment, as well as changes in economic trends; these trends majorly affecting sectors including travel, finance, brick and mortar retail and hospitality, with flow-on effects within the broader economy.