‘Embrace digitalization’. Easy said, but banks that want to thrive in the digital era need to remove friction for the customer. And change the language they use, according to Ilan Buganim, Chief Technology Officer and Chief Data Officer at Bank Leumi. In an interview with VMware, he highlighted how the way we bank is changing and what that means for both customers and their banks. “First of all, to show their differentiation, banks need to be much more proactive. Yesterday, when a customer wanted to speak to a bank, they needed to understand how the bank works.”
“Tomorrow, the bank will need to learn what makes banking easier for the customer; Where the customer resides, and if it’s easier for them to communicate via WhatsApp or Messenger.”
So this means that while banking will get easier for customers. “It will make the life of the banks much more difficult because every bank will need to build a digital differentiator, and that can only be done with innovation.”
Buganim’s insights are based not on theory, but hard evidence and real experience. In 2017 Bank Leumi launched Pepper, its innovative mobile banking service. “We said that we wanted to be the Google or Facebook of the financial industry. Furthermore, to get there we needed to create a mobile bank focusing on millennials; providing customers with more transparency and speaking to them in a very simple language.”
Digitalization = sustainable growth
Pepper is an entirely mobile banking experience. The process of opening an account takes just minutes. After which customers can access current account facilities and an active credit line directly to their phone. Since it is built on unique technology that can help customers better manage their finances, the Pepper service gets to know its users, customises relevant content, and offers a personalised banking experience.
The results speak for themselves. As Buganim says, Pepper has seen ‘very strong, sustainable growth’ in bringing in new customers. And who are very happy with the results. With increased personalization we are providing a totally new way of banking, that comes with more customer-friendly language.”
VMware’s cloud infrastructure allows Pepper to be much more flexible and able to deploy new features to the customer quickly. Building on the experiences it gained from building Pepper, Bank Leumi and VMware now offer an advanced digital banking platform for banks to help them embrace digitalization. “We think we can be an accelerator with this platform. We can also work together with them to introduce this platform which is adapted to their needs and markets.”
In this video, Buganim and Manasee Dash of VMware discuss in more detail the impact Pepper has had. And how Bank Leumi and VMware’s partnership can help bring banks into the digital era. Discover how banks need to adapt in order to provide a frictionless experience for customers.
