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Since publishing our inaugural World FinTech Report in early 2017, the financial services industry has been grappling with changes spurred by open banking. Now the stage is set for the transition to an impending future phase we call Open X.Four fundamental shifts in market dynamics exemplify Open X : moves from Product to Experience, Assets to Data, Ownership to Shared Access, and Building or Buying to Partnering. As a result, Open X will allow the industry to leapfrog open banking principles and foster a seamless exchange of resources, improved experience for customers, and expedited product innovation. And although today’s incumbent banks may not be perfectly suited to orchestrate this Open X ecosystem, they can profitably succeed in new roles.
Only a short time ago, the FinTech era dawned, with agile challengers offering customers quick and convenient single services to compete with the bundled-products model of established banks. Today, amid a surge in partnerships and collaborations, banking products and services are being rebundled via a more convenient and fluid platform and the actual provider of any one service seems less critical than banks’ control of touchpoints and ability to deliver superior customer satisfaction.
The open ecosystem of the future will feature emergent new roles that challenge traditional banking assumptions. Firms will be required to assume a position that aligns with their core capabilities and external operating environment. Ecosystem players will strategically decide to act primarily as a Supplier, Aggregator, or Orchestrator. They will work to enhance the value in each of these roles by leveraging data and expanding into non-financial products and services. Incumbent banks that effectively enhance their integrated (traditional) model will be best positioned for success.
The focus should not be legacy products, but on leveraging data that helps to drive customer value, provide integrated services, and enable data and insights-driven decision making. Moreover, technologies such as machine learning, artificial intelligence, and blockchain will increasingly become useful to improve efficiency, foster innovation, and boost the quality of production and distribution of financial services.
Although nascent, the new ecosystem is quickly evolving. Incumbents, newcomers, and third parties will need to collaborate to address and overcome uncertainties and ambiguity around process standardization, regulations, and entity roles.
The emerging open banking ecosystem, invariably to be followed by Open X, provides a broad range of new opportunities. While a few players have taken initial steps forward, many remain unaware of prospects or potential threats.
We believe those players that strategically select complementary partners, adapt their business models, leverage new technologies, and recruit talent with pertinent skill sets will be positioned to grow profitably. First movers and the most prominent players will define new ecosystem roles, standards, and management.
The future is Open X, and our industry must prepare for a new operational age within a shared-marketplace.
