The Record - Issue 21: Summer 2021

109 digital channels faster than they have in the past. Online banking use has risen by 23 per cent, and mobile banking use is up by 30 per cent. These changes are likely to be permanent, accelerating the migration to digital channels by three to four years over pre-crisis trends. What’s more, with over half (57 per cent) of con- sumers now preferring internet banking, up from 49 per cent pre-Covid-19, and 55 per cent prefer- ring banking mobile apps, compared with 47 per cent previously, the stakes have risen further. What’s important for banks to realise, however, is that digitisation is no longer solely about pro- viding self-service offerings; it’s about providing deeply personalised and differentiated customer experiences across channels. While Ofcom’s 2020 Online Nation report found that over 80 per cent of time spent online is now spent on mobile devices, research from Deloitte has revealed that 94 per cent of mobile banking customers access their bank from their desktop at least once amonth.This highlights the importance of not only providing customers with a choice of channels, but allowing them to switch from one to another without disrupting or fragmenting their journey – and allowing access to the same sup- port, whichever channel they choose. Digitisation is an area of focus for global financial services firm Morgan Stanley, who is collaborating with Microsoft on its cloud- first and multi-cloud strategy. The partnership will enable the transition of workloads onto Microsoft Azure, resulting in a modern, more flexible and scalable environment, improved employee experience and higher developer innovation, better service, insights and connec- tivity to clients. The second trend is personalisation – which respondents in the Microsoft study believe is the key to delivering exceptional customer experi- ences. As one marketing executive for an enter- prise capital markets firm stated: “Tailoring and personalising services for customers is some- thing that will redefine the customer experience in the financial services industry.” “Customers are moving to digital channels faster than they have in the past. Online banking use has risen by 23 per cent, and mobile banking use is up by 30 per cent.” F I NANC I A L S E R V I C E S