Today, at The Berkeley Hotel in Knightsbridge, Owen James is hosting the 21st Bank and Brand Meeting of Minds for Retail Financial Services. The objective of this event is to provide a platform for the biggest retail banks and brands to work through the key challenges they are facing and explore new partnership opportunities to grow their business.
We have a fantastic array of business models represented and to give you a snapshot of the audience:
- On average each firm has over 365K customers.
- The day is all about exploring new partnership opportunities to stretch your brands and do more business, so it was great to see that two thirds of the audience are looking to grow their involvement in financial services and three quarters of them are looking to increase their product range.
- At the moment they typically partner with six providers to increase revenue; customer acquisition; and client retention.
- A word of warning to the providers out there, their pet hate is indiscriminate marketing so use this opportunity to get to know each other.
So what’s keeping them up at night? - When we asked them what was keeping them up at night, there were no surprises that keeping abreast of regulation is top of the list. The cost and the burden of rising regulation continue to be the biggest challenge facing all our communities. Other challengers can be simplified into three camps… keeping up with the technology and digital evolution; understanding changing customer behaviours and how they manage the data; and of course competition from all fronts.
What products do they think will grow over the next five years? – The table below lists the products the Retail Banks and Brands feel have the greatest potential for growth. Lots of later life products at the top of the list which is of no surprise give our aging society and the recent pension freedoms.
Who will be the winners and losers in the next five year? - Unsurprisingly digital is king and the Challenger Banks also fared well. You still see bricks and mortar as a challenge and predict consolidation amongst the traditional industries. We were particularly surprised at how aggressively you felt the retail banks and high street brands would consolidate.
For the full overview of what our audience are feeling or to get involved in the next Meeting that is happening Thursday 10th October please do get in touch either on hannahjackson@owenjamesgroup.com or 01483 862694.