Thanks to digital transformation, the world of finance is evolving rapidly, and advancements in its underlying technology are set to improve the accessibility of advanced.
This democratization of retail investing can be a powerful tool for individuals who would otherwise never have the opportunity or resources to begin their investment journey meaningfully.
Open banking is supported by an expansive network of interconnected technologies and financial ecosystems, which help to provide more personalized solutions for users. For the millions of individuals with insufficient knowledge or access to the tools needed to begin investing meaningfully, the arrival of this transformative technology could fundamentally change their ability to reach savings goals.
Access to open banking is set to become more imperative than ever as younger generations come to terms with an unprecedented transfer of wealth, according to Maxim Manturov, head of investment research at Freedom24. The widespread democratization of investment tools with open banking will fundamentally transform how the world saves its money. With this in mind, let’s look at four ways this new financial frontier will deliver a new era of inclusivity throughout the financial sector:
1. Data-Driven Insights
Open banking helps users gain unprecedented insights into their spending thanks to the categorization of raw data. This can help individuals categorize their outgoings into utilities, rent, outdoor dining, and nonessential subscriptions to gain unprecedented control over their habits around expenses. Data-driven insights mean open banking technology can help users understand and optimize their outgoings. For instance, if a user identifies a frequent outgoing for bus tickets, they can use the data to determine whether they could save on a monthly or annual pass. This, in turn, can help transform the volume of cash they set aside for investing.
2. Generative AI and Personalization
The age of generative AI will also significantly enhance open banking and the democratization of investing tools. Utilizing the rich data captured through open banking, generative AI tools can create fully customized trading strategies based on an individual’s risk profiles and financial goals. This level of personalization can also help to provide automated expense management suggestions based on spending habits, such as recommendations to consolidate expenses or reduce nonessential recurring costs.
Looking further ahead, generative AI can utilize machine learning (ML) algorithms alongside open banking services to create highly accurate financial forecasts to help illustrate the true impact of recommended investment strategies in real-time. Crucially, this can help individuals with little saving experience to get an accurate taste of what their financial goals could look like.
3. Unprecedented Accuracy with IoT (Internet of Things)
Developments in the cloud will empower open banking users to integrate seamlessly with the Internet of Things (IoT) to gain unprecedented accuracy in monitoring outgoings and various spending commitments. With automation technology helping to drive interconnectivity between banking tools and smart homes, users can actively analyze their spending commitments around the house, such as their energy consumption, with open banking tools offering recommendations for switching to cheaper providers.
This union between open banking and IoT empowers more financial services to refine their marketing strategies to deliver a level of personalization that cuts out the sales talk and instead directly offers individuals the best deals based on their smart home data.
4. Next-Generation Security
Open banking can also enhance the payment processing security measures used to keep investors safe. With vast structured and unstructured financial data flowing through interconnected apps, Open Banking APIs will be hard at work in securing sensitive information on a scale that’s never been seen before.
While we can expect to see machine learning leverage an always-on strategy in compliance monitoring across financial institutions, we’ll also see open banking pave the way for the age of Strong Customer Authentication (SCA), which will deliver multifactor authentication such as one-time passwords, biometrics, or hardware tokens to investors worldwide.
Conclusion
In short, open banking will be one of the biggest success stories of digital transformation, and its implications will be felt strongly as the great wealth transfer begins to kick into gear. For individuals who have lacked the resources or time to meaningfully build investment strategies and financial goals, the flow of big data can help unlock fresh insights to develop sustainable savings strategies focused on the bespoke ambitions of its users. There are millions, perhaps billions, of people worldwide whose lives could immediately improve with the investment insights and security leveraged by open finance. In democratizing investing for all, this new frontier of finance will be a resounding success in leveling the playing field when it comes to wealth management. For any bank that wants to enter the future, reach a new customer base, and innovate the banking experience, a digital transformation involving extensive use of open banking is an absolute requisite for moving forward.
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