How technology is transforming financial services
The success of fintechs and the advance of digitization during the pandemic have driven the transformation of financial services in Latin America.
"The impact of technology is getting increasingly profound," said Roberto Alexander, general manager of IBM in Argentina during a press conference in which some of the company's clients and partners took part, including Banco Supervielle, Banco de la Provincia de Corrientes and Banco Santander.
Alexander pointed out that companies, including those operating in the financial services sector, are incorporating technology to improve their processes to reduce costs, generate savings and improve the experience of their customers.
According to figures that the executive shared during the presentation, some 60% of Argentine companies have accelerated their digital strategies, while 50% had to change their corporate strategies due to the pandemic.
The technologies that have been particularly important in this regard include artificial intelligence, IoT, cloud and cybersecurity.
An IBM study shows that 84% of Argentine CEOs consider the cloud to be the most important technology for their business, followed by 79% who mention IoT and 54% who point to artificial intelligence.
THE IMPORTANCE OF DATA
Data has a key role in the development of banking and financial services, and financial institutions are now capable of handling ever-increasing amounts of information from a growing number of sources.
With analytics and artificial intelligence technologies, companies in the sector are able to make better decisions.
Nahuel González, head of data governance at Argentine bank Supervielle, said during the IBM press conference that the use of orderly, quality and secure data allowed the company to go from being reactive to proactive.
Supervielle has been working on a digital transformation focused on customers. In this process, it began internal work to improve data governance with the formation of a specific team, the creation of relevant policies, the identification of data assets and the execution of publicity campaigns to promote the data culture.
As part of the process to transform its business and culture towards becoming a data-driven enterprise, Supervielle is working with IBM to implement an automated data catalog that is integrated with an enterprise data governance platform.
The growing amount of available data is also helping banks and fintechs better understand their customers and prospects.
"There is a bias in the traditional models to give credit," José Vargas, executive vice president and general manager for Latin America at Provenir, a company that seeks to use artificial intelligence to help financial services improve their credit scoring for the region, told BNamericas.
Provenir, which has been developing its business in Europe and North America, is bringing its risk-taking technology platform to Latin America, which includes a store with data from a variety of sources such as mobile phone bills, public services and even ratings from applications that are part of the gig economy.
The company aims to improve the granting of credit in a region where a large part of the population is not part of the banking system and therefore cannot access traditional bank credit. "Today loans are being given to the same people who can already access credit," said Vargas.
The companies that are using Provenir's platform include personal finance firm SoFi, the bank BBVA and GM Financial, among others.
APPLICATIONS
Argentine provincial bank Banco de la Provincia de Corrientes had to go digital rapidly because of the pandemic. "We've been working on a digital transformation and innovation process for two years that included a new contact center, renewal of the website, home banking and the bank's application," said bank president Laura Sprovieri.
As part of this transformation, the bank turned to IBM and Exisoft for the implementation of its MODO virtual wallet. This is the product of joint development works by various financial entities in Argentina.
With this development, the bank and its partners can create, run and manage new digital services for customers with seamless management of APIs and microservices across multiple clouds, she pointed out.
Gloss