One thing is certain: the greatest banks of the future would be technology companies which offer banking services and not banks that just use technologies. For that redesign to happen, banks have to become native tech firms. And part of the processes would be mutating from what they do today to what their customers will expect in the future.
Standard Chartered Bank has drawn the first blood in Nigeria: many branches will be closed as the march to mobile banking and broad digital banking playbook accelerates.
Over the last few years, the banking profession in South Africa has been restructured and pockets of protests have been happening as workers lose their jobs to ATMs, chatbots and other digital systems.
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As I noted in my 2022 Outlook message, this is the application utility era and many things will change. If you work in the banking and insurance sectors today, now is the time to deepen your capabilities with tech readiness. Nothing will be the same again because our biggest competitor as I noted in Harvard recently is algorithms and AI systems.
Yet, there is no need to be afraid if you can adapt: technology will destroy some jobs but will also create new types of jobs. The issue is if you are able to be employable for the new types of jobs! Time to go back and learn new things.
Standard Chartered Plc will close about half of its Nigeria branches as the company emphasizes digital banking, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg for its report Monday (Jan. 10), starting with some office closures in December and leaving the London lender with 13 branches when it’s done.
That number is down from 25 across the west African country, according to a document seen by Bloomberg News.
Standard Chartered will focus on bolstering its mobile banking capabilities and recruiting employees who can better assist new customers and handle cash deposits and withdrawals across Africa’s biggest economy, said Bloomberg’s sources, who asked not to be identified because they aren’t authorized to speak publicly.
A Standard Chartered spokeswoman declined to comment when reached by Bloomberg and said the company would address future plans at the “appropriate time.”
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It’s not only those in the banking industry, wherever you are, just ensure that your skills are relevant and future ready.
We will soon be on the lookout for contemporary professors, PhD holders with real depth, and all kinds subject matter experts and consummate professionals, how many can we find? The present and future job openings aren’t defined by positions and titles, rather by nature of problems and traits needed in solving them.
The banks as we used to know them aren’t really that relevant anymore, all the things they do can be done in a more efficient and cheaper way, they have scammed people for decades, tech has demystified all those mysteries.
If you make yourself relevant, no amount of changes in the economy can threaten you, because it’s humans that still make things happen, not machines or bytes.