Over the past 10 years, retail banking has experienced a new wave of digital transformation. We have seen the rise of FinTechs and TechFins, which have brought integrated and faster financial services to their customers, whether banked or unbanked. With more advanced and agile technology solutions, and potentially less restrictive regulations, these challengers were able to boom in both developed and developing markets. Nowadays, retail customers are increasingly asking for one-stop shops and seamless customer experiences after having experienced the super-apps. With the global pandemic over the past two years, this trend has only accelerated.

Against this backdrop, traditional retail banks are not left with much choice but to undertake necessary digital transformations to meet their customers’ expectations. Many have done so in the past few years, and the rest are certainly at least planning to do so in the near future.

Today, the industry is evolving rapidly. Open banking and APIs are driving the development of new ecosystems for financial services, in which multiple players, traditional and non-traditional alike, are competing against each other. In this article, we will discuss the key trends in the retail banking industry, followed by an analysis of the future of traditional retail banks and digital banks.