Rethinking our industry at scale with profound changes
Meeting technological challengesMeeting technological challenges
After a decade of accelerated digitalisation, further accentuated during the health crisis, banks have largely transformed in order to better meet the new uses and expectations of their customers. In particular, they have made significant progress in terms of innovation, customer relations and operational efficiency. Dominique Fleury, Head of IT Payment Services Department and IT Coordinator of Commercial, Personal Banking & Services, offers analysis and clarification.
Against a background of major changes, what do you think are the main technological challenges facing the banking sector?
Dominique Fleury → We must consider four drivers: our customers, who have new needs; our competitors, both traditional and new, such as new banks/fintechs, which already meet the digital needs of customers; regulations, which are increasingly demanding; and of course, technology, which requires us to modernise our legacy systems. We must also ensure continuity of service, because it is very important for our customers to be able to carry out their daily banking transactions whenever they wish. In addition to these recurrences, we have four crucial challenges: security, cost control and operational performance, maintenance of skills and digital sobriety.
What are the new technologies most used by banks?
D. F. → We invest in a lot of different technologies. Above all, it is a question of identifying the technology adapted to a given use. Technology is not an end in itself. It is part of an equation, alongside the utility for our customers and employees, as well as the cost of ownership and maintenance for the Bank. Among the technologies we have most explored, artificial intelligence (AI) already occupies an important place. By processing a large amount of information, it provides support for decision-making and contributes to operational efficiency. At the centre of various projects, often in connection with financial markets, blockchain makes it possible to carry out financial transactions with greater responsiveness in a cooperative ecosystem. The Internet of Things (IoT) is also promising for managing payments, particularly when on the move. The aim is to make the most of each technology in an industrial and controlled manner.
What resources is BNP Paribas deploying to meet these challenges?
D. F. → Technology is at the heart of our GTS 2025 strategic plan. For the IT teams, contributing closely to the Bank’s strategic transformation is a source of great pride and a major responsibility. Our information systems must evolve to become IT services that can be consumed in an ecosystem where data is shared, in order to increase efficiency and create value through new uses of data, in an increasingly secure environment and in compliance with current legislation. Before that, we have three fundamentals: ensuring that BNP Paribas operates with the right level of quality and efficiency every day; protecting the Group and our customers; and supporting our employees in the face of change. And to transform our systems, we activate our digital levers. In addition to the dedicated cloud, and the rise of APIs(1), we have an IT Marketplace accelerating the sharing of IT assets between producers and distributors of services — a source of collective intelligence for the IT community. New ways of working and learning are also an essential response to these challenges. I am thinking of course, of the dissemination of agile practices that put the customer at the centre of our priorities, but also of how training is changing. In conjunction with the HR teams, for example, we provide a dedicated portal, the IT Academy, on which our employees can immediately access the modules of their choice, completely independently. Finally, we are continuing our collaboration with the fintech ecosystem. Our targeted and structured support approach aims to maximise the industrialisation of our projects, with a view to accelerating our development, while improving the experience of our customers.
How do you approach these challenges?
D. F. → We have three key levers to achieve our objective of modernising the Group’s information systems: finalising major programmes aimed at strengthening the security and robustness of our information systems; continuing the deployment of the key initiatives launched since 2019 to accelerate the Group’s digitalisation (such as the cloud, APIs, AI, etc.); launching new strategic initiatives to support the opening up of our information system to new opportunities. All these challenges are both complex and very stimulating.
(1) Application programming interfaces.