Meerkats and banking

I ponder, from time to time, about the potential impact of PSD2 and Open Banking. Will it lead to significant change and increased competition from third-party providers, as many commentators seem to expect? Or – given the well-known inertia of the average banking customer – will the whole thing turn out to be a damp squib?

Inertia, of course is not the only factor at work. Four example, Sheila Bair, in a piece in Monday’s Financial Times, drew attention to the data security concerns that many have voiced. If data can be hacked at a firm such as Equifax, banking customers may well have good reason to question whether retailers and others should have access to their bank account details, even if the Directive requires high levels of security to be in place.

So when I start reading Jeremy Light’s Accenture blog on the subject (see https://accntu.re/2xD0tNf ) I see my scepticism confirmed:

‘We found most consumers would be unwilling to initiate a payment through an online platform (58 percent) or a social-media company (82 percent). Fear of fraud is the primary factor. An overwhelming majority (85 percent) of consumers point to the risk of fraud as the biggest barrier to sharing bank account information with third-party providers. Data protection risks and increased potential for cyberattacks also feature highly.’

However, Gen Zs and Millennials (viz the young digital guys and gals, unlike this ageing baby boomer) are much more willing to give open banking a try:

‘One-third of Gen Z’ers say they’ll be likely to use open banking instead of usual payment methods, [and ] 42% of millennials and 52 % of Gen Z’ers say they’ll give online retailers permission to initiate payments directly from their bank accounts using apps/websites.’

So having had some of my scepticism challenged, I turned my thoughts to Meerkats – or, more accurately, to why price comparison websites had been so successful. My logic is simple: opening up customer data should make pricing banking offerings more competitive, but it will probably take aggregators like these sites to exploit the economies of scale involved.

So why their success? The title of Martin Lewis’ site – moneysavingexpert.com – says it all: it saves the consumer money, and so makes the investment of time worthwhile. Not – please note – that it saves the retailer the merchant service charge for using debit or credit cards!

That seems to me the clue for third party providers wanting to exploit PSD2 & Open Banking – create a customer value proposition that offers enough benefits to retail banking customers to overcome their ‘inertia’ – or more accurately, to recompense them for their time clicking away on their tablet or computer. Can they do it? Is there a big enough profit pool in retail banking to earn a return and incentivise the customers?

Well, here’s a clue for would-be challengers: forget about personal customers – even GenZs – and see instead how you can use PSD2/Open Banking to prize the sticky paws of the major banks off their small business customers. That is the major area where I see a lack of significant competition – but certainly no lack of profit.

Meanwhile – back to Meerkats. Check out their Kingsman video – http://bit.ly/2wRI6oh – but make sure you’ve cleaned your specs first!