I was talking about the big challenges of creating a digital bank, and was reminded of the approaches that banks take to do this. The first is the hardest, namely to take on the transformation of the existing bank.
A transformational bank process – where the whole bank’s business model is turned on its head to move from physical to digital foundations – is just too difficult for most. It is also too risky for most. Hence, they fudge it. They add budget to invest in digital while also investing in dusting up their branches, adding more people in compliance and audit, juggling the sale of non-core assets while also thinking about the acquisition of new assets. In other words, they are a bank that is spinning plates.
