Few industries are under more pressure to keep up with technology than the financial sector. Today's consumer wants their bank to provide the agility of a startup without compromising client care. Fortunately, with fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) infrastructure, banks can leverage fast data transfer to deliver all of the agility and speed they need to develop digital products and services, protect sensitive client data and improve productivity.

Video enhances client services

The availability of banking apps and digital wallets has created a consumer expectation of online delivery for all financial products and services. While bank clients have access to many items online, data challenges mean that products such as mortgages are rarely fully digital. Typically clients meet with or speak to a mortgage specialist as part of the process.

But that is changing. Many banks now offer video conferencing with mortgage specialists, and Alterna Bank recently launched Canada's first completely digital mortgage application. Borrowers complete their application and receive a pre-approved mortgage within minutes. They submit all documents, including final purchase papers, online and never have to speak to a mortgage specialist.

In the financial sector, video is on its way to being a game-changer. With two-way video conferencing built into ATM machines, banks can offer Personal Assisted Tellers (PATs) that provide services to remote locations without the need for a fully functional branch. Trained bank personnel can be available around the clock, extending the hours that clients can access branch services.

Creative client services

With FTTP, banks can get creative with the services they provide their customers and add value to branch visits. South Africa's First National Bank (FNB) offers their clients free WiFi at their locations. This attracts clients to the branch, and it encourages them to use digital tools. This approach could work well in a region such as rural Alberta, where residents are sometimes less familiar with the convenience of digital tools because they have not enjoyed years of high-speed Internet.

Technology can free financial clients from having to enter passwords and personal identification numbers (PINs). Already many banks and credit card companies have enabled tap-based payments on their cards. The next step in this evolution is biometric authentication, the use of biological features to authenticate a user's identity.

Last year, MasterCard introduced a biometric payment system that involves fingerprint matching as well as photo identification that the company calls “selfie pay.” With this system, clients pay by taking a selfie photo. The software reads not only the image of the individual, but also the depth of the photo, and can identify photos that are not true selfies. Selfie pay also requires a second authentication through a token left on the client's phone.

Biometrics represents a massive amount of data that will require the security and speed of reliable FTTP infrastructure.

Faster disaster recovery improves productivity 

With a growing number of clients processing an increasing volume of data, banks are responsible for incredible amounts of valuable and sensitive data. That data needs to be backed up quickly and securely.

With fast data transfer, banks can implement a disaster recovery plan that includes real-time backup to multiple data centres, creating the redundancy that guarantees client's information will not be lost. Data can be fully encrypted and still move rapidly along a blazing fast fibre infrastructure.

Fast data transfer improves all aspects of productivity across an organization. Everything that happens online, happens faster, which means employees make better use of their time in the office. Employees access their email more quickly, and the response time for cloud software improved.

For financial institutions, the future is coming fast, and FTTP guarantees the fast data transfer that will enable them to meet the demands of tomorrow. 

For more information on our fibre connectivity solutions, contact your Axia salesperson at sales@axia.com or 1-866-773-3348.