Digital Customer Experience Is Key Business Banking Priority This 2017

As a leading player in the digitization of trade, HSBC has pinpointed improving digital customer experience as a key tactical priority in its approach to global trade and receivables financing in 2017. The banking giant has outlined several strategic and tactical priorities for digitizing international trade in an April 2017 webinar. The focus is that these priorities are timed with the expected return to growth of the global trade industry fter a short downturn in the past couple of years.

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capital management, receivables financing, and other associated banking services have enjoyed nearly three decades of uninterrupted growth since the 1980s. The global financial crisis of the previous decade did not have an immediate impact, either.

Yet, in 2015, trade value declined. Commodity prices drove the decline, although trade volumes did grow in 2015 and 2016. Today, the financial industry is expecting global trade to return to growth.

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Factors such as the growth of the middle class in Asia and efforts in regional sectors, such as the Saudi Vision 2030 and the Trade Facilitation Agreement negotiated by World Trade Organization members, are spurring development. It seems that 2017 is forecast to be the year that global trade revived from its relatively short slump and continues to grow again.

Amidst this, financial institutions such as HSBC focus on strategic priorities that leverage their strengths and create better client value.

Prioritizing Digital Experience

Among the key priorities HSBC will focus on is improving the digital experience for business banking clients. The bank offers various services related to global trade, including capital management, import and export finance, trade finance loans, export credit financing, and receivables financing.

An example project focusing on this priority is implementing a self-serve, real-time mobile platform for clients to track documents and trade transactions.

Concurrently, high-growth economic and financial regions such as the Middle East also progress toward becoming “digital economies.” In an October 2016 report, McKinsey and Company highlighted that not only is the region on the verge of massive digital disruption, but it is also well on its way to becoming a “leading digital economy.”

It’s no surprise. In PWC’s Middle East Megatrends issue, “technological breakthroughs” is one of the five megatrends driving change in the region, alongside:

Demographic and social change
The shift in global economic power
Rapid urbanization
Climate change and resource scarcity

According to PwC, several breakthroughs in the realm of technology will unavoidably drive transformation in the region. These technological breakthroughs are already catalysts for change in the area:

A digital content boom: 90% of the data currently existing was created in the past two years
GCC smartphone penetration: Peaking at 78% in the UAE
Online to offline transactions: 85% of transactions that begin online are closed offline
Decision-makers focusing on tech: 85% of Middle East CEOs agree that technological change is the most transformative megatrend globally in the next half-decade

Tying It All Back to Digitize Global Trade

Given all these factors, actionable priorities like HSBC’s move to improve its global trade clients’ digital experience are sound strategic decisions for this year.

The move will ride the wave of a predicted global banking growth trend and be bolstered by the ongoing digitization of economies where financial institutions have significant investment roots.

The year 2017 is set to be one of massive digital disruption across all industries—even traditional ones that are typically slow to adjust to rapid change. Banks and financial institutions should focus on strategic priorities that enable them to leverage global megatrends to their advantage while delivering genuine value to their clients.