1. BUILDING WALLS:
SEPARATION AND CONTROL
There is a risk that regulation, compliance and risk
will constrain banks in their ability to innovate and
be creative. But banks can and should challenge
the assumption that regulation stifles innovation.
•
The global financial crisis, along with stifled product
development and mis-selling scandals has created an
atmosphere of distrust and supervision, separation
and control.
•
As the regulators refuse to clarify the effect of regulation
on the workplace, we believe that many banks will be
inclined to take the conservative, safe option and put
physical barriers up in the workplace, stifling innovation.
•
However, we think that innovative banks will use a more
intelligent interpretation of the new regulation. This will
create the necessary segregation through technology
as much as possible, still allowing themselves to create
flexible and open work environments. Banks which do not
work around this will struggle to attract the right talent.
2. Property-free expansion
Banks will expand their service offering and
product portfolio without a proportionate
increase in real estate.
•
There will be a shift in banking sector property portfolios
driven by the desire to increase product sophistication
while concurrently achieving the goal of reducing space.
•
Traditional banks, which have the most complex and
mature product offering, also occupy a huge amount of
real estate, as historically, proximity to customers through
local offices and branch networks was the only way to
grow the business.
•
At the other end of the scale, online-only banks have a
low product complexity, but almost no physical footprint.
With today’s technology, we believe it is now possible for
banks to break the link between physical presence and
market presence and to have a highly complex product
offering with a small property portfolio. Retail customers
who need to deposit cash – a small and decreasing
minority – will be served by new services which allow
them to deposit cash run through retailers or as stand-
alone services.
We have identified
seven key findings and predictions
from our study, and these outline how we believe
the banking industry will change regarding property,
work and workplace over the coming few years.
14
The future of the financial workplace
|
September 2014
