Reimagining modern financial services

Reimagining modern financial services

The last decade has seen the financial services industry innovate and transform in many exciting ways. However, recent global events have profoundly disrupted business, and financial services has been hit particularly hard.

As companies in Bangladesh adapt, this disruption has the potential to accelerate innovation and transformation that were already under way.

Md Yousup Faruqe

Institutions that were moving their processes and systems to digital have been able to respond more quickly in this crisis. Companies that were implementing AI to better understand and serve customers can quickly pivot to meet new needs. The lesson is clear: Organisations with a strong digital foundation are better prepared to withstand disruption.

Empowering employees through teamwork

We are all experiencing a once-in-a-generation shift in how, when, and where we work. Accelerating workplace modernization is another important investment area for us, helping enable financial services institutions to improve productivity and empower flexibility for remote work through secure collaboration, communications, and business process innovation technologies and access to key information from any location.

Managing risk and cybersecurity

The last two years showed us that despite major change, security and compliance remain at the core. It is imperative that service providers in this space be committed to security and compliance to enable its customers deepen risk insights and facilitate compliance while protecting their organizations and employees.

A launch-pad for innovation and growth

When it comes to digital tools and the cloud, it is clear it must be tailored to customers’ specific needs and challenges. Industry-specific cloud solutions introduce new capabilities to truly unlock the power and value for responsible and sustainable growth. This would serve as a stepping stone towards for sustainable and continuous innovation.

Looking to the future

Financial services companies will need to take a hard look at their business models to identify new opportunities to help their customers, partner across the industry to leverage competitive strengths, and embed financial services throughout commerce experiences.

Another big trend we’ll see is in workforce transformation. Flexible work is here to stay, and the talent landscape has fundamentally shifted. A thoughtful approach to hybrid work will be critical for attracting and retaining diverse talent.

And while there is no simple roadmap for what’s ahead, digital acceleration is creating tremendous opportunities to stretch the boundaries of what’s possible, in ways we are just starting to imagine. That’s why we want to ensure that every organization has the digital capability needed to succeed going forward; and are committed to helping our financial services customers improve time to value, reduce costs, increase agility, and accelerate innovation for sustainable growth.

* Md Yousup Faruqe is Managing Director of Microsoft Bangladesh