ING Direct aims to disrupt with platform integration

Bernard Kellerman
Lisa Claes, executive director of distribution at ING Direct, has outlined how her bank - itself seen as a "disruptor" when it first set up shop in Australia - is preparing to meet the emergence of so-called "disruptors" in the Australian banking industry.

"We are very much in the age of the customer," Claes told the audience of bankers and financial technology vendors at the AB+ F Retail Financial Services Forum.

This proposition, that the customers hold the reins of control, has severe implications for the banking sector.

"The asymmetry, where the provider knew a lot more about the product than the customer, has been reduced," she said.

With that comes a willingness to share data, but in return there is an expectation that the data will be used intelligently, for instance to feed a growing appetite for personalised services.

The end result is that our customers today are less loyal, and therefore more slippery.

This disloyalty has a big price on it. "We know the switching market has a US$6.2 trillion price tag on it. Even in Australia, with our 18.6 million banking customers, we've seen the decision to switch has risen by 50 per cent in the last two years."

This might be starting from a low base (up from five per cent of customers to ten percent), but that translates to 1.8 million customers willing to switch away from their financial services providers.

Claes also said that "innovation is not invention; it's more likely to be integration" - that is, allowing customers to see all aspects of their financial situation, whether or not that information originates from the bank that is providing the "picture".

Her assertion was that customers want a one-stop shop. "Platforms are definitely the new black," she said.

To emphasis this point, Claes showed a screen shot from her colleagues at ING Belgium.

"The irony of this is that, as a banker, I spend my days looking at bar graphs and pie charts - this is pornography for bankers," she joked. "Yet, when we deliver to the customers we don't do this. Do customers know the trends in their savings or their outgoings?

"Showing a visual representation of a customer's balance sheet leads to deepening loyalty and customer engagement - and we know that from our experience with our Belgian bank," she said.

Claes also told the audience that banking customers have an appetite for much more information, particularly when it comes to wealth management, and they want to use their mobile devices. "This is beyond convenience - people like it. People seek certainty, and they see mobile banking as putting them more in control."