Multichannel Banking In Europe

6th annual edition

January 2011

Multichannel Banking in Europe
Best practices in retail financial services
more information on www.efma.com

Contents
03 04 06 08 10 17 22 27 31 33
Preface Executive summary

Introduction to research

Priorities in 2011 Improving co-operation between branch, internet and contact centre channels

Improve online banking sales functionalityMigrating transactions

Improving mobile internet services

The future for branches

Conclusion and outlook

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Preface
Welcome to the sixth annual Efma/Finalta Report on Multichannel Banking in Europe. Since 2005, over 400 participants have now taken part, representing banks fromapproximately 40 European countries. This provides a unique source of data and practices from across the continent. The 2010 Report has three main objectives: 1. To share key industry benchmarks, enabling Efma members to assess performance compared to the market. 2. To present trend data in the use of direct channels for sales and transactions. This data, combined with insight from previous years’surveys, allows banks to track their rate of progress relative to peers. 3. To outline improvement priorities for the coming 12 months and share Finalta’s view of industry best practice. The Report structure is based on banks’ top multichannel priorities: improving co-operation between the branch, contact centre and internet; improving online banking sales functionality; migrating customer transactionsaway from branch counters; and improving mobile banking services. In each section, we present benchmark data, investigate banks’ current capabilities and share examples of market best practice. We trust this 2010 Report is of value to Efma members. As always, we would be delighted to receive your feedback and any suggestions for next year’s research. Finally, we would like to thank surveyparticipants for their contribution. Their involvement in this series of reports has helped us to raise over €25,000 for charity since 2005.

Christine Johnston
Director Finalta

Patrick Desmarès
Secretary General Efma

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Executive summary
This is the sixth annual Multichannel Banking Report published by Efma and Finalta. This year, the focus is on banks’ improvement priorities for thecoming 12 months. Top of the agenda is improving the co-operation between branch, internet and contact centre channels; a priority for 45% of banks. Beyond this, the next most critical improvements are increasing online banking sales functionality (highlighted by 39% of respondents), migrating more customer transactions away from branch counters (31%) and improving mobile internet banking services(29%). The 2007 Efma/Finalta Multichannel Banking Survey highlighted the organisational and cultural barriers to multichannel working. However, three years on, this issue still leads banks’ change priorities. Banks’ senior management is still dominated by “branch people” and fear of margin erosion looms large. The branch is perceived as the owner of the customer, and direct channels as a threat tothis. There is no single solution to effecting the change in mind-set which is needed. Even the most advanced banks are still wrestling with the challenge. However, those who have made most progress in this area are characterised by: appropriate organisational structure and executive recognition; common goals for branches and direct channels; measurement and reward of direct channels’ salescontribution; and effective direct channel lead generation. The proportion of retail bank sales made by the branch has decreased from 82% to 78% since 2007. In the same time period, the proportion of sales via the internet has nearly doubled and, in 2010, the figure is close to 10%. However, many banks feel that internet sales are still constrained by poor functionality. Respondents made ambitious...