Revitalizing the Experience: Making Online Bill Payments Cool Again for Banks

Introduction 

The growth of mass media made the banking experience look more costly. The obsession in the early 90s started losing its charm. Yet, the experience of banking services retained its charm. Despite, digital inclusion the banking sector continued to remain dormant.  The arousal of the revitalization of the entire process of banking. The wave started, coming to a halt simply needs to make the experience of online bill payments cool for banks.

The Digital Shift 

The banks require a threshold of their revenues from deposits and savings. The introduction of the banking arena ensures a channel between consumers and producers acting as financial intermediaries. The twentieth century paved a relief where the banking pool functioned and ensured a sense of resilience to the after-effects of global wars and cushion the newly formed nations. 

Yet, the change being constant brought digitalization with the advent of digital revolution.  The banking sector transformed the entire experience of banking services by bringing digital banking services. Despite being an inevitable call of the banking economy, it failed to serve as a quick replacement to the services offered during office hours. If one looks into development of digitalization and making it more flexible, easier and adaptable. The major blockage comes in its dependence on the public sector institutions. This just slowed down the process of adaptability. 

The tectonic shift and need for resilience in digital banking sector

People still showed an inclination towards keeping checkbooks, and licking stamps due to the strong trust on public banking sector which didn’t offer a strong digital alternative to the consumer’s base. Thus, the economically exclusive regions of the society either failed to be part or lacked the skills for have adequate digital sufficiency in banking aptitude. 

Decades later, the modern consumer base has the familiarity and inclination towards digital marketing services of the banking sector. It loves to create its data organised in one centralised place. 

Tools for cool experience of online bill payments 

Ease of banking with transformation

The scope of creation and usage of online bill payments as personal finance tool. This, improves customer experience and serves as new service in the market. 

No need to be the central hub of consumer

The advent of artificial intelligence just ensured digital education. But, the traditional banking experience and desks, cashiers couldn’t get a sigh of relief as a substantial consumer base holds usage of technical and non- technical service. Yet, it made it lose its charm being the central hub of the consumer’s financial lives. 

Economic efficiency 

A few decades back, the experience of paying bills posed some effort. The options available were either to write a check and ensure its mailed on time.  The ease of payment over the phone or pay your bank and make it do it for you. The growth of media and its channels just made the obscure curiosity popular among the masses.

How Indian banking sector making digital experience cool?

The Indian economy shows a demonstration of revitalization process making the online bill payments favourable. Its charm over the decade had been lost due to recurring failures over the consumer base. Despite the ordeals, the banking ecosystem has shown inclusion towards online and in-person bill payments. This has been centralised across billers and processes recording 2.5 billion payments per day. 

In order to ensure, more familiarity across various channels have introduced primarily two ways. One is of creation of new payments gateways and the other is of channels. These ensure productivity, transparency, and ease of payment. 

The recent trends to make online bill payments more acceptable for banks 

The Banking sector encompasses major contribution to the global economy. In an era, of centuries of existence banking sector still fails to incorporate the various adaptations required due to the technological and global economic shifts. 

The global Covid pandemic has made developing economies more resilient in terms of online transactions and electronic payment gateways introduced by the banking sector. The e-wallets and digital banking services have paved gateway to a new economy. 

Understanding the experience of online bill payments in 2024

The online trends that are required to be incorporated in the banking sector can be described as follows:

  1. Blockchain

The usage of this ledger system dematerialises the need for third party systems in order to ease the transitions processes. 

  1. Cybersecurity

With the advent of personal data in the pool of digital space, the cyber threat poses a problem and creates a risk for the institutions as well as governments. Thus, creation of better identity and access managements. 

  1. Cloud Computing

It ensures the configurations processes more secured for the overall banking experience. 

  1. Open Banking

It makes usage of third party application to create a security over the consumers data making the overall digital banking more secured and confidential. 

  1. Biometric authentication 

The process of identification, third party verification, ease of documentation and geometric identification processes creates a vendor for online banking processes. 

  1. Robotic process automation

This reduces the manual labour over daily banking transactions and eases the procedures. Thus, providing better economic efficiency. 

  1. Big Data Analytics 

Analytics plays a crucial role in munching the huge data happening over the transactions. 

Despite being the buzzwords, one fails to understand the intricacies in laymen terms. The revitalization ensures the gateways are more safe, inclusive and resilient to the tectonic shifts in the banking sector. This makes the banking experience more fun and easier for all arenas of the society. 

The reasons to make online bill payments cool again for Banks 

Consumer preferences making the banks outweigh their choices. 

Image credits: https://thefinancialbrand.com/news/payments-trends/how-banks-can-transform-online-bill-pay-into-a-personal-finance-tool-130661/ 

Embracing both innovation and security

“Currently, only 1% to 5% of the UN-estimated $1.6 trillion to $4 trillion in laundered money is actually identified and seized. A lot of this is the result of there being so many false positives, with too many alerts for transactions that turn out not to be fraudulent. Firms simply can’t sift through them all.”

Credits: 

https://www.fisglobal.com/en/fintech2030/security/money-laundering-compliance

The pitfalls and failures in the experience of inclusion

The measures that bring the various trends in the market should also show some fundamental traits in the products and services. The market often holds advertisements of unwanted subscriptions, lack of economic cost cutting to various services, certainty of card payments, constant deletion or change of ewallets, and required new epayment gateways. 

Conclusion 

This convenience required spending thousands and hundreds more on network equipment, computers, and service fees. The revitalization and financial inclusion simply paved gateways to making the meticulous processes simpler and necessary for the masses.

The target market has made the online bill popular among the masses. The development led to the creation of powerful tools for digital engagement that previously couldn’t afford it.

References:

Bennett, R. (2024, January 13). Digital banking trends in 2024. Bankrate. https://www.bankrate.com/banking/digital-banking-trends-and-statistics/

Mastercard Data & Services. (2023, December 15). Digital banking innovations and trends. Mastercard Data & Services. https://www.mastercardservices.com/en/advisors/archived-practices/digital-transformation/insights/digital-banking-innovations-and-trends 

Contributor. (2022, April 29). How banks can transform online bill pay into a personal finance tool. The Financial Brand. https://thefinancialbrand.com/news/payments-trends/how-banks-can-transform-online-bill-pay-into-a-personal-finance-tool-130661/ 

Banking, A. (2023, June 15). Can payments embrace both innovation and security? Accenture Banking Blog. https://bankingblog.accenture.com/can-payments-embrace-both-innovation-and-security