Competition between the two large banks is waged in all areas. Now also in the digital. Although they are not alone in this battle. Let’s go by parts.
According to a study by Funcas and KPMG, the use of digital banking It is already at 70%, above many of its European comparables. The estimate for the next five years expects to reach a percentage close to 85%. That is to say, add another six million additional customers.
In this race, which began after the pandemic, BBVA took the lead, moving away from his closest pursuer, Santander Bank. The clients of the entity chaired by Carlos Torre Vila Those who contract products digitally are already 76%.
However, those responsible for BBVA digital banking They must continually look in the rearview mirror because Santander is far from being a minor rival. If the behavior of the two large Spanish banks is compared, it can be seen that while in 2022 76% of the Basque entity’s clients took digital products, in 2021 it was 69% who did so, a figure that represents 7 % more between one year and another.
On the side of the Cantabrians, the increase was 21 points. Data that indicates that clients who contracted a product through the digital modality in 2022 explain 52% of the bank’s portfolio, compared to 43% twelve months ago.
The platoon that follows the giants also shows a significant evolution. In fact, the percentage of clients who took services through digital mode was higher than that of BBVA and Santander. Strictly speaking, one of them is the one who can boast of leading the digital growth.
Is about KutxaBank. Its balance sheet says that in 2022, 43% of its clients contracted in this way, a percentage that speaks of an increase of 27 points, in relation to 2021, the year in which 34% did so.
The other is Ibercaja. Digital hiring went from 36% in 2021 to 41% last year, that is, eleven points more year-on-year.
The explanation for this boom in service contracts using digital banking, the Francisco Urapartner responsible for global banking and capital markets at KPMG “we are seeing in banks the willingness to continue advancing and investing in their digital transformation as a means of improving their efficiency and also the customer experience.” All the data reflected in the report evidence that progress in the digitalization“, explains Ura this new commercial trend of financial entities.
For its part, Santiago Carbdirector of the Financial and Digitalization area of Funcasemphasizes that it is important to understand that The level of digitalization in Spanish banking is heterogeneous. “The largest financial institutions already have the digital channel practically integrated into most of their services.” The situation is different in the middle market because the integration of the digital channel, although it has made notable progress, “may, in some cases, require additional effort in the near future,” he concludes.
It is also not lost on the authors of the report that the digitalization of the banking sector was largely possible thanks to the digital transformation that Spanish society developed, as demonstrated by its seventh position in the Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) prepared by the European Union (UE).
Thus, as already highlighted, the use of digital banking had a 30% increase since the pandemic, standing at 70% of the population. Percentage higher than the European average, which stands at 60 points, and only behind the Nordic countries, which have a very high 92%.
Digital banks are already here
100% digital financial entities have a market share of 30%con a growth of more than 60% in just three yearsthanks to higher levels of digitization and user experience.
However, the other side of the coin shows that only 5% of these new entities are profitable. For Pablo Ruiz CorreaDirector of Innovation of the Spanish Cooperative Bank (Grupo Caja Rural), this situation of the Fintech opens a new scenario where “collaboration between different players is something that proves necessary to seek and promote innovation at the business level.”
Margarita Delgadodeputy governor of Bank of Spain is on the same page. For the senior official, the bank knew how to react to this situation in several ways, including the promotion of cooperation formulas with this type of agents.
“This relationship was mutually beneficial and, in recent years, we saw a growth in agreements between more traditional and emerging players in order to jointly exploit the advantages that new developments bring to the business,” he says.
The story continues with the initiative of entities that are going to undertake large digitalization projects not only towards the client but also towards the employee, to automate and digitize internal operations, increasing efficiency.
Pablo RuizDirector of Innovation of the Spanish Cooperative Bank (Grupo Caja Rural), declares that “the era of artificial intelligence is called to become the next big technological leap, possibly at the same level as the Internet or the appearance of smartphones. “The new generative AI will have an impact on how we work, how we consume information and how we create content.”
As AI prepares its big leap, digitalization continues its advance without turning back. And the banks will continue in their attempt to unseat BBVA from his privileged position.
The post first appeared on www.cronista.com