The current health and economic crisis confirms the need for banks to reconcile the human with the digital, by continuing to offer physical proximity while developing their digital offering.
The importance of banking intermediation
In the midst of the crisis, banks are playing a nationwide financing role, through loans to mid-sized companies (ETI) and small and medium-sized enterprises (TPE/PME). Their resources are used primarily to finance the economic impact of the Covid-19 epidemic.
By assisting the State in its economic recovery, the banks' role is no longer limited to financing, but is transformed into social action. Thanks to their decentralized model, banks have a great deal of leeway when it comes to providing support at local level: financial support for very small businesses and SMEs, but also a role in social action.
Digital offerings cannot be developed at the expense of physical proximity
In these troubled and uncertain times, the customer relations provided by banks go far beyond transactions. They create social links, providing financial and practical support to customers, and helping them through difficult times.
At the same time, the digital offering is set to expand: during the long weeks of confinement, customers have become accustomed to carrying out the majority of their transactions remotely, and the health regulations still in force mean that the physical reception area will have to be turned upside down.
In the same way that a local banker reassures customers, wins their trust and builds loyalty, banks need to take advantage of new technologies to improve the customer experience, make consumers more secure and offer them innovative, high value-added solutions.
The current challenge for banks is to reconcile these two aspects - the human aspect and the digital aspect - to best meet customer demand.