FSI Member Spotlight Episode #15: Unbundling and Rebundling for a Frictionless Digtal CX

In a recent FSI Member Spotlight, Praxent had the opportunity to meet with Fintech Mentor and Advisor, Tarique Khan. Tarique recently transitioned from his former role in Business Development with Exagens to become Director of Business Development at Raiz.ai. Tarique also holds the distinction of being the inaugural Canadian FSI Member to appear in our Spotlight series. 

Tarique has been a longstanding member of the FSI group and we are so fortunate to have networked with him along the way. A strong proponent of building relationships, he begins the conversation highlighting the differences between professional groups that bring value to each encounter — and those that detract value and ultimately, disengage their communities. From here, Tarique wastes no time discussing the importance of personalization in financial services. Personalization is not just a trend, he posits, but an expectation. Customers simply don’t care about the technology limitations a brand faces; they care about what the most exciting application offers them. If your brand doesn’t have it too, they want it and they will find it elsewhere. Tarique finds that the more innovative banks are increasingly moving past basic personalization. It’s no longer enough to get the customer’s name right in the portal, but to incorporate much bigger steps towards individualization. Banks already have some of the most comprehensive data on individual customers out there. By employing the tools and information at their disposal, they have the opportunity to offer customers more meaningful interactions at the individual level. Using the music app Spotify as an example, Tarique brings to mind how exciting it can be for customers to see a yearly review of how their musical taste and listening habits have transformed over the past year. Why aren’t banks producing similar, individualized highlights based on customer spending habits and other unique data? This kind of creative individualization also serves as a unique marketing opportunity but more importantly, as a tool for authentic customer engagement that banks are largely missing out on. 

Tarique is a major supporter of startups, as indicated by his mentorship and advisory roles with Fintech Cadence and Holt Accelerator. He stresses that building relationships and opportunities within the fintech ecosystem is where his passion lies, but also mentions the exciting trends that he is able to witness from his vantage point. The trend that has him most excited? The unbundling and rebundling of financial services and banking. Over the past few years, we’ve largely witnessed the unbundling of financial services. What fintechs do quite well is identifying specific, pinpoint issues within the banking world and solving for them with new products and applications. This initially led to taking certain services off the banking institutions’ plate, or, unbundling. But more recently, Tarique has seen an uptick in the reverse happening. Why should bank customers have to go to third party brands when they can access the same, frictionless experiences with their home banking institutions? Savvy banks have been taking note and re-incorporating, or rebundling, these fintech offerings into their own ecosystems. The key here is keeping it a truly frictionless digital customer experience. There is still opportunity for improving on the digital banking experience by partnering with fintechs, allowing financial institutions to leverage the niche strengths of fintechs in order to better serve their customers. Beyond trying to break new ground, there is still major value to be had in fixing what is broken, or what could at least be made better, first. To learn more about the startups and founders that excite Tarique most — particularly Canadian fintechs — make sure you check out the complete Spotlight video. Canada is breaking major ground and you won’t want to miss out on the conversation. 

Key Takeaways

• – Personalization and individualization are two terms that often get misconstrued in the financial services industry. While both are vital to promoting a stellar customer experience, personalization has been the norm for some time. Individualization takes the unique customer data only banks have to the next level, promoting more authentic, exciting digital experiences that truly vary from individual to individual. 
• – Unbundling and rebundling are two additional terms that we’re seeing increasingly in the fintech/financial services space. While the unbundling of banks was the trend for several years, Tarique is seeing more innovative institutions rebundling their services again, this time by deploying fintech-bank partnerships that serve their customers’ needs.  
• – What single ingredient does Tarique believe both banks and fintechs could genuinely benefit from? More empathy.

Additional Resources

• Tarique Khan, LinkedIn
• Holt Accelerator
• Fintech Cadence 
• Railz.ai 

About FSI

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