Abstract

While the subject of fintech has been extensively debated by financial institutions around the
world, there are just a few reports about how banks can build a fintech incorporation system.
Retail banking has long been a tech-intensive industry. However, the recent digitization of
products and services coupled with the emergence of tech-savvy millennials has created the
context for unprecedented innovation and transformation in retail banking. This changing
environment has enabled a new group of competitors who bear few similarities to traditional
banks. Often dubbed “FinTech,” these financial service providers are attacking virtually every
product category in retail banking, from payments, to wealth management, to lending. In this
research we will be discussing how Fintech is helping banks getting digitalized. The report starts
by giving an introduction of digital transformation in banking industry, how are Fintech helping
banks in getting digitally transformed, advantages of digital transformations and factors
influencing the digital transformation. It is then followed by a research methodology which is
taken in to account to answer the research questions. This report also talks about the technology
and skills which are required in the new digitized business model and the skills which becomes
redundant. It outlines the gap with is created by the digital transformation of an organization.
The research provides information about the main directions of financial technology
development and the main components of banking services digitalization are described. The
research aims at defining digital transformation in the banking industry, outlining what banks
and FinTech companies are both developing in the market, and also pointing out that it is not
going to be the technology itself that will be the disruptor of the banking industry, but rather how
firm deploys the technology that will cause the disruption.

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Table of Contents
Abstract.......................................................................................................................................................1
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................2
AIM and objective...................................................................................................................................7
Research Question...................................................................................................................................7
Literature Review........................................................................................................................................7
Evolution of fintech.................................................................................................................................7
Related work...........................................................................................................................................9
METHOD..................................................................................................................................................15
Participants............................................................................................................................................15
Design...................................................................................................................................................15
Materials................................................................................................................................................16
Procedure...............................................................................................................................................17
Data Analysis........................................................................................................................................18
RESULTS.................................................................................................................................................19
Discussions................................................................................................................................................28
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................30
References.................................................................................................................................................32

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Introduction
Since the 2007–2009 financial crisis, the banking industry has been faced with low interest rates,
deleveraging and/or low credit growth, increased regulation and compliance requirements, and a
damaged reputation. Along with the appearance of these threats, major changes have taken place
in the banking sector in recent years. A decade ago, the ten largest banks by assets were based in
Europe or the United States, whereas currently the top ten are dominated by six Asia-based
banks. The reason for this shift can be traced not only to the crisis and the rise of Asia; banks
have had to deal with all the threats arising after the crisis, as well as digital disruption stemming
from increased competition in retail from financial technology (FinTech) and platform-based
competitors. The profitability of the sector has been threatened, with European and Japanese
banks barely covering their cost of capital. A legitimate question is what the top ten list will look
like in a decade. We note that the capitalization of large technological companies such as
Amazon or Google is more than double that of JP Morgan Chase (Felippe and Zotes, 2020). One of
the main changes in the industry is becoming digitalization which is witnessing a profound
transformation to the banking system. Digitalization offers new opportunities for banks to place
the customer at the center of the development process. New technologies seem to be and stay in
the market to disrupt the retail financial service value chain, as well as introducing new players
into the competitive arena. Incumbents and new comers have innovative levers to adopt. The
forces shaping these changes have led the industry to reconsider the role of banking and finance,
more as an “enabler” than a provider of products and services (Wicaksono, Gunawan, and Husin,
2020). One of the main changes in the industry is becoming digitalization which is witnessing a
profound transformation to the banking system. Digitalization offers new opportunities for banks
to place the customer at the center of the development process. New technologies seem to be and
stay in the market to disrupt the retail financial service value chain, as well as introducing new
players into the competitive arena. Incumbents and new comers have innovative levers to adopt.
The forces shaping these changes have led the industry to reconsider the role of banking and
finance, more as an “enabler” than a provider of products and services (Khanchel, 2019).

Digital banking revolutionizes today’s banking world and its centuries-long traditions. These in-
depth changes are linked to the various innovative features offered by the web and social
networks. Further extending the possibilities brought by dematerialized services and products,
this new banking concept works without physical agency and advisor. All client interactions and

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communication go through social networks like Facebook, whereas specialists, including
FinTech companies, handle the technical part of the services (Shashikala, 2019).

The word "FinTech" was created by combining "Finance" and "technology" as a reference to a
field where information and communication technology companies use all modern tools to
provide financial services. In order to serve their ambition of easing financial procedures for
non-professional users, they have developed innovative offers (crowdfunding, P2Plending, etc.)
and new ways to propose standard services (mobile banking, digital payments, etc.) (Mylonakis,
2018). We are convinced that this vision makes digital banking and FinTech key aspects of
digital economy, as it is evidenced by this market strong growth compared to established players.
Organizations that develop banking standards such as the Basel Committee on Banking
Supervision give the word fintech the following definition: «technology-generated financial
innovations that can lead to the creation of new business models, applications, processes or
products for financial markets, institutions or the production of financial services

Banking is undergoing a transformation from being based in physical branches to using

information technology (IT) and big data, together with highly specialized human capital. Even
before this transformation began, banks and markets had become intertwined, with a higher
proportion of intermediary activities becoming market based. Banks face greater competition
from other intermediaries, increasingly digital, in their core businesses, such as payment and
advisory services. A change in the use of technology in developing new services and business
models has been unfolding with the rise of the FinTech sector, which can be understood as the
use of innovative information and automation technology in financial services. The speed of
adoption of the different new digital technologies and of the acquisition of users associated to
them has accelerated markedly. Indeed, the major change is now coming from digital disruption
of the sector, which is leaving incumbents with potentially obsolete legacy technologies (e.g.
mainframes) and overextended branch networks to serve the standards of service that new
competitors can provide. Customers have new service expectations in terms of user-friendliness
of the interface and transparency. In Asia and Africa, technological leapfrogging has extended
banking services to previously unbanked segments of the population (Mulyani, 2020). Digital
technology may have a large impact in terms of increasing competition and contestability of

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banking markets. Banking will move toward a customer-centric platform-based model, and
incumbents will have to restructure.

This digital disruption offers the potential to improve efficiency with innovation, enhanced
supply diversity, and a more competitive financial system that yields market extension
augmenting financial inclusion. This disruption will put pressure on the margins of incumbents,
perhaps leading to increased risk taking, and will start a competition to capture the rents in the
sector. In order to achieve improved efficiency, the incumbents must restructure simultaneously
with the entry of the new competitors, and new dominant positions should not become
entrenched. The new entrants, FinTech and especially BigTech (i.e., large technology companies
that expand toward the direct provision financial services or products), should gain market share
because of efficiency gains rather than by bypassing regulation or monopolizing the interface
with customers (Mulyani, 2020). Furthermore, regulators must strive to detect new threats to
financial stability from the new forms of systemic risk derived.

Digital transformation in Banking industry

Digital transformation in banking industry is catalyzed by the improvement in technology,

development of cutting-edge technologies, increased customer willingness for switching to a
better experience. The digital transformation has led to decrease in the cost of operations and
increased revenue. The revenue is increased because of decrease in the transaction time,
increased security and elimination of third-party middlemen.

Digital transformation in banking industry gained momentum after the financial crisis of 2008
when a need for a more robust banking framework was identified. The change in compliance and
other regulations also made it easier for the bank to decide switching to a digital business model
from the traditional once.

Digital Transformation and Innovation (we will mention as DTI in following article) department
receives fintech integration demands from four different channels. In first channel, one of the
other departments in bank comes for fintech integration request. This request contains a specific
fintech for integration. fintech’s business model and background is investigated by DTI for
evaluation. Secondly, department comes with a specific problem which they believe can be
solved by fintech. High operational expenses and lack of expertise can drive departments to look

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for outsource solutions. DTI starts scouting to find the most suitable fintech for the department.
Thirdly, DTI members meet fintechs in conferences and events. These kinds of organizations
could be a good place to meet and recognize fintechs and their business model.

Factors affecting digital transformation

Digital transformation is accelerated or influenced by the following factors –

1. Technological changes – The digitization process has been boasted by the emergence of
cutting-edge technologies like AI and block chain. AI has helped banks to improve their
customer service by making use of chatbots and other virtual assistance. Chatbots enable
customer to get answer for their simple queries in real time. Introduction of blockchain is helping
banks to improve transparency in their transactional process, improve turnaround time and
decrease the number of middlemen involved in a transactional process therefore decreasing the
overall cost of a transaction.

2. Customer service – With the changing world, banks customers are also expecting easier
and better banking process. With the presence of Fintech in the market, customers are easily
lured towards the platform which offers better customer experience. Today a customer expects
his bank to provide facilities such as opening a bank account on a go, sending money from one
account to another without any glitches.

3. Economic Benefits – As already discussed digital transformation will help organization

save their cost by improving the security and ensuring better traceability of a transactional
process therefore eliminating frauds and saving cost. It is estimated that digitization can help an
organization in improving its turnaround time by a factor of 19 for a particular product of
service.

Fintech and its role in digital transformation

Fintech is an abbreviation which is used for financial technology. Fintech are basically start-ups
having technical expertise and aims to couple cutting edge technology to provide a smooth and
easy to use financial service platform to their customer. Therefore, Fintech’s have disrupted the
existing traditional banking business model. Fintech’s focus on the following parameters –

1. Establishing their expertise in a product catering to a particular niche.

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2. Offering customer centric services.

3. Focus on innovation, technology and reducing costs.

4. Improving the turnaround time.

Key Issues – This study will deal with the following key issues –

1. With this report we will try to understand the digital transformation which is taking place
in the banking industry. At the same time, we will also see how Fintech have helped in
digitalizing the financial services environment across the globe.

2. This report will also try to highlight the effects of digital transformation on various
competencies in an organization.

3. A part from the above points we will also try to find out the competencies which remains
relevant and the competencies which becomes irrelevant once the digitization process of an
organization is completed.

AIM and objective

 The aim of this study is to understand the process of digitalization which is taking place
in the banking industry.
 This study will take into account the role of Fintech’s in bolstering the process of
digitization by using the latest technologies available in the market.
 This study also highlights the key factors which are responsible for the increased
transition of banks from analogue business model to digital business model. We have also
discussed upon the factors which impacts the digital transformation.
 Show how customers these days are emphasizing on the customer experience.
 Analyze how different extent of digitalization exists in different banks and how does it
affect the enterprise competency framework.

Research Question
How does digital transformation change the competency framework within an organization?

The above question shall be answered by taking into account the below questions –

1. How does the companies with various degree of digitalization differs from each other?

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 2. What competencies are shared by the companies undergoing digital transformation.

Literature Review
Evolution of fintech
In the widest sense, the word fintech is formed from the abbreviations of two words, namely
financial and technology. Officially, World Economic Forum defines fintechs as “companies that
provide or facilitate financial services by using technology. In its current form, fintech is marked
by technology companies that disintermediate formal financial institutions and provide direct
products and services to end users, often through online and mobile channels” (Buchak et al.,
2017). Another definition for fintech by PwC (2016a) is “a dynamic segment at the intersection
of the financial services and technology sectors where technology-focused start-ups and new
market entrants innovate the products and services currently provided by the traditional financial
services industry. As such, fintech is gaining significant momentum and causing disruption to the
traditional value chain” (Buchak et al., 2017). Further Gartner defines as “fintechs are startup
technology providers that deliver emerging digital technologies that approach financial services
in innovative ways or can fundamentally change the way bank products and services are created
and distributed, and generate revenue. The term may also refer to the technologies these
providers offer” (Chen, 2020). Other definitions such as fintech integrates finance and
technology together, traditional financial structures combined with today’s technology-based
processes and simple one fintech refers to the application of technology in financial service
(Digital Disruption in Banking and its Impact on Competition, n.d.).

Even though, all these definitions are not converge on one meaning, mostly they are saying same
things. Fintechs are using technology in financial services in unusual ways. Fintech spelled
differently in various studies; FinTech, Fin-Tech or fin-tech but in this study, it is used as
fintech.

Although some authors connect fintech roots back to the beginning of 90’s by diffusion of
internet, others claimed fintechs were around already in the 1950’s (Chen, 2020). When we look
at the representation of fintech we can pursue our research even back to mid-eighteen century.
Fintech term entered our lives recently, but relationship between fintechs and financial
institutions, in the sense we understand, started in 1866, by laying down transatlantic cable
between Europe and America. Main purpose of laying cable was to building a communication

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channel between continents. However in time, it was started to use for transferring mutual
economical information (Hariaha and Kulish, 2019). First time in history financial services
started to use digital channels to communicate but still most of the financial services stayed
analog. This is why this era from 1866 to 1967, defined as financial services move from analog
to digital and period characterized as fintech 1.0 (Hariaha and Kulish, 2019).

Developments in communication technology and processing technologies for financial services

changed perceptions of traditional institutions. First usage of ATM (Auto Teller Machine) in
Great Britain started the period of fintech 2.0. In the 1980s, banks started using sophisticated
computers to calculate sophisticated methods, analyze data and keep records of the transactions.
Some of these computers were huge and they covered up to one whole office area. By 2005, the
first internet only bank started doing business in the UK (Chen, 2020). From the beginning of the
21st century to until now, banks’ domestic operations and interactions with external and internal
customers have started to become fully digitalized. Up until now, fintech was mostly related with
bank business processes on the backplane, but with the help of the developing technology, in the
1980s, customers started to involve in bank processes directly. This is the reason why the period
from the 1980s to early 2000s has called modern era of fintech (Hariaha and Kulish, 2019).

The destructive effects of the 2008 global economic crisis brought serious questions about the
ethical legitimacy of financial services on to the table. It was not the beginning of these questions
but it is difficult to identify how these questions started and where it started. Huge financial
institutions all over the world took the biggest hit from both economic and public trust
perspectives. Crisis environment and low public trust of big companies opened the door for a
new kind of financial institutions. An alternative to current financial institutions came into the
picture with small, controllable, and transparent features. Therefore, it is reasonable to say that
the 2008 global financial crisis represented the milestone to trigger fintech 3.0 era (Hariaha and
Kulish, 2019).

Related work
(Chen, 2020) analysed the change caused on the transactions with the introduction of Internet in
banking. And this will be known as banking services. It has been understood that trading tool has
extended wide for the customers, which could quickly respond with quality of service, not to

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held have much waiting time for the response. This has become the most convenient way for
both bank and customer which helps in accuracy too.

(Humphrey et al., 2006) pointed that banks should start over thinking on the marketing
association which they are lagging behind unlike Internet banking. Channels like innovation
distribution cannot wait much for other sources on the existing internet.

Brno-Britz (2006) stated that introduction of internet banking would reduce the costs structure of
the institution compared to the existing traditional way of banking. Also this increases profits
associated with the e-finance.

(Jünger and Mietzner, 2019) determined that development in new technology could result in
satisfaction of the customer. This going forward can be the main strategy to attract business in
the industry of global finance.

(Pahuja and Sahi, 2017) noticed that digitization in financial institutions can become more
prominent for day-in and day-out activities such as regular expenses or basic cash transactions
(such as deposits and withdrawals). Author concentrated more on the upcoming opportunities
when internet joins the banking institutions. He focused more on services available at a cheaper
cost in this emerging world. He addresses post- research that, this merger can get immense
success to the banks and easy accessibility and feasibility in banking.

(Mulyani, 2020) concluded that the internet banking has become new channel in the prospering
countries. The main objective is to detect the trend in internet banking in the major countries.
This study has draft about making customers have variety of choices in banking and easy
adaptability.

(Pemmaraju, 2017) well defined that the digitization should be kept on updating to remain in this
Contemporary world. As the old banking methods have already replaced by the automated
banking systems.

Israel .D et al (2004) in his review he spoke about the quality and performance of the banking
sector. He analyzed that private sectors are better than compared to the service provided by
Private sectors. They inspects the quality of service to be provided to the customers, as it
increases customer satisfaction and good impact towards the financial institution.

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Dr. (Smt.) Rajeshwari M. Shettar: In the today’s world is demanding for anytime and anywhere
banking which should be in such a way that it meets all customer requirements. Overcoming the
traditional banking methods which has been replaced by the Digitization in banking is a great
transformation in the worlds of banks. This evolution of digital banking should comprise and
satisfy every need of customer, basing on the needs, choices, and requirements and in fact the
customer’s behavior. Every bank and its regulatory bodies has analyzed the need of the
customers and worked on it accordingly. Revised charges on the transactions have been
profitable customer and bank side. Cost cutting has seen in terms of operational expenses, which
is a beneficial point to the financial institutions. Introduction of digital era in banks has brought
so much of profit to the banks and on the other side multiple options and time saving facilities to
the customers.

(Sloboda and Demianyk, 2020) the article named “Impact of Digitalization on Indian Rural
Banking System and Rural Economy”. The study has found that there is a lot of impact on the
rural parts of the world, with regards to the digitization. This study talks about financial inclusion
and has wider scope of potential. It has also defined the scope, cost and easy usage of the digital
banking. This study says that digitization has brought unbanked economy into the mainstream.

(Stulz, 2019) the article named “A Study on Digital Payments with Perspective of Consumer’s
Adoption”. This study is all about the analysis with regards to the adoption of the digitization in
banking in few areas. The analysis is done using the technique of chi-square. This study revealed
that the performance has been spiked up in e-banking systems such as digital payments which
could help the world in cashless systems.

Anthony Rahul Golden S. (2017) the article named “An Overview of Digitalization in Indian
Banking Sector”. The study says that banking has become the best part of our daily lives.
Internet or digital banking plays a vital part in our daily activities and tries to adapt latest
technology. By adapting these changes few countries have faced remarkable changes as well as
repercussions. This study also says that the growth in digitization and technology cannot be
stopped.

Santiago Carbo - Valverde (2017) the article named “The Impact on Digitalization on Banking
and Financial Stability”. This article mainly talks about the impact of digitization on financial

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institution. Also, about the challenges faced for stabilizing the finance. And how digitization has
reduced the costs and helped in gaining productivity.

(Thakor, 2020) this study talks about the two major options of e-banking and digital banking. E-
banking or web-based banking can be mainly utilized for transfer of money, charge payments
and online accounting services.

Besides these, digital banking helps in highlighting the core usage of banking and on the other
hand web-based banking by creating the financial significance to the customers.

(Thakor, 2019) In this study, it has been told that having the uplift from Traditional banking to
Digitization is never an idea, but banks had to get digitized with the peer industries. And
gradually banks have to seek in improving the customer experience.

Nanda, B.R., (2016) This study talks about – In the anticipation world of driverless autos and
robots, this digitization and future framework is a part of Artificial Intelligence. Chatbots have
introduced into the banking systems which have replaced helpdesk and long waiting systems.
These with the help of Artificial intelligence serve customers to the extend, till the human
interference is required. AI in every industry has empowered its use mainly in these Banking
industries.

(Vivek Dubey, 2019) this study talks about the customer’s perspective on Artificial Intelligence.
The enhancement of AI with the multiple ways of service providing and resolving the drawbacks
associated with it. AI helps the financial sectors to segregate the customer and their concerns and
speed up their requests in a very cost-effective way. These banking industries have to gear up the
work without waiting for inclusions.

Esha Handa, Article on “Study on the Importance of Digitization in Indian Banks“ this study
defines Digitization as the transformation of traditional bank’s data into the digital organization
with the best use of technology. With the introduction of these facilities, banks can give the
improved customer service which helps in time saving of the customers. This will also reduce the
error prone by humans. With the increase of technology the crimes related to it also increases.
Banks should be very vigilant by the cyber encounters held with the intake of customer’s
financial data and improvement of many other such informative sectors associated with it.

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Ameme, B., & Wireko, J. (2016) this study talks about the day by day improvements in
technology in this aggressive world. And the introduction of innovative products into the market
can get the banks into the leading zone.

Machogu, A. M., & Okiko, L. (2015) this research talks about the privacy, speed, accuracy and
majorly convenience to the customers having their way. This is one of the fastest growing sectors
compared to the other industries.

Chochol'áková, A., Gabcová, L., Belás, J., & Sipko, J. (2015) this study talk about the
comparison between the satisfied and dissatisfied customers. Banks offers more resistant offers
to the customers and this could significantly result in recommendation to the other new
customers. Loyal customers pick most of the services from their own bank and consider
investments from them. Also according to the Ernst & Young and Deloitte the literacy rate of the
respondents is very slow but the intensity of the loyal customers is high and resulted in additional
banking product

Kaur, N., & Kiran, R. (2015) this research talks about how customers are more satisfied with
foreign banks when compared to private and public banks.

Kundu, S., & Datta, S. K. (2015) this research talks about the trust on e-service provided to the
customer. Being mindful about the customer’s privacy and fulfilling the customer needs has to
be the main agenda of the banks.

(Vučinić, 2020) this study talks about the reputation and image of the customers maintaining
branding and trust. On the other hand providing better services and building good relationships
with the loyal customers and prospering for better enhancements.

Suriyamurthi, S., Mahalakshmi, V., & Arivazhagan, M. (2013) this article shares the study about
the aggressive opposition of the fellow banks. In order to attract customers with schemes and
marketing strategies and strive to serve the customers maintaining a good relation making
customer dependent.

After the Financial Crisis, fintechs started to expand rapidly in the financial market and it brings
question of whether fintechs going to replace traditional financial institutions or not. Some
people believe that fintechs are posing huge threat to banking and financial sector and their days

13 | P a g e
are numbered. Others believe, banks are going to win this battle by adopting fintech
developments into their core businesses. Debate was crucial and wind was blowing in favor of
fintechs (Zver’kova, 2019). After all, fintechs were providing services more efficiently than
banks. Moreover, fintechs provide somenew generation services in a new unusual way that banks
cannot provide.

Some say that, banks cannot embrace fintechs immediately because of tight regulations [14]. It is
obvious that regulations are not locomotive for the innovation and change. On the opposite, tight
regulations on banks keep them under pressure of preventive measures to try new innovations.
Especially in the period after the 2008 crisis, new rules and regulations took effect to control
financial markets. Banks have been busy to comply with these regulations, in meantime fintechs
were expanding their businesses [15]. But in order to gain customers of new age, financial
institutions should have found new ways to cope with it.

But this wind started to settle down in the last couple years. Banks seem to adopt themselves to
this change instead of resisting. Banks speed of adjustment is faster than expected. Fintechs seem
to be disruptive but cannot wipe out banks who have mass number of customers and financial
power [11]. Some defects about fintechs started to reveal. Only innovation and disruption were
not enough for shaking the financial world but also, capital to actualize ideas and experience to
handle difficult situations were needed. Unfortunately, fintechs are lack of these requirements.
On the other hand, banks have all these skills.

Despite all, financial institutions seem to survive from the first wave by the help of strong
resources, loyal customer network and years of experience. Some banks even go further by
adopting themselves to these changing regulations. There is a minority saying that banks will
come out this competition as absolute winners. However recent developments in the financial
world indicate dominant trend towards collaboration.

Banks have subjected to lots of noise caused by fintechs whether they are going to deplete all
traditional financial institutions or not. Time showed that fintechs were not as talented and
threatening as expected. They are lack of some key elements like experience, capital and
customer base to challenge traditional financial institutions. Fintechs competitive advantage
mostly comes from their agile structure, customer centric approach and loose regulation
environment around them. Despite their competitive advantages, most fintechs face serious

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challenges to scale up their businesses. Lack of customer trust, low number of customers, low
brand recognition, weak capital and ineligibility to handle regulatory issues are some of them.
On the other hand, banks have all the necessary skills that fintechs don’t have but banks have
some shortcomings too (Chen, 2020). Mutually complementary lack of skills and advantages
make them perfect candidate for collaboration. Banks close the gap of capital and experience of
the fintechs, and the fintechs close the gap of lacking customer centric perspective of banks.
Cooperation will give both parties chance to overcome their weaknesses and strengthen their
position.

According to PwC, 82% of the financial services expect to make partnership with fintechs within
the next three to five years . Financial institutions understand the fact that disruption is inevitable
and fintechs provide great opportunity to cope with this inevitability (Buchak et al., 2017).

A new kind of threat started to emerge from the technological world: techfins (or in some cases
bigtechs). Techfin is a combination of two words: technology and finance. Techfins are
companies that produce technology as their core businesses. Alternatively, they use their
technologies to provide financial services. Unlike fintechs, they have capital, enough experience
and customer base. Moreover, the vast customer data and the ability to analyze this data give
them a great advantage over fintechs and financial institutions. Even though there are plenty of
techfins exist in the sector, biggest techfins are named as GAFA (Google, Apple, Facebook and
Amazon).

Appearance of techfins in financial world is not just a threat for traditional financial institutions,
it is also posing threat for fintechs. They have the ability to combine the advantages of both
fintechs and traditional financial institutions (Humphrey et al., 2006). Fintechs and banks have
no other choice than making collaboration. If non-traditional fintechs and traditional financial
institutions can unite their strength together, they can find chance to survive from techfin
invasion of financial world.

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METHOD
Participants
A random survey is taken from the random set of people for our survey and the total number of
participants for our survey is 31. The survey is conducted on December 2020. The population
from which the participants were drawn is from employees who are working in IT sector,
banking firms and remaining. The survey is conducted in online mode from many social media
sites like LinkedIn, Gmail, Face book, etc. The circumstances under which the participants
participated in general from there are no course credits or pay per fill like that. It’s completely an
opportunity for the customers to improve their services from banking. The ranges of age in
which people are participated are in between 20 to 50, we can say range is 30. The Average age
of people participated in the survey is about 33. The standard deviation of age is 1.56. The group
of females is about 19 and group of males is 12. As the survey is completely random there is no
Gender grouping and something, also we can check for the genders participating in the survey.

Design
 The dependent/predictor variable(s) in our survey are support digital transformation in
banking, common areas of knowledge which are important for both management and
employees, support digital transformation in banking, company structure, seeing their
company as a alternative to traditional banking or as a service provider, seeing in a
candidate while hiring him/her, skill set do you expect or seek from the candidate, seeing
the future for our company, time stamp, steps in the company taking for transforming
digitally, the companies main focus are the dependent variables on other variables
 The independent/criterion variable(s) from our data are role in the organization, technical
knowledge or the personal skills, Age, Gender are the independent variables.
 It’s an experimental design to know about banking transformation from traditional to
digital and how many customers are supporting this decision.
 For this survey no participants was not assigned in groups for completing the survey
 The variables that were between subjects are digital transformation in banking, common
areas of knowledge which are important for both management and employees, support
digital transformation in banking, company structure, seeing their company as a
alternative to traditional banking or as a service provider, seeing in a candidate while

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 hiring him/her, skill set do you expect or seek from the candidate, seeing the future for
our company, time stamp, steps in the company taking for transforming digitally and
variable which are within subjects are all the independent variables i.e., are role in the
organization, technical knowledge or the personal skills, Age, Gender.

Materials
 There are 19 questions are there in questionnaires
 The measure assess are based on the options provided to the user, while answering
the questionnaires.
 The instructions provided to the candidates while filling the questionnaires are
mentioned below
1. Please fill in the following questionnaire on the basis of the facts of your
company.
      2.   All Questions carry Weightage. Please answer all questions. In case any
question is not applicable to your company, please tick the ‘not applicable’ or write
the same.
      3.   The Questionnaire contains different type of questions viz.:
            (a)  Some questions require specific information about the company e.g.
Name, Address etc. 
(b)  Some questions are of Yes/No category, where only one option can be
selected e.g. do you support digital transformation in banking?
                                 Yes
                                  No

            (c)  Some questions allow the selection of more than one option e.g.
What is your role in the organization?
Manager
Developer
HR
Other

(d)  Some questions allow the selection of more than one option e.g.
What is your Gender?

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 Male
Female

      4.   Please make tick mark in check boxes for selection of options.

      5.   Please use extra sheets for answering any question, if needed. Also mention
the question number in additional sheets.
 Participants are expected to respond to items informs of options and fill in the blanks for
some questions, Majority of questions are provided with the options and based on the
requirement user need to fill the blanks.
 Range of possible outcome for question is like Yes or No, Male or female like that.
 In our Survey there are no subscales for the measure.
 The thing needs to be mentioned here is all our responses from the survey are organized,
structured and we need to apply qualitative analysis on this data as all these are in group
format

Procedure
The procedure that is followed to complete the survey is mentioned below, to complete the
survey certain steps are followed and those are explained below.

 First, based on our research objective, the questionnaire is prepared into three segments
that are technical, marketing and communication and digital banking. Questionnaire
prepared for each segment is different from each other
 Once the preparation of Questionnaire is completed, now our immediate task is to check
the Questionnaire one more time to avoid any mistakes and whether all Questionnaire
related to same segment or not.
 After to this, we need to invite people by identifying the eligible respondents to
participate in the survey and to share their opinion about the Questionnaire.
 Meanwhile we need to send remind letters for each one to get quick responses from each
participant.
 Finally, we need to establish the final dates of accepting the complete surveys to get all
responses and Analyze the results,
 This is the procedure for completing the survey.

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Data Analysis
Quantitative analysis is not possible to perform here and we are proceeding with qualitative
analysis based on Braun and Clarke (2006) article. The data is collected by using different
surveys with different types of people and data is collected. The Qualitative analysis is going to
be done on this data.

Braun and Clarke (2006) article is a method for identifying, analyzing, organizing, describing,
and reporting themes found within a data set.

We are going to analyze the data from three files i.e., Technical questions, Marketing and
communication, Digitalized bank questions.

These three files are collected by conducting different surveys with different people and we are
going analyze those data with different questions.

Thematic analysis with help of online surveys is done here. The brief procedure and its
implementation is discussed below, We have asked to the users in the area, and now we have a
vast amount of audio, comments, photographs, photos and fascinating experiences. It is
impossible to know where all the information will begin to make sense. All this information can
be confusing. Here we can benefit from knowledge uncertainty to templates and subjects that are
the most important facets of our data that can be seen as the basis for individuals, users and
design decisions.

The next thing we do is evaluate whether people chose us because we have carried out online
surveys. It can be an easy or complicated task based on the scope of our project, but it is
important for us to follow similar rules for how to interpret our surveys, regardless of what our
project is. Although we may have a pretty clear view of the things people have, and want to have
our insights adopted, careful analysis is essential for the validation of our findings. In a survey
case, there is a lot going on, and knowledge that does not align with our preconceived
expectations about what people will say and do during our surveys is easy to ignore. A proper
examination would ensure that we go through our information in a systematic and rigorous way.
A proper review also makes it possible for other individuals to understand precisely how we
have drawn our different conclusions about our participants which can make our findings even
more credible. It takes time to evaluate our outcomes, especially if our aim is broad and

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exploratory. But it is often easier to narrow the reach of our research if our time is limited than to
skip steps in the review process and leap directly to act on our findings.

An iterative method explains the thematic analysis as to how to go from messy data to a map of
the data's most important themes. There are six steps to the process:

 Familiarize our data with ourselves.

 To define the material, assign preliminary codes to our data.
 Searching through the numerous survey questions for trends or themes in our codes.
 Study those trends/patterns present in the data.
 Define the patterns and call them for understanding of the data.
 Build the report or generate it.

RESULTS
If we observe the responses from technical questions related to banking, do you see your
company as an alternative to traditional banking or as a service provider? Majority of people are
requesting the bank for the changes or upgrading in the bank and their services. Out of 31
people, 11 people are requesting for the alternative to the traditional banking and 11 people are
okay with the traditional banking and alternative banking which means people are waiting for the
alternative banking like making digital transformation, digital transactions which make people
work easier and Ireland banks should consider this for improvement of their banking services as
well as customer satisfaction as well. This we can observe from below figure.

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Also, Majority of the customers up to 95% of customers are requesting for digital transformation
of their services. In the Ireland many of banks are using traditional banking and recent surveys
say people are more supportive to changes in up gradation of their banking industry to digital
services. Each bank should upgrade from traditional system to digital system to improve the
customer satisfaction. This we can observe from below figure.

For the question, how do you see the future for your company? Many employees are expecting
the growth in the company and very few employees opted for challenging roles in the company.
Which means people who are working as employees, seeing the future of themselves in the
company as in a challenging role and at the same time it should be growing so that company will
also grow. But very less amount of people are okay with the position that they are in right now
and in the future also they are happy with the same position which didn’t bring much growth to
the companies. This we can observe from below figure.

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Also if we observe the company structure, majority of companies are using functional type
structure which really works better and makes the works simpler to complete. It is a very good
choice to work in functional manner instead of other choices. After to functional, divisional
structure is having good amount of success while implementing and completing the tasks when
compared to remaining other two structures. The rest two structures are matrix and flat structure
which are having very less amount of companies following and for these types of structures the
output or outcome will be very less compared to remaining other structures. This we can observe
from below figure.

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Whenever a company hiring the candidate, company is expecting good amount of problem
solving skills from the candidate, instead we can say problem solving skills are must for the
candidate to work for the company. If and only if the candidate posses good amount of problem
solving skills, he is eligible to work in the company. Apart from the problem solving skills,
communication skills are the most required skills to give presentations and communicate with
clients etc. Some of the companies are recruiting people based on their past experiences also.
This we can observe from below figure.

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Also, if we check about the positions that people are working who participated in the survey,
most of the people are working as developers. Team leads and HR’s participated in the survey
equally. Some of the CEO’s also participated in the survey which means all types of people are
participated in the survey and they shared their opinions with us. This we can observe from
below figure.

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While hiring a candidate into a Fintech industry or banking firm, candidate must possess
technical skills more when compared to management skills and banking skills. But combination
of technical skills and banking skills is really big asset to the candidate. The people who
completed the survey are possessing management, banking and technical skills are more and
their hiring changes are more compared to other candidates. This we can observe from below
figure.

From our data we can mention that many of banking firms support digital transformation in both
formats in manual form and digital form. Many of banking, financial and insurance firms are
supporting the digital transformation phase. If we check with different clients Banking
operations are more supportive to digital transformation when compared to the electronic
trading. Digital investment and increasing customer satisfaction are the major things to support
digital transformation.

The file Digitalized bank questions is about the banking firm, its operations, its transformation
from traditional banking to digital transformation and its organizational structure.

If we observe opinion of customers about digital transformation from traditional transformation,

all the customers are willing about transformation of bank towards digital transformation. Only
one candidate says he is willing for either digital transformation or traditional transformation. It
means all the customers are expecting the digital transformation. This we can observe from
below figure.

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The skills in which you feel your employee’s needs to improve understand with digital
technology, customer relationship, Management skills. Majority of survey participants are
telling that understanding with digital technology is the most necessity skill for an employee for
growth of firm and customer satisfaction as well. This we can observe from below figure.

While hiring a candidate into a Fintech industry or banking firm, candidate must possess
experience in finance more when compared to experience in banking and experience in
insurance. But combination experience in all industries is really big asset to the candidate. The
people who completed the survey are having experience in banking, insurance, finance and all
industries.

The company main focus is on both digital investment and increasing customer satisfaction. But
the primary focus of the company is increasing customer satisfaction so that they can improve
the company standards in a good manner, Majority of the companies are preferring both digital

26 | P a g e
investment as well as the customer satisfaction. They key point here is to increase the customer
satisfaction we must need to adapt digital transformation which makes the customer tasks very
easy to transfer and withdraw money from their accounts and gradually the customer satisfaction
will increases. This we can observe from below figure.

To increase the customer satisfaction, companies are taking some steps and majority of the
companies are concentrating on banking operations to transform their industry into digital. Apart
from banking operations, companies are majorly concentrating on electronic trading for customer
satisfaction. Apart from banking operations and electronic trading, some more companies are
conducting seminars to explore the level of customer satisfaction and inviting new ideas to
increase customer satisfaction. This we can observe from below figure.

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The organizational structure is followed by many companies are both digital and manual
organization structure. Apart from this, many companies are following digital organization
structure. This we can observe from below figure.

From marketing and communication file we can observe that opinion of customers about digital
transformation from traditional transformation, all the customers are willing about
transformation of bank towards digital transformation. Only one candidate says he is willing for
either digital transformation or traditional transformation. It means all the customers are
expecting the digital transformation. This we can observe from below figure.

The common areas of knowledge which are important for both management and employees are
Banking and financial services, Digital Knowledge and management Services. Out of these three
areas, management is expecting knowledge in all areas mostly. Apart from this, candidates
possessing knowledge in Banking and financial services. This we can observe from below figure.

28 | P a g e
Discussions
The digital disruption of banking promises to lead to a general increase in efficiency and service
by helping to overcome information asymmetries (using big data and AI/ML techniques and
blockchain technology), providing a user-friendly consumer interface and a higher standard of
service, and ultimately replacing obsolete technology. Banking will thus move to a customer-
centric platform-based model (Sloboda and Demianyk, 2020). All these changes present
formidable challenges to incumbents, since they will have to update their technological platforms
(moving from relatively rigid mainframes to the more flexible cloud), reduce branch
overcapacity in the current low-profitability environment (particularly in Europe, where there are
still legacy assets to dispose of), and try to reach the new standard of service by competing with
the new entrants that are encroaching on the most profitable lines of business.

There is no doubt that the short-run impact of the digital disruption will be to erode the margins
of incumbents and increase the contestability of banking markets. The long-run impact will
depend on what market structure ultimately prevails. Banking could move from the traditional
oligopoly to a new form in which a few dominant platforms control access to a fragmented
customer base if a few BigTech firms, together with some platform transformed incumbents,
monopolize the interface with customers and appropriate rents (Bureshaid, Lu and Sarea, 2020).
To keep the market sufficiently competitive, it will be crucial to have data ownership and
portability for individuals and data interoperability between platforms so that switching costs for
customers are minimized.

As long as efficiency advantages such as superior information and screening technologies, leaner
operation, and less leverage are what drive the entry of BigTech into banking, the financial
sector can become more efficient and feature greater financial inclusion. This effect will be
especially pronounced if, as a response to BigTech firms’ entry, incumbents become more
efficient by restructuring and adopting more-advanced technologies. Nonetheless, if the forces
behind BigTech entry involve market power, taking advantage of regulatory loopholes, and
bandwagon effects of network externalities for exclusionary purposes, then the efficiency of the
banking system could suffer in the long run (Vivek Dubey, 2019).

Consumer protection concerns come to the forefront. Regulators must, for example, establish
who controls the data (in this area, the EU seems to be in the lead) and ensure security when

29 | P a g e
transacting in platforms. They must also account for the fact that digital technology allows a
greater degree of price discrimination, which calls for enhanced consumer protection. Regulators
must take special care to foster the use of digital technology in a transparent way that minimises
the possible behavioural biases of consumers and investors (Mărăcine, Voican and Scarlat,
2020). When dealing with customers, transparency is and will be a competitive advantage of
digital banks that should permeate the whole sector. The cooperation of competition and
prudential authorities should be extended to encompass the units responsible for consumer
protection and data management.

Some Open Issues

The new digital world leaves many issues open for research. A fundamental one is: What is a
bank today? Can the core bank functions of handling both deposits and loans be unbundled?
What is the optimal policy of central banks with respect to digital currencies? Should central
banks supply their own digital currency or allow private digital currency providers to access
reserves? Will the new digital world attenuate or exacerbate the asymmetric information
problems at the root of financial intermediation? How will blockchain technology and smart
contracts change financial contracting and impact competition? How will the new digital
marketing and price discrimination techniques interact with the behavioural biases of consumers
and investors? What role will new entrants play in providing credit to people and firms that
cannot post collateral? Will innovation be favored? How do we avoid the entrenchment of
dominant positions in a platform-based banking world? To what extent will dynamic economies
of scale and scope lead to a natural oligopoly structure in banking? How do we assign property
rights on data and data portability rules to maximize welfare? How do we design systemic risk
indicators for cyber-exposure?

Conclusion
From our research objective it is clear that we are concentrating, how Fintech is helping banks
getting digitalized. For this analysis, we conducted surveys related to banking industry with
many questions. For these questions the participants need to choose options from given options
and for some questions they need to fill the blanks.

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The major findings from our survey are participants are requesting the banking towards digital
transformation. Many employees are expecting the growth in the company and very few
employees opted for challenging roles in the company. Also, majority of companies are using
functional type structure which really works better and makes the works simpler to complete. It
is a very good choice to work in functional manner instead of other choices. Whenever a
company or an organization hiring the candidate, company is expecting good number of
problem-solving skills from the candidate, instead we can say problem solving skills are must for
the candidate to work for the company. The Majority of people who participated in the survey
are Developers. Instead of developers, HR, CEO’s and other people are participated in the
Survey. Majority of survey participants are telling that understanding with digital technology is
the most necessity skill for an employee for growth of firm and customer satisfaction as well.
The candidate must possess technical skills whenever appearing for the interview. The company
main focus is on both digital investment and increasing customer satisfaction. To increase the
customer satisfaction, companies are taking some steps and majority of the companies are
concentrating on banking operations to transform their industry into digital. The organizational
structure is followed by many companies are both digital and manual organization structure. The
common areas of knowledge which are important for both management and employees are
Banking and financial services, Digital Knowledge and management Services.

The global financial sector is undergoing major changes and banks are facing serious
implications. After crisis period, increased regulations over financial institutions put extra weight
on banks’ shoulders. Banks spend efforts on adopting these regulations instead of focusing
innovation and development.

Fintechs took advantage of this vulnerability in the sector and started to penetrate on market by
providing technology-enabled solutions. However, their advancement in the sector slowdown in
one point by unseen technical difficulties. Surpass to these challenges, collaboration between
fintechs and financial institutions came as a solution for both parties. Collaboration has been
started to accepted by all parties as an alternative.

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