Annika Falkengren: Fintech companies are doing many things well

In contemporary banking, it’s important to keep financial buffers and be prepared for the changes related to the technological development, said Annika Falkengren, CEO at SEB Group, who was speaking to the bank’s Baltic corporate clients in Tallinn on Thursday.

According to Falkengren, four topics in banking need a special focus. “Firstly, who are the clients and what are their needs. Secondly competitors, in a much wider meaning than other banks, but also startups; thirdly, technology that will be applied in the future and then regulations that are needed for guaranteeing safety in the banking sector”.

When speaking about the economic environment, Falkengren highlighted that negative interest rates are a big challenge because the rates have never stayed so low for so long time and in this respect we move in an unknown territory.

Changing world has brought along its own new business models that are solving problems. „Fintech startups have done many good things: they are agile, ready to take risks and fine-tuning single services into its perfection and this is a great value for banking innovation. Big banks’ strengths lie in capital buffers that are so solid to face next crises whenever they strike in. For sure, banking will get simpler for clients – but it also must stay safe and trustworthy.”

The popularity of m-banking is skyrocketing both in Sweden and in the Baltics while the Internet banking records the same activity as before or even lower. „From one side the bank has to be digital, but at the same there have to be humans, who will assist and listen to the corporate and retail clients. Banks provide infrastructure and invest millions of euros to it annually, some services will be in the future pure infrastructure services that are extremely simple, like payments, while other services will become much more sophisticated, like financial advisory, because of technological ability to process data. So there is very inspiring future ahead of us “, said Falkengren.

„SEB is engaged in defining how the bank will be in the year 2025. For us it’s very important to be a client-focused bank, which means we need to start changing from our clients, not the product. SEB has a strong heritage the bank is very proud of and it belongs to the bank’s DNA to be close to the client“, noted Falkengren.

The fourth edition of SEB’s landmark event, the annual Baltic Business Summit 2016 was held in Tallinn on April 14, with the focus on digital revolution and its impact on the business. In addition to SEB’s top management, the speakers included opinion leaders from other business sectors.

For more information: http://www.seb.ee/eng/bbs

.

For more information:

Evelin Allas
Communications Manager
Marketing and Communications Division
SEB

Phone +372 665 5649
Mobile +372 511 1718
Address Tornimäe 2, 15010 Tallinn
E-mail evelin.allas@seb.ee
www.seb.ee

Read our news feed on Twitter www.twitter.com/SEB_Eesti
Follow us on Facebook www.facebook.com/seb.eesti
View the video archive on YouTube www.youtube.com/user/sebeestivideo