Digital maturity is still a long way off for financial institutions, according to new research by Fenergo, the leading provider of digital Client Lifecycle Management (CLM) software solutions for financial institutions. The findings of Fenergo’s CLM Report, which is the second in a three-part series, showed that fewer than half (40%) of the financial institutions surveyed are advanced in their CLM digital transformation strategy, with departmental collaboration and difficulty getting buy-in from senior management key prohibitors to change.

On a collaboration scale of 1-10, with 1 indicating working in complete siloes, and 10 meaning fully collaborative, commercial banks performed the worst across the sector with a third of firms (33%) ranking at 5 and below. However, with over 54% of banks stating the lack of single client view is a key pain point for the business, it’s clear that a greater focus on departmental collaboration is required.

Marc Murphy, CEO, Fenergo, said “What often stands in the way of collaboration is the historical growth path of financial institutions. When banks have been built upon revenue streams that are not interdependent, it results in teams that are not required to collaborate. However, collaboration across departments and business lines is a key factor in achieving digital transformation and improving customer experiences.”

The report also highlighted that the UK is the most advanced when it comes to CLM digital transformation strategy with the US lagging behind.

Highlights from the report include:

• The majority of banks (87%) stated the need to get buy-in from senior management across different business areas is a major barrier to improving and investing in CLM
• 88% of chief data officers believe that increasing visibility and collaboration between internal teams would help to alleviate longer onboarding times for clients
• 60% of financial institutions rate themselves as intermediate or beginners in the maturity of their CLM digital transformation strategy. The US is the least advanced out of all the nations, with only 13% claiming an expert level of digital maturity, while the UK is the most advanced (24%), closely followed by APAC (21%)
• One third (29%) of banks have not integrated with a KYC utility or with an external data provider across the customer lifecycle
• 50% of financial institutions believe cost controlling is an issue in the onboarding process
• 54% reported that the absence of a ‘single client view of all data/documentation’ is a challenge when onboarding a new client or moving them to a new product

Fenergo’s CLM report is based on the findings from a global proprietary market survey, which engaged with 250 C-suite executives across commercial, business, investment/institutional and corporate banking institutions. Respondents were based in financial institutions of varying sizes, from 0-500 employees, to those boasting 10,000+ employees, with their primary location of operation spanning UK & Europe, Middle East and North Africa, Asia Pacific and North America.