Frollo has launched a campaign for the mutual bank sector on Building the Bank of the Future with Open Data.

Customer-owned banks are ideally placed to benefit from the consumer data right (CDR). Frollo has created a content series to show a path forward for mutuals that want to either understand how to get started or how they can best utilise the Open Data opportunities to further improve their customer outcomes and future-proof their businesses.

Mutual banks are facing a variety of challenges, including rapid evolutionary changes in technology; the regulatory and competitive landscape; as well as heightened consumer expectations for seamless digital experiences.

Simon Docherty, Frollo’s Chief Customer Officer said: “Mutuals are by their design, customer-first and by their nature, innovators. That’s why Open Data can be a game-changer for mutual banks looking to leverage technology, improve the digital customer journey, deliver efficiencies, and create more engaging products and services.”

Frollo sees Open Data as the answer and opportunity to many of these pressures and will ensure that mutuals can continue to put their customers at the heart of everything they do, whilst building the bank of the future.

“Where Open Banking is up to now, you can start building the bank of the future centred around data and customer experience," said Tony Thrassis, CEO of Frollo.

The campaign via this site will deliver a mix of content across a variety of channels, such as video interviews, a three-part webinar series with live-streamed panel discussions of industry leaders, and consumer research into mutual customer behaviours, along with practical tools and checklists for mutual banks.

Tony Thrassis added: “We are committed to helping mutuals continue to make a positive impact on the industry. We hope this content series will continue to assist mutual banks grow as an essential customer-focused part of the banking sector.”

Frollo has partnered with the customer-owned banking industry closely over the last two and half years, launching use cases with P&N Bank, BCU Bank and Beyond Banks, as well as Data Holder Testing solutions for Australian Unity and The Mutual Bank.

Tony Thrassis, CEO, Frollo

“The key things that you need to succeed in Open Banking are a purpose, good technology, an understanding of your customers and you need to be in the game.”

“This might be the first time you would have access to customer data from the big 4 banks, and mutuals can now also access that data. The CDR started with Open Banking but is expanding into energy, telco, non-bank-lenders, superannuation, insurance and possibly into government data. Organisations can aggregate all that data into a single customer view to understand a customer’s complete financial footprint and develop meaningful insights for the customers and the business.”

“One of the big game-changers for mutuals will be action initiation and leading with payments. It will reduce the use of debit and credit cards and give rise to new customer experience when making payments inside banking apps.”

Simon Docherty, CCO, Frollo

“We have been fortunate to work with a variety of mutuals across the sector over the last 2 and a half plus years. We love working with the mutual sector. It is a great connection between who we are and our purpose as a business, and the mutuals sector’s strong mandate to deliver value back to their members, and we feel there is a great alignment between our two businesses.”

“In our discussions with mutual, a major pain point has been data holder obligations and how intensive that was financially and from a resourcing perspective. Frollo has created resources so mutuals can start to look at how to derive value back on that significant investment on the data holder side by becoming an ADR, to give mutuals the tools to understand the accreditation process, which is very simple and quick.”

“Open Banking brings for the first time the opportunity for mutuals to see their members’ full financial life and engage with their customers in a very different way. To see what products they have with other financial institutions, and to understand where they are in the financial journey, to be able to offer your customers the right product at the right time.”

“A direct link to start getting some return on investment from becoming a Data Holder is  being able to get efficiencies in lending, that is time saved in loan processing and applications, that is what Open Banking can do and deliver for mutuals.”

“Mutuals should think about Open Banking opportunities in two ways – One. how are you unique to your membership today, and how is Open Banking going to help deliver and supercharge that unique value to your members? And two - just get started, if you are already a data holder it really is an easy streamlined process to become a data recipient to start reaping the rewards of Open Data”.