Banks are facing more competition today than ever, and much of that competition is coming from left field – from non-traditional sources such as mobile operators and the big technology companies.

The implications, says Standard Bank Group, are dire for financial services institutions that are unwilling to adapt their strategies to compete effectively in what it calls “the platform economy”.

The banking group recently published a new research paper, called “The Power of the Platform Economy for Financial Services”, which unpacks the risks and opportunities in some detail.

One of the authors at the research paper, Standard Bank platform business lead for wholesale clients (digital) Jonathan Lamb, joined the TechCentral podcast to unpack what this means for “legacy” banks in both the business-to-business and business-to-consumer markets across Africa. (Listen to the podcast below.)

Where is the threat to banks coming from? Will mobile operators, with mobile money services, or social media companies like Facebook, which owns WhatsApp, prove to be the bigger competitive threat down the line? And how can banks respond?

Listen to the interview

Lamb believes banks are actually in a strong position to counter the competitive threats, but they cannot rest on their laurels.

How do they deal with their legacy IT infrastructure (many are still running mainframes at their core), and is the fact that they are heavily regulated an advantage or a disadvantage in the fight to come?

Don’t miss this fascinating discussion on the future of an industry in flux. (Note that no video version of this podcast is available.)

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