Impacts, challenges and trends of digital transformation in the banking sector

Driven by the 2020 pandemic’s work-at-home mandates, the future of work in banking and finance may be in the midst of disruptive change. The digital transformation process of banks sees the development and strengthening of digital channels as one of the first and most important stages, without prejudice to the importance of the physical channel for specific needs. On the one hand, this duality between digitization and the human factor is reflecting in the multichannel strategies of the banks, which are increasingly moving towards a synergy between digital channels and human touch. On the other hand, a thorough review of customer service logics leads banks to review the operation of internal processes, introducing elements of innovation through structured work paths that lead to the construction and management of an innovation strategy. Accordingly, society wide trust in the use of digital instruments and processes in finance has bounded forward. Artificial intelligence, machine learning, big data analytics, blockchain ledgers, digital money, and myriad digitally developed financial derivatives are losing their mystery both inside and outside institutions and companies operating in banking and finance. The 2020 year represented a major watershed between the world before and after the pandemic. The health emergency, in fact, has profoundly changed people way of living, relating, working, training and make financial operations. The year 2021 will be decisive for the integration of digital technologies in the banks, changing both the degree of centralisation / decentralisation of decisions and the management of information and knowledge. As a result of both the economic crisis and more restrictive regulation, the bank’s top management has become very sensitive to having everything more directly under control. The organizational pyramid has consequently to be simplified and flattened. The disruptive growth of societal trust in digital banking and finance could ac-celerate to achieve higher levels of efficiency, requiring the bank to learn, develop new knowledge and innovate, in order to achieve the necessary condition for its vitality in a competitive environment.