Making the Leap to Digital | SQN Banking Systems

While many businesses are scrambling around trying to figure out how to get rid of their file cabinets and replace them with digital records, banks are going a step further.

Brick-and-mortar banks and credit unions are offering an increasing number of digital services to their clients, and all-digital financial institutions are popping up around the world. Even central banks are playing with the idea of shifting to digital currencies in the not so distant future. Are you ready for the shift to digital? Here’s what you need to consider.

Benefits of Digital Transactions

For banks, credit unions, and all other types of financial institutions, there are numerous benefits to going digital. Allowing customers to pay bills, check their balances, make payments, open accounts, and even resolve disputes through a website or an app saves you time and money. You don’t have to employ as many people, and you often don’t need as much physical space either.

Beyond that, customers expect the ease of digital transactions, and offering these services helps to keep your institution competitive. Whether you’re processing checks, emailing account statements, or handling payroll for your employees, digital processes are faster and less prone to human error. They also help you save money on paper, ink toner, and printer maintenance.

Essential Security Considerations

However, just as you need to exercise caution with paper documents, you also have to ensure you are careful with digital processes. First and foremost, you need to ensure that you are compliant with legal regulations. Ideally, you want to go above and beyond the law to ensure that you give your organization and your clients the safest digital options possible.

That means ensuring that your clients can sign into your digital banking services without worrying about fraud or other threats. It also means your system is set up to credit or debit accounts correctly when processing digital checks. At the same time, it includes training your staff to identify and resist phishing scams or other digital threats to your internal data.

Where to Go Digital

In most cases, it doesn’t work to shift everything from paper to digital at the same time. Typically, you need to take a staggered approach. Start by identifying areas where going digital offers you the biggest advantages.

For instance, you may decide that you want to get rid of intra-office paper memos to reduce waste and save money. Alternatively, you may decide that you want to offer your customers the ability to get their bank statements over email rather than through the mail. If you don’t currently have a digital app, you may want to develop one. There are all kinds of digital avenues to explore.

The Right Digital Partners

Depending on the direction you decide to take, you need the right partners to help you along the way. This refers to tech consultants who can help you set up apps and programs as well as to fraud protection companies who can ensure everything is safe. However, you may also want to look for other ways to take your digital services to the next level.

For instance, some banks partner with ecommerce sites. To understand how these partnerships can be mutually beneficial, take the case of Alibaba and Ant Financial. Ant Financial increased the payment options for Alibaba shoppers by extending them credit and offering great digital services such as face recognition pay. At the same time, Alibaba enjoyed increased sales because shoppers found it easier to pay for their purchases.

Taking the Leap

Once you go digital, you have to constantly test and refine your offerings and processes. That ensures that you and your clients are getting the benefits you need and expect from your digital services, but it also ensures that your offerings are as safe as possible.

With digital threats constantly changing, you need a nimble security partner who makes fraud protection easy. That’s where we come in. At SQN Banking Systems, we provide e-signing, signature verification, check image analysis, and a range of other products that allow you to tread into the digital world safely. To help you convert paper files to digital records, we also offer conversion services.