Banking with purpose

'Volume is king' has long been the mantra of financial success in banking. But the banks that thrive today must heed a new call. It's no longer just disruptor brands, new technologies, or changing regulations that are reshaping the landscape. Growing demands from customers and communities for banks to demonstrate their purpose – beyond profit – can no longer go unheard.

Across almost every industry, we are seeing this shift – from growth at any cost to conscious prosperity.

Automotive companies are finding greener means of powering their vehicles. For example, in an effort to reduce global carbon emissions, Swedish automaker Volvo says it will phase out all diesel, petrol, and hybrid options and only sell electric cars by 2030.

Meanwhile, consumer packaged goods manufacturers and retailers are encouraging healthier choices and ethically driven supply chains. Take our client, Mondelēz International, the global snacking company, which is investing $50 million in community programs that help at-risk families make informed food choices and access nutritious foods.

And as our Banking in the Age of Instinct report reveals, financial institutions are no exception. Many are transitioning from delivering financial services to enabling financial betterment. This could be through offering opt-in blocks on spending at gambling websites to protect vulnerable consumers, making focused investments in female founders, decreasing lending to businesses in the fossil fuel industry to promote sustainability, or enabling those currently outside the system to open a bank account.

These kinds of purpose-led initiatives are helping banks secure their continued existence in an uncertain future. According to research, consumers are 72% more likely to be loyal to companies that lead with purpose.^[1]

At Genpact, we are committed to our purpose: The relentless pursuit of a world that works better for people.

Our purpose shines through the work we do with financial institutions across the globe. With our industry and digital transformation expertise, we empower banks to offer their customers, employees, stakeholders, communities, and partners more than they could traditionally expect from banks.

For example, meeting customers where they are with helpful, optimized interactions and interfaces so they can focus on what matters to them most. Enabling commercial clients to stay afloat during turbulent times. Or creating a safer world for us all by stopping criminals, such as traffickers, from committing fraud or using the banking system to launder money.

As consumers, we're used to seamless, personalized experiences. But when it comes to banking, we expect more. We also expect heightened safety, security, and help on the road to financial success.

At Genpact, we enable our banking clients to make data-driven decisions that result in banking that works better for people. We're helping banks get the right content in front of the right eyes at the right times using analytics, powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning. And we're using advanced digital technologies to empower their frontline customer service teams to deliver superior omnichannel customer support. For example, we helped a global bank create exceptional experiences in the personal loan space, allowing customers to quickly access capital to help them unlock financial wellbeing, while tripling growth for the bank.

We're also helping banks work better for people by enabling their compliance within an ever-shifting regulatory landscape. For example, in line with a new debt-collection rule for agencies from the US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, we're working with banks to digitize their collections organizations to drive higher recoveries from fewer customer interactions, protecting consumers from abusive, unfair, or deceptive debt collection practices in the process.

Every business is a people's business. So, a world that works better for people means a world that works better for business too.

On the commercial banking side, we're enabling firms to help their clients through industry expertise and cloud-based solutions. During COVID-19, this work became vital to helping many small enterprises survive during the pandemic.

Our work with Primis, a Small Business Association (SBA)-preferred lender and community-based bank in the southeastern United States, is a key example. We helped the bank use a custom cloud application to manage a flood of loan applications and safely lend to small businesses in need. We did this while improving its risk and compliance capabilities and converting the bank into a nationwide lender practically overnight. The technologies making this possible will continue to power Primis' abilities to reduce risk and rapidly help small businesses way beyond the pandemic.

We're also empowering banks to take a more ethics-driven role in society by reducing financial crime. We help our banking partners strengthen their defenses against money laundering and terrorism, avoid hefty fines, and build a safer world.

For example, since the US Senate's passage of the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020, Genpact has helped banks assess, strengthen, and modernize their programs for anti-money laundering and counterterror financing. This allows them to stand up to increased regulatory and enforcement scrutiny and higher expectations from Congress and the public that financial institutions do more to detect, prevent, and report financial crime to make the world a safer place to live.

As we move forward, we will continue to support the banking industry on this journey by investing in transformative talent and technology strategies that produce meaningful impact for all to create a world that works better for their employees, customers, and communities.