06 May DiscussIT: Banks are facing the biggest transformation yet
Leading people from the world of finance and IT gathered at a Combis panel ‘Discuss IT – Innovations for a Better Society’.
The financial sector is moving towards more intensive adoption of technological innovations, and together with the COVID-19 pandemic, which is intensively changing people’s habits, this will strongly influence the transformation of financial industry in the years to come. That was the main message of the online panel ‘DiscussIT’ organized by the IT company Combis.
In a short introduction, Combis CEO Goran Car pointed out that technology can do almost anything, but digital vision and motivation are extremely important, and the intent of every bank – what exactly each bank wants to achieve with the help of technology. “The goal of IT industry, as well as Combis, is to talk about important topics and also education which helps in raising awareness that through technological innovation we can positively influence society”, says Goran Car.
CNB Governor Boris Vujčić believes that Croatian citizens are open to new technologies and that customers will benefit even more in the future because banks will adapt even more to users and their needs, and this will be most evident in the digital, technological approach. “The future of banking is tied to innovation and digitalization, while keeping the focus on security and trust; these are the winning cards that will never go out of fashion”, says Boris Vujčić.
RBA CEO Liana Keserić started her business career in the IT sector. That is why she strongly believes that digital services must be intuitive and easy to use. “The scenario we strive for is that users immediately, when they first encounter a service, feel that they can use it comfortably and easily. If that does not happen, interest disappears, often at the expense of numerous advantages within a banking product”, says Keserić, who has a positive view of the trends of digital transformation in banking.
“Clients today expect to be able to do business with the bank from anywhere, quickly, and digitally. And we want to provide our customers with just that, offering them transparent and easy-to-understand products on attractive terms, as well as exceptional service and digital user experience”, says Roberto Bitunjac, Member of the Management Board in charge of technology and operations.
Hrvoje Prpić, a cryptocurrency expert, entrepreneur and investor, spoke about the cryptocurrency market, which he says is here to stay. “Today we can say for ourselves that we have witnessed the time the first cryptocurrencies appeared, the time which will last for hundreds or maybe thousands of years. Just as people were part of history in the late nineteenth century when paper money was introduced, today we are a part of the history when cryptocurrencies were created”, says Hrvoje Prpić who believes that we cannot forecast growth or drop for many cryptocurrencies, but we can say for sure that Bitcoin will grow in the long term.
One of the topics of the DiscussIT panel was also cyber security, about which Combis continually educates the wider public through a series of campaigns and media articles.