Banking and financial services are, however, rapidly transforming in the Digital era. With the emergence of advanced technologies, banks are facing massive pressure to increase their efficiency and flexibility, and subsequently, lower their costs. It is really important for the banks and customers to remain transparent and authentic respectively.

Undoubtedly, the idea behind integrating banking services with technology is convenience. Technology has a strong impact on almost every individual, to an extent that it influences their lifestyle. So, it has now become vital for business to distinguish themselves in the digital space with unique offerings.

Security remains part of the core services that banks can offer, and for this reason, the interfaces with simplicity work best. More customers have become accustomed to mobile platforms, and are using online platforms at a much younger age. For these reasons, there is lot of power that can be utilized through digital channels. The power of digitization, however, presents a number of challenges that should be overcome. Some of the challenges are:

1.  Security: Security is the major concern for the customers while making digital payments. Customers only try out new features when they feel completely secure. They consider everything starting from the assurance that their personal information is not being passed on, to guaranteeing that their money is in safe hands. Banks need to assure that their systems and processes are completely secure. Continuous security threats and countless hacking cases are in vogue these days. It is extremely difficult to move towards cashless economy if the customers have the fear that digital banking or money transfers can lead to disasters.

In this case, robust testing is extremely important. After successful security testing, it can be guaranteed that the applications and products are ready to be launched into the market. Typical security requirements for digital banking and E-wallets include confidentiality, authentication, integrity, availability, authorization and non-repudiation. Any gaps in the security of digital services lead to loss of revenue, credibility and customer trust. Security testing builds up the reputation of an organization, assures data confidentiality and customer trust.

2. Delivering Quality at Speed: Most of the companies often compromise on the quality of the services in order to deliver products and services at an accelerated speed. There have been numerous instances of organizations knowingly turning a blind-eye to defects in products and software before the item gets launched into the market. Robust software testing ensures that the product or software gets launched in defined time period. Quality assurance experts ensure time to market by closely analyzing possible software issues right from the requirements gathering stage.

3. Performance: Performance of an application decides whether the customers are going to get delighted or disappointed. In regard to this, digital banking needs to take great caution. In today’s world, customers are increasingly moving towards cashless transactions, so ultimately they are dependent upon their banking cards or digital applications to perform seamless transactions. At any given point of time, millions of customers might be performing various transactions.

Continuous crashes and failed transactions in the application become a matter of great inconvenience and could lead to immediate uninstalling of the application. Undoubtedly, Performance testing is crucial. Monitoring the application’s response time, ensuring that the load and stress testing are done, performance testing is necessary to gauge whether the app will respond like it has been intended to. When it comes to a glitch-free digital banking experience, every moment matters.

4. Data Integrity: Banking is a service that solely runs on the matter of trust. The customer is responsible for providing authentic information, while the banks are responsible for maintaining transparency and ensuring that the customers’ funds are safe. In such cases, it becomes critical to collect the information that reveals a customer’s financial data along with the expenditure trends. Compromising such data can have disastrous consequences that the banking organizations cannot afford to have.

5. Upgraded Technology: Few years ago, smartphones started becoming popular. Today, the functionality defines the owned device. The business travelers rely upon Apple and Android tablets, freelancers depend on high quality cameras and notebooks, people working in 9-to-5 routine prefer laptops and high-performance desktops. So, it has become important to know the target audience and understanding who would use what device under which circumstances. This means a serious amount of investment for banking and financial services in the formulation of effective digital strategies.