Yesterday was our Mobile Finance Summit, where we brought together a wide variety of financial brands with key thought leaders from the mobile marketing world and beyond to explore and discuss  how banks, insurance companies and other stakeholders in the financial industry can take advantage of the power of mobile.

The personal nature of mobile is leading to a wave of disruption in the financial sector on a never-before-seen scale, as tiny start-ups challenge established brands with individualised products and new levels of service. However, the financial sector is fighting back, embracing mobile to keep pace with consumer demand and creating innovative new methods of targeting, reaching and retaining customers.

If you werent able to make it to the Summit, you missed out on some fantastic guidance from leading industry figures, but you can still access some of the gems of wisdom here, with our top 10 quotes from the day.

“AI is not happening in the short term, but machine learning is already ongoing. It’s mostly algorithms, but it means processing is happening in real-time. Thanks to cloud computing and investment, plus the improvements to the algorithms used, you can now embed a new system in your fraud management and data analytics, which uses machine learning to improve the way you are collecting data, extracting information and solutions. As soon as you can do fraud detection in real time, you’re saving money.”
Jean-Noel Georges, global program director and research manager, Frost & Sullivan

The day was kicked off by Jean-Noel Georges from Frost & Sullivan, who provided delegates with a valuable overview of how advancements in technology were impacting the financial sector on every level, from the rise of mobile banking in emerging markets, to new channels of customer service like chatbots, and behind-the-scenes technologies like blockchain and AI-powered decision making.

“We don’t believe in interrupting the user experience, and we believe that approach is putting users off from watching videos. Video is 62 per cent more effective in getting your message across, but we’ve actually shifted user behaviour away from certain forms of video.”
Anil Lamba, industry director for finance, Teads

Anil Lamba of Teads discussed the intimate nature of mobile, and how it was enabling brands to switch from one-way models of messaging to a more conversational approach with consumers. However, he warned that brands need to respect consumer preferences, and balance making themselves disruptive with avoiding annoying consumers into switching off.

“This is all very closely tied to money – actual money. If we ever manage to get rid of coins and notes, it might change, but as long as we’ve still got them, we’ll have branches. Get rid of them, and it becomes a very different proposition.”
Jen Brown, director of marketing, EMEA, Tealium

During our panel debate, Tealium’s Jen Brown discussed how the rise of contactless payments and the push towards a cashless society could affect how banks reach people, and the changing role of physical branches as models of customer service evolve.

“We’ve got to carve a niche, because otherwise we’ll get dragged into a territory where we can’t compete, we’ll get priced out.”
Neil Costello, head of marketing, Atom Bank

Keynote speaker Neil Costello from Atom Bank discussed how the brand has had to differentiate itself through both its product offering and its marketing strategies in an effort to compete with larger, established financial firms.

“By creating a two-way, interactive way to get that information, firms we’ve worked with have not only saved a huge amount of manual resources, but also dramatically improved the customer experience.”
James O’Hare, head of sales, Esendex

Addressing how mobile is impacting how financial firms communicate directly with customers, James O’Hare of Esendex spoke about work the company has carried out with brands like LV, which switched to SMS for measuring customer satisfaction and was able to increase response rates from three per cent to 27 per cent.

“Mobile is becoming the glue between physical and digital, and retailers are already adopting this. We’ve seen it really successfully from Starbucks, where seven or eight per cent of their orders are now done via their mobile app and picked up later. McDonald’s are now rolling it out, with the added feature of using GPS so they don’t start cooking until you’re getting close.”
Paul Barnes, Northern Europe and Middle East territory director, App Annie

As part of our panel debate, Paul Barnes of App Annie spoke about how mobile has been used by industries like retail and fast-service restaurants to connect the digital and physical experience, and how finance can perform a similar feat by blending payment applications with banking services.

“Clubcard wasn’t invented for a mobile-first world, which is why you still get vouchers delivered to you in the post. But mobile is the personal mailbox for everyone.”
Michael Rolph, chief product officer and co-founder, YoYoWallet

During his keynote presentation, YoYoWallet’s Michael Rolph explained how the company was challenging traditional models of loyalty and payment, and what personalisation meant in the mobile age when our news is filtered, our music is curated and our films are recommended.

“If you give people the right content at the right time, it will feel like a service, not an intrusion.”
Lindsay McEwan, vice president and general manager for EMEA, Tealium

Speaking about the power of mobile to act as a connecting point for the vast number of channels and touchpoints that exist now, Lindsay McEwan from Tealium emphasised the way that brands can make use of location technology to provide context when they interact with consumers.

“Why do people like mobile banking? Something like an ATM is unlikely to annoy you, but not likely to delight you. A branch visit is unlikely to particularly delight or annoy, although it can do. A mobile app sits best in that delightful and not annoying box.”
Paul Barnes, Northern Europe and Middle East territory director, App Annie

Paul Barnes from App Annie walked us through the way consumers were embracing mobile finance, and how both retail banking and financial management apps were seeing tremendous growth in users, and high levels of satisfaction among customers of all ages and demographics.

“It all comes down to any bit of tech that can humanise that experience with a bank. We all get caught up in the technology and what it’s capable of, but really that’s what’s most important.”
Anil Lamba, industry director for finance, Teads

Teads’ Anil Lamba was able to sum up many of the day’s themes during our panel debate, emphasising how the personal nature of mobile was changing how consumers approached their own relationship with their money, and how financial firms have to provide a more personalised, user-friendly experience or risk being overtaken by disruptive firms that are embracing the power of mobile.

If you’re interested in hearing these sorts of insights into a variety of verticals and technology areas, check out our 2017 Summits site, with events covering Travel, Programmatic, App Marketing and more. Click here to find out more.