The Gen Y Consumer; Not the FRANK type
Gen Y, which makes up around 40% of the US population, is the most interesting group of consumers, because of their reliance on electronic gadgets, their literature, their banking services, their general outlook on life, and even their unique, contemporary, New Age drive to innovate. I just read how OCBC Bank in Singapore has opened FRANK, a new brick-and-motor bank for the Gen Y Singaporeans. The question is do Gen Y consumers even need a brick-and-mortar bank? No!
A Gen Y consumer will open a bank account in this fashion:
- Pick up a smart(er) phone.
- Touch the BANK app –> This will show all the banks in a given area.
- Select a bank.
- Enter the virtual branch.
- Give a virtual customer service officer a thumb impression for permission to access personal information. A pattern-recognition system will link to a secure citizen database which will authenticate information and allow the bank to access a copy of the customer’s personal information on demand. This will include credit checks and other due diligence checks like KYC.
- A virtual customer service officer interactively will help the consumer select bank accounts, a virtual credit card (e wallet) and, as a bonus, pre-approve the consumer for a line of credit and a mortgage valid for six months. All this will be available in the virtual bank account safe, which is an app on the consumer’s mobile phone.
- The bank will facilitate the funding of the account through transfers, deposits from an employer and other means.
- For ongoing transactions, the consumer will use an NFC-enabled mobile phone as a wallet.
If all can be done on a smart(er) phone, then why go to a branch. FRANK, do we need you?
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