It’s easy in the technology game to get carried away – anything new is hailed as “the next big thing”. But is anyone really innovating out there and does innovation matter?

In London on Monday night, at the Financial Services Club meeting, I listened to four corporates – two big, one medium and another small (their companies, not the chaps themselves) – talk about “what they really want” from their banks.

Automation of the financial supply chain? Electronic invoicing? New SEPA instruments? One of the panellists, when asked for his views on SEPA and the Payment Services Directive said: “I have no idea what you are talking about.” 

Like teenagers, what corporates really want is to be understood. They want to be able to pick up a telephone (such outmoded technology!) and speak to someone at the bank who knows them, who can in fact recognise their voice (but we have technology that can do that, surely?) One said: “I want my transactions to be fast and efficient, but I don’t want it to become faceless – I want to be recognised as a human being.”

From the audience, an observation that amused most of the people in the room – the subjects raised by the corporates, such as “too many forms to fill” and “banks don’t understand my business” were topics that could have been heard at similar meetings 15 years ago. Why no evolution? Have banks learnt nothing?

Cue embarrassed tittering and no real answer.

So, corporate banking is all about relationships. Fancy that. Shoehorn technology into that, dear readers.

Filed under: Corporate Banking