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«Banks have previously placed emphasis on traditional channels. As a product manager, you manage your profit and loss (P&L). One dollar in traditional gives me x return, (but) one dollar into a new media gives me a question mark. For e-channels at banks, they struggled to prove the ROI.»

«It’s only in recent years, where there are a lot more of these digital footprints, it became a lot easier,» explained Chee.

Not Everyone Agrees

However, not all the panelists at the session agree with retail banks’ excuses for not having sufficient behavioral data to serve up relevant ads. «I slightly disagree. When we look at data, we seem to confuse data as we knew, from the days when we did research, when it was actually self-selected data, right?» questioned Ramanathan. 

«Everything that the consumer does is a data-point, it’s a signal. So, every credit card usage, whether it was for a train ride or (buying) a gift - is a signal. So actually there was a lot of behavioral data, except it was really mentioned as transaction data. Every transaction was a behavioral signal,» he argued.

Challenges Remain
Even as banks are embracing digital marketing channels, challenges remain for the institutions to serve personalized ads. «Would the banks have a total view of your financial transactions? No, because most of us maintain more than one bank account, and we’ll never share that information, unlike in the U.S. where you have account aggregation and all that,» said Chee.

On top of adhering to data protection regulations, banks face a fine balancing act of not being «overly intrusive» on its customers, while serving them relevant ads at the right time, added Chee.

The Way Data Is Viewed, Is Changing

Despite the gap in customer demand for relevant ads, most speakers agreed that banks have already started on the journey of understanding their customers better. The pivotal point came when banking divisions stopped viewing their data in silos, but rather, from a customer-centric point of view.

«I think it is inertia in terms of architecture ….but primarily, this is because nobody within the bank was viewing this from a customer interface (CX) point of view, and everybody was viewing it in silos,» said Ramanathan. 

«That’s where banks tie-up with partners, to overlay (the new information), and this is only just starting,» said Chee.