Infosys Finacle and Efma Report finds Pandemic Has Accelerated Retail Banking Innovation

Infosys Finacle and Efma Report finds Pandemic Has Accelerated Retail Banking Innovation

However, 57 percent of respondents still feel their digital investments are yet to deliver as expected

Paris, France and Bengaluru, India - December 8, 2020

Infosys Finacle, part of EdgeVerve Systems, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Infosys (NSE, BSE, NYSE: INFY), and the European Financial Management & Marketing Association (Efma) today unveiled the 13th edition of the annual 'Innovation in Retail Banking' report, authored by Jim Marous, publisher of the Digital Banking Report and co-publisher of The Financial Brand. Senior executives from over 1,165 banks and financial services companies from across the world participated in the study.

The key inferences in the report state that 14 percent of the respondents - up from 7 percent last year - said their organization's digital transformation had scaled, and delivering as expected. 64 percent of the respondents believe that pandemic has made them substantially more successful at innovation. Overall, more than half the respondents continue to rate their organizations' digital transformation efforts as insufficient, similar to last year's report. 57 percent of respondents stated that their digital deployment were partial or that digital investments were not delivering as expected.

One of the areas that witnessed significantly accelerated innovation during the pandemic was digital delivery - from onboarding to service, and to engagement. Lockdowns and social distancing meant that banks had to expand the remote service of customers in an unprecedented manner. 44 percent of respondents said they had increased investment in digital delivery by more than 10 percent. Respondents expected enhanced investments in customer experience (78 percent) and channels (72 percent), which are key components of digital delivery, in 2021 and beyond as well.

Read the full report here.

Other highlights of the report include:

• Digital delivery (84 percent), Payments and cards (70 percent), and Lending services (63 percent) were major areas where investment in innovation had increased, in many cases over 10 percent
• Data and advanced analytics (86 percent), Open APIs (65 percent), cloud computing (58 percent) were seen as the most important technologies having the biggest impact on banking over the next 12 months, with cloud computing (58 percent) being seen as an area of great importance in the future
• Respondents have cited that big tech firms have significant advantages over traditional financial institutions in data and analytic capabilities (69 percent) and skills and talent of teams (51 percent)
• Respondents believe that non-traditional competition will lead innovation across several areas: Fintech startups will lead innovation in digital delivery (36 percent) and lending services (31 percent), leading consumer technology companies such as Apple, Google will lead innovation in Payments and cards (30 percent), and challenger banks will lead innovation in checking/current accounts (37 percent)

Sanat Rao, Chief Business Officer & Global Head, Infosys Finacle, said, "At a time when the banking industry was already struggling to drive profitable growth, the pandemic tested their resilience and agility to the core. The pandemic challenges accelerated digital transformation agendas at banks across the word, and consequently, banking innovation as well. Not surprisingly, digital delivery saw some of the highest action, and this trend is expected to continue in 2022 as well. Also significant in the findings was a higher acceptance among bankers of the dramatic changes that are disrupting their business, as well as the need for sustained, holistic business model innovation to stay relevant."

John Berry, CEO at Efma, said, "This year has yet again proved that the financial services industry continues its evolution towards digital banking transformation. Even the most innovative players are now facing strong competition from big tech companies and of course fintechs. It is essential that they must continuously innovate in order to stand out from the competition. Customer engagement is still centerstage for future success."

Jim Marous, Owner and CEO of the Digital Banking Report, said, "This year's Innovation in Retail Banking report shares the digital transformation progress of financial institutions in the 18 months since the pandemic disrupted banking. Moving beyond pandemic-driven crisis management, financial institutions of all sizes have made significant strides in reimagining the purpose and structure of innovation within banking and are integrating data, analytics, modern technology, and process automation to provide improved customer experiences. The research results shared in this year's Innovation in Retail Banking report provide a guide for strategic planning and investment prioritization for banks and credit unions globally."

About Efma

A non-profit organization created in 1971 by leading banks and insurance companies, Efma is celebrating this year its 50th anniversary. Created by a handful of institutions and counting now a network of 120 financial groups in 133 countries all around the world, Efma is showcasing its resilience in the face of adversity and its essential role in supporting its members to thrive. Our purpose is to support our members and create a strong community based on expertise and skills. Our mission is to provide community intelligence to optimize, innovate and transform by recognizing our members' best practices and connecting them.

Headquartered in Paris. Offices in London, Brussels, Andorra, Milan, Stockholm, Bratislava, Warsaw, Moscow, Istanbul, Beirut, Dubai, Tokyo, Singapore, Sydney and Montreal.

Learn more at www.efma.com

About Infosys Finacle

Finacle is the industry-leading digital banking solution suite from EdgeVerve Systems, a wholly owned product subsidiary of Infosys. Finacle helps traditional and emerging financial institutions drive truly digital transformation to achieve frictionless customer experiences, larger ecosystem play, insights-driven interactions and ubiquitous automation. Today, banks in over 100 countries rely on Finacle to service more than a billion consumers and 1.3 billion accounts.

Finacle solutions address the core banking, omnichannel banking, payments, treasury, origination, liquidity management, Islamic banking, wealth management, analytics, artificial intelligence, and blockchain requirements of financial institutions to drive business excellence. An assessment of the top 1250 banks in the world reveals that institutions powered by the Finacle Core Banking solution, on average, enjoy 7.2% points lower costs-to-income ratio than others.

To know more, visit www.finacle.com.

Safe Harbor

Certain statements in this release concerning our future growth prospects, financial expectations and plans for navigating the COVID-19 impact on our employees, clients and stakeholders are forward-looking statements intended to qualify for the 'safe harbor' under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties relating to these statements include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties regarding COVID-19 and the effects of government and other measures seeking to contain its spread, risks related to an economic downturn or recession in India, the United States and other countries around the world, changes in political, business, and economic conditions, fluctuations in earnings, fluctuations in foreign exchange rates, our ability to manage growth, intense competition in IT services including those factors which may affect our cost advantage, wage increases in India, our ability to attract and retain highly skilled professionals, time and cost overruns on fixed-price, fixed-time frame contracts, client concentration, restrictions on immigration, industry segment concentration, our ability to manage our international operations, reduced demand for technology in our key focus areas, disruptions in telecommunication networks or system failures, our ability to successfully complete and integrate potential acquisitions, liability for damages on our service contracts, the success of the companies in which Infosys has made strategic investments, withdrawal or expiration of governmental fiscal incentives, political instability and regional conflicts, legal restrictions on raising capital or acquiring companies outside India, unauthorized use of our intellectual property and general economic conditions affecting our industry and the outcome of pending litigation and government investigation. Additional risks that could affect our future operating results are more fully described in our United States Securities and Exchange Commission filings including our Annual Report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2021. These filings are available at www.sec.gov. Infosys may, from time to time, make additional written and oral forward-looking statements, including statements contained in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and our reports to shareholders. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements that may be made from time to time by or on behalf of the Company unless it is required by law.

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