Latin Finance - September/October 2010 - 94

banking technology guide

Banking Innovation in Latin America Roundtable
LatinFinance: There’ve been tremendous changes in banking in Latin America making the task of managing customer experience more complex and varied. How can you best use new channels to communicate with customers? How do you segment those customers? And starting with a broad question, what are the most important channels today through which banks seek to reach and interact with customers? Felipe Vasquez de Velasco, Interbank: The Peruvian customer has not got into technology much, except for the younger ones. Innovations we have seen in banks in Peru are changes in branches: design, times of opening, and the different services that can be incorporated into the branch. Cesar Calderon Herrada, Scotiabank Peru: I think the mix of channels is important. We need to separate different kinds of customers, and what they need. [Is it] preferable for them to go to the branch, or use the Internet, and we need to be present in all of these channels. But as a first step [we need] to understand the different kinds of customers. Cesar Calderon Herrada Ricardo Bustamante Gonzalez, Banco del Credito del Peru: The channel where we perform most transactions, 50 per cent, is the branch [with the other] 50 per cent online, at ATMs, and through “agentes” which are a kind of franchised branch in a store. There’s still a need to move customers to less expensive channels, though we need a flow of customers, otherwise you won’t have anyone to sell products to. Manuel Bejarano, Banco de la Nación: Banco de la Nación is involved in educating customers in geographical areas where [other banks] are not present. First we open a little branch, then we offer simple products, simple transactions. Then we try to educate, putting TVs in and outside our branch, talking about the bank, what we are doing, what the government’s doing, what can you obtain by making simple transactions and putting your money in the bank. We mix the information that we’re giving with information about the country and simple banking information. Jorge Otalvaro, Bancolombia: The population of Colombia is roughly 47 million, and there are more or less 20 million “bankarized” so we have a big opportunity. We have roughly 900 branches and use branches to educate, and to give advice to our customers, but we are using a lot of TV programs because many people don’t trust banks and so we have to give them a lot of information about the advantages that we offer. We also participate in social networks spreading information about the bank and our services. And we have a bus – only for educational use -- that goes around Colombia to small places, every day to a different place, with a lot of information about how the bank works, and the products and services we can offer. Cesar Calderon Herrada: We have a similar thing, a “counselor bus”. It goes around Peru only giving information. Ivan Sussman, Finacle: In these channels, the presence of the human touch is an important aspect whether in-store banking, a preference for a call rather than an Internet transaction, they need to speak with someone. Felipe Vasquez de Velasco: Internet is a different case, but with social networks for example you are interacting with someone.

Ivan Sussman

Ivan Sussman: The challenge then should be, “How do we make these less expensive channels -- like the ATM, the Internet – more human?” And interact more through those channels, because at the end of the day, what they want to see is a person’s response to them. Manuel Bejarano: But a person that’s not intimidating. Ivan Sussman: The idea of trust is important.

LatinFinance Roundtables and Special Reports are underwritten by sponsors, although the magazine’s editors retain control over the content of these articles to ensure their objectivity and independence.

LatinFinance September/October 2010

Latin Finance - September/October 2010

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