Navigating the COVID-19 Storm: Banking & Insurance

We know that the crisis will increase credit risk in the financial industry (a report published by Ernst & Young recently emphasizes this). This global situation that we are going through will also mean a dramatic increase in the number of insurance claims, bringing important consequences for that industry. According to the consulting firm, companies in the financial sector must take care of how their image to their clients can be impacted during the pandemic, and focus on having an adequate communication strategy, acting as transparently as possible with investors and clients.

The report also warns of a long-term trend towards the need to focus even more on the digital distribution of services and the evaluation of business continuity scenarios. In the long term, EY envisions the need to launch flexible and adaptable models of cybersecurity and the availability of business services in preparation for the disruption that the crisis will bring.

[...] companies in the financial sector must take care of how their image to their clients can be impacted during the pandemic [...]

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In line with these strategic recommendations, I continue to elaborate on actions and initiatives that, although they are already on the agenda of most banks and insurers that I know, the priority, agility and modality of implementation should undoubtedly acquire a different color from that light of what is happening in the world:

• Make a re-evaluation (not to say a "reset") of the organizational capacities to respond swiftly to the need to develop functionalities to exponentiate the quantity, quality and depth of digital services. This could raise the need to add talent to your organization in the form of staff augmentation.
• Increase the productivity of the workforce to the extreme, robotizing processes using a prioritization scheme based on impact and return on investment, and implementing an automated center of excellence supervised by specialized personnel in that area.
• Prepare an assessment of the risks of exposure in cyber-security due to the increase of Work from Home (Remote-work) services and the expansion and depth of the range of digital services.
• Consider also analyzing whether your company's security area profiles are more generalists and therefore require increasing your talent pool by adding cyber security specialists.

The global health crisis puts additional stress on trends that had already been driving under the Digital Transformation umbrella - but are now becoming vehicles for healthy sustainability in order to navigate the global storm caused by COVID-19.

Questions you should be asking yourself?

• How can you further accelerate the adoption of digital delivery capabilities through a flexible and adaptable model that does not imply an increase in your payroll?
• What facial recognition technologies can facilitate the external on-boarding processes for your clients, minimizing security risks and allowing the distribution of digital services?
• How can your organization begin incorporating the automatization of processes into the organizational culture? How can you adopt a continuous automation strategy that can both grow and decrease according to the demand and maturity of the organization?
• Do you have a clear strategy for auditing the quality and security of new digital functionalities?

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