Vishal Pasari, VP and GM, Digital Solutions at Fiserv talks about the various
expectations today’s customers have from their financial institutions, while sharing a few
thoughts on Fiserv’s recent win at the BIG innovation awards.
Hi Vishal, welcome to V3 Media! Tell us a little about your journey in FinTech through
the years…how has your time been at Fiserv?
Throughout my more than 22-year career, my primary focus has been leveraging
technology to push the envelope and drive innovation and change for customers. From
driving a strategic plan that led a global media conglomerate to become the dominant
interactive digital entertainment provider throughout Asia, to delivering digital tax
preparation solutions serving over 6 million clients, I have always approached
technology with a customer-centric lens.
I have been at Fiserv for over a decade. My current role centres around partnering with
FinTech to infuse transformative and intelligent experiences in the digital banking
journey. We have worked with our partners to create industry leading solutions around
AI, customer engagement, intelligent security, and personal financial management
amongst others, and we are just getting started.
This time is quite exciting for the global FinTech market, as virtual banking and
payment solutions become more sophisticated and centred day by day, how do you
see the market trends evolving?
Customers today have far greater expectations from their financial organizations than
ever before. This stems from changing demographics, as well as the pervasive presence
of technology in our everyday lives. The predominant population today consists of
millennial and Gen-Z consumers and real-time, low friction interactions are more key
than ever to drive engagement and loyalty. It’s all about convenience and speed. I can
use my voice to order groceries and have them delivered to my house in under 2 hours.
These everyday expectations have extended to the financial world as well. There is a
clear shift from physical to digital and the experiences have expanded from purely
transactional (What is my balance?) to more guidance and control oriented (Can I spend
$200 on these shoes?). This is where experiences like virtual banking and Instant
Payments play a big role, enabling financial institutions to offer customers trusted advice
when and where they need it. These areas will continue to evolve rapidly as the shift to
digital has escalated competition from tech start-ups, which in turn will drive innovation
at an exponential pace.
We’d love to hear about Fiserv’s recent win at the BIG innovation awards: can you
share some thoughts on the upcoming innovators and innovations that you think can
shape the way how FinTech performs in business?
Recently, Virtual Banking Assistant from Fiserv was named a winner in the 2021 Big
Innovation Awards, presented by the Business Intelligence Group. Virtual Banking
Assistant offers out-of-the-box AI that is embedded within financial institutions’ digital
banking experiences, empowering institutions to present dynamic, real-time financial
information through intelligent conversations and rich visualizations. The solution
enables financial institutions to promote financial health and reduce the cost to serve.
As the financial services industry continues to innovate, the method in which we acquire
data and how users interact with that data will continue to shape the success of other
products within the sector.
Tell us about some of the biggest tech advances that according to you FinTechs
today should be focusing more on…
Recent tech advances that hold significant potential include, the use of real-time
decision making to tailor experiences and automate digital experiences, whether it’s
through a virtual assistant that provides self-service capability or through the extraction
of useful insights for users as they make decisions on purchases. The shift
towards financial institutions providing a more personalized experience in digital
channels is propelling new products and FinTech opportunities in the market. Ultimately,
this can be achieved by shifting towards a nimbler technology infrastructure and strategy
that can respond quickly to the end-user across different channels. We see this currently
as we look to extend the same product experience from mobile and web to IVR to point-
of-sale (POS). Each channel provides new resources and capability and it’s critical to
react quickly and meet the users in the many channels of their customer journey.
Can you share a few thoughts on some of the most innovative B2B finance solutions
you’ve seen in the market changing the game for users?
There is a lot of exciting stuff happening in this area including point-of-sale financing,
embedded financial services and automation, through which we are seeing the
application of AI in the financial services sector both in customer-facing and back-office
channels. Financial institutions that position themselves to leverage AI as an embedded
technology can extend the capability to many different verticals within their ecosystem of
products. The key to driving the most value for the users will be bringing together B2B
products and extracting a more holistic experience shifting away from disparate systems
that work in silos.
Global FinTech trends are changing and the market is shifting due to business
environments (and also due to Covid-19), what can you comment on the state of
FinTech in 2021?
2020 has been a year like we have never seen before. And challenging as it has been, it
has also driven some behavioural changes that I believe are here to stay in 2021 and
beyond. The escalated adoption of digital, and the ongoing need to engage and
empower customers will further spur FinTech innovation and investments in customer
collaboration, AI-based automation, money movement, frictionless cyber security, and
financial well-being solutions. 2021 is likely to see an increase in both the demand and
supply side for FinTech and will drive digital transformation for financial institutions faster
than we would have seen were it not for the events of 2020.
Thank you Vishal for answering all our questions!