Seven months ago we couldn’t imagine just how different 2020 would be. While the pandemic has changed all sectors of the economy, it has truly disrupted banking and financial services. In a recent article for Forbes, editor, Daphne Foreman, explores the changes that banks and financial services organizations have undergone since March and how they have changed the industry forever. 

What is abundantly clear from a recent CEO Forum Group discussion is that no one in banking or insurance wants to see the industry backslide to pre-pandemic ways of doing things. “We aren’t going back to February,” shared Trish Mosconi, Chief Strategy Officer and Corporate Development, Synchrony. 

What is also clear is that both banks and insurers are committed to putting the customer front and center of their business and technology decisions. Chetan Kandhari, SVP, Chief Innovation Officer and Digital Officer, Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company and Navy Federal Credit Union CEO Mary McDuffie, agreed that tech tools like AI, are enabling banks, credit unions, and insurers to emotionally connect with the customer. 

Following the turbulence of March and April as everyone navigated the ‘new normal’ Foreman shares that May marked the beginning of a new phase for the banking and insurance industries. From the realization of “just how much of their financial lives could be handled either online or via mobile phone” to the introduction of contactless payment methods to allay fears that the coronavirus could be transmitted via “paper currency or contact with ATM surfaces” change has been plentiful. As a result usage of contactless cards increased over 150 percent in the United States. 

But these months mark just the beginning of the momentous shift the banking and insurance industries. To find out what shifts these industries have experienced through the rest of the summer and into the fall click here.