Deloitte European PSD2 Surveys

Is the market going to be disrupted by new players as it has been frequently predicted? Are traditional banks really endangered?

Shall we expect a revolution or rather an evolution where it will be key for each bank to find its future role in the emerging open banking ecosystem?

Are customers ready for the change and aware of how they could benefit from sharing their data?

CEE banks tend to be less aggressive in their PSD2 strategies than their Western European peers
Two distinct groups of CEE banks have emerged - Challengers, represented by large universal incumbent banks, are the players most open to the opportunities arising from PSD2. A significant majority are pursuing a cooperative strategy involving other parties. Minimalists, typically medium-sized and smaller players, often follow a defensive compliance-only approach or have not yet settled upon their strategy. In contrast, a significant proportion of Western European (WE) banks pursue an aggressive PSD2 strategy aimed at gaining market share.

Biggest impact to be expected in retail banking, payments and consumer lending, many banks are considering alliances with FinTechs
A high level of interest has been declared by CEE banks in partnering with FinTechs or other third party players. This confirms the ambitions of some of the FinTechs to gravitate towards more B2B-oriented business models. CEE banks and their WE peers alike expect PSD2 to have the biggest impact on retail and SME banking, while they identified the areas of payments and consumer lending as key opportunities.

Most banks regard PSD2 as an opportunity but remain aware of the threats it poses to their business models
While CEE banks are slightly more worried by the FinTech players, WE banks think that large banking incumbents are best positioned to benefit from PSD2. New digital challenger banks also came through quite strongly as perceived threats, surprisingly, BigTech companies like Google and Amazon are not yet perceived as major competitors, despite their proven ability to disrupt the payments market.

WE banks are generally more advanced in PSD2 implementation, CEE countries show a multi-speed pattern
In general, large WE banks tend to be more advanced with their PSD2 programmes than their CEE peers. Banks have so far devoted most resources to responding to PSD2 from a compliance rather than strategic perspective. There are significant differences among CEE countries partially caused by the varying speed of the national legislative processes – in several countries the legislation will be delayed until mid- to late 2018, indicating a busy 2018 for many CEE banks.

Are customers ready? CEE banking customers’ use of digital banking channels reveals significant regional differences
Most of the CEE banking customers still use multiple banking channels, despite the ongoing shift towards digital and mobile. The CEE region can be split into two distinct groups: while Romania and Bulgaria remain below 20% share of digital banking channels, there are more mature digital markets represented by Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic already reaching up to 70%.

Almost a fifth of CEE banking customers represent branch or internet hostages – clear opportunity for PSD2 digital challengers
Despite the high internet and mobile penetration in many countries, over 11 million CEE banking customers remain “branch” or “internet hostages” – users who prefer to perform all their banking activities online or on mobiles, but are forced to use branches or internet banking as many transactions are not yet digitised or supported by mobile banking applications. This segment represents a clear opportunity for PSD2 challengers to win their direct customer relationship through advanced digital offerings leveraging PSD2. 42% of CEE Multichannel and Digital customers quoted more advanced digital channels as one of the top 5 reasons for switching to another financial services provider

PSD2 challengers will need to build trust and awareness among customers in order to leverage market opportunities
Customer adoption of new PSD2-enabled services and their willingness to consent with sharing account data with other parties will be critical for the broader success of PSD2. Despite the fact that depending on the CEE country between 18% and 35% of banking customers indicated they would be comfortable with sharing their account information with another bank in exchange for new online services, the average consumer awareness about open banking and its benefits remains low across all CEE countries. It is obvious, that in order to benefit from PSD2 market opportunities, PSD2 challengers will have to invest on top of building the customer trust into the broader public awareness of the benefits of their digital PSD2 offerings.

No PSD2 “big-bang” effect is to be expected – biggest market impact likely only after one to three years
PSD2 has a clear disruptive potential but market adoption will be a long-term process: most CEE and WE banks expect the biggest impact of PSD2 to be felt between one and three years after its effective date. Some WE banks are more optimistic and expect effects already within the first year, due to the more mature FinTech sector in WE. The overall expectation, however, is that PSD2 will not have a “big bang” impact. Rather, its effects will be gradual and irreversible.

Multiple challenges still lie on the road ahead
Many challenges perceived by banks are triggered by the sheer complexity and scope of the PSD2 regulation, nevertheless the key ones are represented by the still missing parts of the regulatory framework, lack of a clear guidance for the transitional period and of unified API standards, followed by the as yet untested real-life relationships between banks and third parties. Last but not least also finding the right balance between maintaining security requirements and ensuring a positive customer experience, and the necessary customer education were among the most frequently quoted challenges to tackle.