Ringing in the New Year: Community Banking Trends for 2023
2022 has been an eventful year for the banking industry. Banks have embraced technology and the digitization of banking -- confirmed by Gartner Inc predicting that banks and financial firms boosted their technology products and services investments in 2022 to the tune of $623 billion.
As we look forward to 2023, our friends at Alogent have identified what they see as the six major community banking trends to expect in 2023. Let's jump right in:
Alogent recognizes the huge value of data in creating the personalized experience customers expect:
In recent years, data has been referred to as “the new oil” because of its incredible value. As more transactions are completed through remote banking channels, collecting data for use, not just for storage, will help community institutions learn more about their customers and members, and to deliver even more personalized experiences and services. Using intuitive and data-backed solutions, banks and credit unions can enhance their use of data gathered to better identify trends in user behavior and to marry those needs with product roadmaps, educational tools, or specific promotions that further drive engagement, loyalty and bridge in-person banking with digital platforms.
Checks: What to Look for in 2023
Checks have maintained their status as a major player in the payments industry. According to The 2022 NICE Actimize Fraud Insights Report, checks saw a +8% transaction volume in 2021. Additionally, Alogent reported that, of non-cash payment methods, checks accounted for nearly 23% of the total value of payments in 2020, according to the December 2021 Federal Reserve report -- and we anticipate that these numbers will remain stable when both the Federal Reserve and NICE Actimize release reports on 2022 data.
So, why do checks have staying power? Well, it's because many industries continue to see checks as preferred payment. As we noted in a previous blog:
- PYMNTS.com reports that 81% of businesses still pay other firms via paper checks
- JPMorgan reports that 78% of renters are paying by check
- Denim, the leading financial enablement platform for the freight and logistics industry, reports that nearly 60% of those surveyed still pay carriers and shippers with paper checks
- CNBC reports that among the 2 million checks that were sent in April 2021, almost 1.1 million were issued by paper check, compared to 900,000 sent by direct deposit
- While government stimulus checks have tapered, we cannot forget about the state inflation checks that were sent in Q4 2022 and continuing to be sent in early 2023
- "Patient as consumer" trend will continue to inflate the number of check payments
2023 will be a big year for checks, and we expect that banks will continue to invest in and integrate innovation technologies like AI and machine learning to automate check payments as part of their strategy to "modernize legacy infrastructure."
Additionally, we anticipate banks will employ the same strategy when it comes to check fraud detection -- be on the lookout for our newest eBook: Top 5 Vulnerabilities and Trends in Check Fraud for 2023 (coming soon).
