During a presentation on the Open Banking era, Pearson said personal account data can be ‘a beautiful thing’ if used correctly.
He suggested greater access to data will mean his regular Saturday morning Starbucks habit at a local shopping mall could be spotted and converted into an offer of a remortgage with a £95 monthly saving and a potential weekend appointment to discuss it with a broker nearby.
“Is this something that you’re interested in? The answer’s going to be yes,” said Pearson.
At the breakfast briefing at Mercedes Benz World in Surrey, Pearson said: “We’re taking about serendipity moments because that’s the second that captures people’s attention. ‘Would you believe it, I was just thinking about this, and someone somewhere else has taken the job off my hands’.”
Pearson asked how many times Alexa will have been asked questions like ‘How can I save money on my energy bill?’ So far she doesn’t know, but it won’t be long before she does, he said.
The point of data
HSBC’s personal finance dashboard app and answer to Open Banking, Connected Money, has already had over 200,000 customer downloads and with 16m customers, these consumers have already produced billions of data points.
He said: “Think about energy bills. We see the data points, we see the direct debits going in and out and who it is being paid to and from, bill payments going in and out.
“Supposing your bank account dashboard app tells you it’s done some work and offers to cut your energy bill from £200 to £95, that it has done a Trustpilot review and that your new provider is five star-rated. Would you be happy to push that button?”
The mortgage industry is already seeing four to five key players in talks to link an ‘ecosystem of APIs’ from a broker’s point of sale system to multiple banks with no rekeying within the next two years.
No longer fintechs vs banks
Pearson said two to three years ago the discussions were about fintechs versus banks and which one was going to win.
The answer that’s emerging here is collaboration between fintechs and banks, which will create “wonderful new customer journeys”, he added.
Bank CEOs and fintech senior execs now see the future unfolding in a similar way, with increased agility in terms of new products and services and reduced time to market.
“It could be a potential huge disruptor for the financial services system and a huge opportunity for the market we all serve.”
HSBC’s Breakfast Seminar Series continues on to Warrington and Birmingham in December.
