Partnering is an Unnatural Act for Banks

At Sibos 2017, the hottest topic was Open Banking. It’s a rich theme with many related concepts, like the banking ecosystem, APIs, PSD2, and one more that's absolutely critical for banks to get right: Partnering. It's an area of great opportunity for banks because they're simply not very good at it. Banks have historically preferred to go it alone wherever possible, and for a long time they were able to get away with it. I'd submit, though, that one of the key attributes of the banks who not just survive, but thrive in, the ongoing financial services tumult will be the ability to tap into other firms to gain access to skills and capabilities that they simply can't access internally in any kind of cost effective way. Partners will let banks deliver products and services to their retail and corporate customers better, faster, and cheaper, if they can develop and master the skills needed to work effectively with these new collaborators. To be fair, partnering is not a muscle that banks have typically had to exercise, but that's no excuse; the time to get off the couch is now.