Financial Services Firms Reap Gains of Being Digital-First Trailblazers

Financial services firms were digital-first success stories, pushing ahead with investments in next-gen technologies and reaping the benefits of their digital transformation efforts in 2021, according to a global survey by Broadridge Financial Solutions.

“This year’s survey confirms that leading firms are more driven than ever to implement the key pillars of a digital-first future. As a result, digital transformation leaders are seeing accelerated growth,” Tim Gokey, Broadridge CEO, said in a press release about the survey on Tuesday (Jan. 18).

“Digital leaders are succeeding with a clear vision and roadmap that prioritizes digitized communications, experiences, and workflows leveraging strong data and analytics,” he added.

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Broadridge’s Next-Gen Technology Survey scored 750 financial service firms about progress in three key areas of digital transformation — experiences, workflows and analytics. It also scored the firms’ headway regarding the advancement of strategic and organizational elements of transformation.

Inroads into next-gen technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain and the cloud were used as markers to classify the firms as Beginners, Implementers, Advancers or Leaders in the Broadridge Digital Transformation Maturity Framework, according to the release.

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The survey found that the further along firms were in their digital investments, the more revenues they reaped from digital transformation. Financial services firms that had adopted more new technology were 1.5x more likely to report a boost in revenue related to the changes.

Digital communication was fueled by the pandemic, and financial services organizations continued to invest in digital channels in 2021. Most survey respondents indicated that boosting customers’ user experience was a central part of their digital transformation strategies.

Some 75% of respondents said they are now prioritizing digitized customer experiences. The top three digital priorities in the next two years include customer interaction (77%), operations (69%) and sales and marketing (68%).