KPMG’s EVA could be revolutionary new face of future banking

In a new report, ‘Big four’ firm KPMG predicts that by 2030 mass market retail banks will be largely invisible to consumers.

Titled “Meet EVA, Your Enlightened Virtual Assistant and the future face of the Invisible Bank”, the report explains that by 2030, technology will drive a fundamental shift in banking, which might move from being hidden to completely invisible. This means that customer service call centres, branches and sales teams, for large parts of the market could be a thing of the past.

“This Invisible Bank will be buried within a broader, more digital, connected way of life. Consumers will interact with a personal digital assistant (perhaps the granddaughter of Cortana or the great-nephew of Siri)2. We’ve called ours EVA, Enlightened Virtual Assistant”, it said.

According to the report, EVA is made possible by several technologies which include advanced data analytics, voice authentication, artificial intelligence, connected devices, application programming interface (API) and cloud technology.

“Banks are making efforts to improve customer service through use of exciting technologies like robotics, artificial intelligence and blockchain, but the pace of change is slow and in reality, I’d say banks are only 10% of their way through their digital transformations”, Warren Mead, Fintech Lead, KPMG, said. “Getting most Banks to our vision of 2030 will be painful. Currently, technology firms invest 10-20% of revenues into research and development, for banks it’s just 1-2%. With banks’ return on equity under 5% it’s hard to see that changing significantly in the short to medium term, but if firms want to remain relevant, it has to.”  

KPMG says that the Invisible Bank has its roots in technology which is already in the labs of banks today, with some of them even live. It added that these technologies are currently used in the peripheral systems rather than the core and a real shift in banking would require building out core platforms from scratch.

“The transition will not be easy. The winners will be those that are able to utilise their data; drive down costs; build effective partnerships with a broad range of third parties; and of course, those with robust cyber security”, KPMG added.