Beyond Interfaces: Why Digital Banking Needs to Be Rethought
Digital banking services have been considered modern for years, yet at their core they have changed very little. Interfaces have been redesigned, processes digitized, and new channels introduced, but the fundamental understanding of banking has largely remained the same. The session “Beyond Interfaces – Designing Digital Banking for Customer Needs” at Digital Finance Day made it clear that this model is reaching its limits. The key takeaway: it is not the interface that will determine the future of digital banking, but the ability to reflect real-life situations and genuine customer needs.
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Mike Hofmann (SIX bLink) speaks at Digital Finance Day
Context over Channels
Financial behavior does not emerge in isolation. It is embedded in life circumstances such as mobility, work, health, age, or family situation. Account balances and transaction data alone are no longer sufficient to develop truly relevant services. The discussion clearly showed that digital banking must reflect the non-linearity of everyday life. Real-life situations are fragmented, situational, and often unpredictable, and this is precisely where many current solutions fall short. Digital banking has the potential to anticipate life situations and provide tailored services exactly when they are actually needed in daily life. Concepts such as hyper-personalization, embedded finance, or AI-powered assistance were not discussed in the session as ends in themselves, but as tools to bring banking closer to real usage contexts.
Open Finance as a Structural Foundation
This shift toward context-based banking requires an open infrastructure. In the session, Open Finance was not described as a vision of the future, but as an emerging reality. Financial data is increasingly being made usable across platforms and ecosystems, for private customers as well as for SMEs. The examples presented ranged from multi-banking solutions to the integration of accounting and financial systems for businesses. What stood out in particular was the momentum: more institutions are joining such networks, and with each new participant, customer expectations continue to rise.
What Customers Actually Expect
A central reference point in the discussion was a customer survey that had been presented. The results were clear: customers want a single, central access point to manage their financial lives, with the goal of simplification. Notably, many of the features perceived by customers as particularly valuable go beyond traditional banking services. Younger users in particular showed interest in tools that reduce administrative tasks and help structure everyday processes. The implicit message: digital banks are no longer competing only with one another, but with all services that make everyday life more efficient.
Cooperation Becomes a Strategic Necessity
Against this backdrop, the session outlined a clear strategic crossroads for banks. Either they remain within a product-centered model with their own channels and limited reach, or they open themselves up to partnerships and integrate into broader ecosystems.
Collaboration with third-party providers was described not as an add-on, but as a prerequisite for relevance. Regulatory developments, such as those in the area of Open Pension Data, are further intensifying this pressure. Openness is therefore being demanded not only by market forces, but increasingly by policymakers as well.
AI Agents and the Next Stage of Development
In conclusion, the focus shifted to the next stage of evolution: AI agents capable of interpreting contextual financial data and independently deriving actionable recommendations. An emerging standard was presented that enables AI systems to interact with financial ecosystems. The crucial point: AI was not discussed as a replacement for existing interfaces, but as a connecting layer. In an increasingly fragmented financial reality, it can help reduce complexity and better structure decision-making, for example through natural language interaction or intelligent assistance features.
Digital Banks: Between Context, Openness, and Relevance
“Beyond Interfaces” describes less a design concept than a fundamental shift in perspective. In the future, digital banking will no longer be defined by individual interfaces, but by the interplay of contextual understanding, open infrastructures, and collaboration. Interfaces will remain necessary, but they will no longer be the place where differentiation is created. What truly matters is how well banks understand the lives of their customers and how meaningfully they are embedded within them.