Citigroup made news this fall when announcing it would cut off digital-banking access unless customers opted out of paper statements. Regardless of where the industry comes down on the severity of that move, the reaction it created no doubt emphasized the importance of statements to consumers. And it raised the key question, “What’s the future of bank statements?”
Thanks to online banking, customers can easily see their transaction history. However, traditional statements typically offer a better long-term view of financial health compared to the limitations of looking only at current transactions. By improving communication with customers, including through valuable statements, bankers can strengthen relationships and offer helpful insights and suggestions.
The evolving aspects of bank statements
Bank statements have remained mostly unchanged over the years, with only minor adjustments in format and frequency. The introduction of electronic statements has been a major advancement, and these digital statements have evolved to include various features.
Today, digital and physical statements provide the standard information customers need to monitor their checking and savings account activity. The typical statement provides basic but essential information, such as:
- statement cycle;
- bank information;
- account holder’s information;
- account summary;
- account activity (for instance, transaction date, debits and credits).
Traditional information is helpful, but the spirit of innovation in so many other aspects of banking should also be applied to statements. Financial institutions should redesign their customer statements to present financial information in a modern way that creates a cohesive experience regardless of whether that statement is delivered physically or electronically. Additionally, valuable transactional data provides insights financial institutions could incorporate into an enhanced statement to benefit their customers and organizations.
Engage customers with digital design
Implementing a digital-first design to statements can help with readability and engagement by delivering clear and digestible financial information. Redesigning statements can reinforce the bank’s brand identity while simultaneously supplying vital financial data. Utilizing design features typically associated with a digital experience can create a consistent overall customer experience across physical and digital communication channels. These revamped statements are user-friendly and better suited for tech-savvy customers who want financial documents to be more functional and attractive. They can be essential to engaging customers, reinforcing brand identity and promoting loyalty.
Financial institutions can implement key design features like:
- vibrant colors to enhance visual identification;
- clear focal points with the use of icons and images;
- single-line transactional detail to communicate clearly in less space;
- highlighted account summary to display critical data and improve readability.
Plus, some financial institutions are exploring other ways to create a more virtual and customized experience by adding marketing messages. This gives customers visibility into ancillary services and products.
Enhance statements with data-influenced insight
Financial institutions should focus on the broader purpose of bank statements and discuss the possibilities of enhanced bank statements for their customers. Mining customer data already available to banks can be included and is an avenue to help customers improve financial wellness. Moreover, financial institutions could go further by harnessing the power of application programming interface (API) technology to aggregate information from multiple external accounts to provide consumers with an even fuller financial picture.
Regardless of how they are created, enhanced bank statements could help consumers better comprehend their spending habits to improve their overall economic fitness. Most consumers expect their financial services providers to give them personalized notifications and insights.
In addition, augmented statements enable banks to increase efficiency and reduce costs while strengthening customer relationships, trust and loyalty. The full scope of institutions leveraging various financial data to innovate statements remains to be seen; however, the prospect offers myriad benefits for banking institutions and end-users.
The desire to innovate often leads to evaluating current processes to ensure those practices efficiently and consistently provide the most value for customers. Prioritizing the advancement of a traditionally ignored customer touchpoint such as the routine statement can increase engagement while adding value and improving the customer’s financial health.
Griffin McGahey is president of HC3, a data-driven statement provider.
