Welcome 2021, Welcome Opportunities
Team Banking Frontiers wishes a Happy New Year to all our readers. The biggest joy about 2021 is leaving behind 2020 and all the misfortune suffered during the year. 2020 did usher in several positive changes such as reverse migration from urban to rural areas, coming together of family members living apart, rise of home cooked healthy food, saving in time for travelling to and from work and rise in hygiene and cleanliness.
The most notable change in the financial sector was of course the acceleration of digital transformation. Even the late technology adopters had no choice but to pick up the pace. Unfortunate are those banks that do not have the license to offer digital services…their customers might well migrate to their digitally savvy competitors.
The biggest beneficiaries were those with digital roots, particularly the fintechs. They will play a key role in shaping financial services – both evolution and revolution.
We at Banking Frontiers too were impacted by the pandemic and lockdown, but geared up ourselves for the new landscape. It is indeed satisfying that despite considerable challenges, we were able to bring out Banking Frontiers every month, for which I am indeed grateful to our dedicated editorial team and the BFSI community.
Apart from continuity, we are bringing changes in the content. Welcome to our comic strip ROBO SAPIENS, which humorously reflects upon the new normal, portrayed as interactions within a fictitious company AI FINBOTS LTD. We hope you like it, and it helps you think out of the box. If you have suggestions for comic strips on other topics, do suggest and we will try our best. Also, we are coming up with a special issue featuring only women in March, to mark the International Women’s Day – March 8, 2021. Our cover story will have insights about habits, risk taking and emotional intelligence from professionally successful women in the financial sector.
Along with editorial, our events team quickly migrated to the digital format, and during 2020 we have done around 25 digital discussions on various topics including cyber security, cloud, delinquency management, agri fintech, etc. Our flagship events, FCBA and Finnoviti-Technoviti, are also undergoing a digital transformation.
My heart and mind says that 2021 will be a great year for all of us and the Banking Frontiers team looks forward to an enriching engagement with each of you.