Metaverse Rollout: The new ‘Avatar’ of Banking

In the last decade, the banking sector has spurred rapid success with the advent of digital banking. Success always strives for more, and now the banks are hoping onto the bandwagon to provide the best customer experience with the implementation of metaverse in banking services.

Technology implementation has been a major shift for every sector. Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality are the technologies that are taking the customer experience to the next step. Not just customer experience, these technologies can help you enhance security, expansion of customer base, minimal documentation and what not. The banking sector always has the idea of what emerging technologies can do, so they are one of the first sectors to foray into the usage of technology implementation to improve the customer experience. One of the leading banks of India, AXis Bank is exploring the implementation of AR through their mobile application wherein they will provide you with information about the nearest branches and ATMs along with directions.

Talking of the recent buzzword in the space of emerging tech, metaverse has been making the headlines since 2019, when the social media giant ‘Facebook’ renamed it ‘Meta’ and declared the company’s commitment to building ‘Metaverse’. Ever since then, Metaverse has become a reality for many renowned companies. For instance, CBM bank in the USA has already initiated work on a virtual immersive world experience for its clients or customers via metaverse solutions that will be available on augmented reality products.

First metaverse branch – A plunge unimaginable

Metaverse is set to be as big as an $8 trillion huge market as per Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs’s latest report. Banking has a major role to play in inducing this mega market. Have you ever imagined visiting any branch virtually? Or find a solution to your investment problem from your home? India’s banking sector is making that happen now. Kiya.ai is announcing India’s first-ever banking metaverse –Kiyaverse.

Kiya.ai will provide the most advanced and futuristic digital banking services to government and financial institutions worldwide. It will offer a new and personalised customer experience that will be enabled by virtual experience with a human touch. This will be one of the biggest moves of the banking sector that will effectively empower banks with metaverse.

To keep up with the trend and evolving technology, The Shriram Group is all set to become India’s first non-banking financial company (NBFC) to have a metaverse branch.

The branch is set to launch in the first quarter of 2023. This will develop a virtual world environment for users to access services via the internet and it will work on virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and miXed reality (MR). This virtual environment will provide solutions to both customers and employees.

Last year, state-owned Union Bank of India forayed into the buzz of Metaverse and became the first Indian bank to open a virtual platform. It launched Virtual Lounge Uni-verse to provide information on deposits, loans, digital initiatives, and government welfare schemes.

Digital wave – an ascending curve for banks
According to a recent study in the United States of America unveils that 43 percent of banking customers were comfortable using Virtual Reality for everyday banking activities, be it checking accounts or making transactions. Now, the number is expected to grow larger worldwide with more banks adopting VR for enhanced customer experience. One thing that is making it grow larger in number is that – with the advent of the metaverse in banking, banks can offer their customers personalised experience with enhanced data security.

Technology in the banking sector is an amalgamation of decentralised and immersive tech. While decentralised technologies like NFT (Non – fungible token), DLT (Digital ledger technology ) offer a resilient infrastructure and secure finance exchange, VR/AR are elevating the immersive experience for customers. Other facets that show the transformation of traditional banking to digital banking are mentioned below:

Digital Currency: It may find a new place in the metaverse. Users will be able to make payments in cryptocurrency or even in personalised tokens.

Collaboration: This will be a new turmoil for banking. It will provide an opportunity for various banks to collaborate with various fintech companies to collaborate and provide a new banking experience for the customers.

Digital banking: Digital banking is hopping into an immersive world with the metaverse.
The banking metaverse will allow you to do all your banking needs at the comfort of your home, that too with enhanced safety.

Uptake of metaverse usage in BFSI

Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) were one of the first automations that took place in the banking sector; since then the sector has entered into open banking, to fully digitalised financial banking that involves blockchain and digital assets like crypto and NFTs. Metaverse signifies the fifth stage of evolution in the banking and fintech industry, providing a personalised experience to customers using VR/AR. It is expected that by the end of this decade, 50% of banks globally will be using VR/AR as an alternative medium, not just for transactional purposes but also for employee management.

Also Read | Future of BFSI And The Metaverse effect

The emergence of new products: The advent of metaverse in banking has given new innovative products like digital payments, digital assets like NFTs and cryptocurrency and Digital Twin with the help of AI (artificial intelligence).

Developing a personalised experience for customer engagement: Metaverse will transform banking in two folds:

Personalised contact: With the high end service, banks can provide a virtual look into the portfolio and finance revenue and one can also join sessions virtually for financial planning

Brand extension: Banks can extend their physical presence by creating virtual stores and services.

A push to 3D functionality: Using 3D functionality will allow customers to view their payments and make transactions through AR/ VR platforms. It will also provide an enhanced employee experience.

Infinity and Beyond?
As metaverse is setting a prominent premise for the banking sector to evolve in the digital space with immersive experiences for customers. There is another side to it also, the immersive experience is beneficial for customers who have all the infrastructure to enjoy this service while we live in a country where some people even find it difficult to fill out withdrawal forms offline. So, within a country that has such a diverse population on the financial and literacy front, we need a lot of time to leverage this technology implementation to the fullest. However, at the same time, it will be captivating to look at, how the unique implication of VR will provide a favourable experience for customers.

At the very initial phase of the metaverse in banking, it is very early to predict the success of this implication while companies are trying aggressively to train their employees on this.
Bank of America has developed a VR training programme for its 50,000 employees that would initiate real customer scenarios. Educating employees is the very first task to propagate this concept to normal users.

Banking is on the verge of bringing a completely different meaning to the metaverse. Be ready to meet the new ‘Avatar’ of the banking sector!