OREANDA-NEWS. April 22, 2015. Digitalization is changing the face of business and society for good. What this transformation means for banks and what opportunities are available to them in the new multi-channel world has been examined in this study on the "Digital Revolution in Retail Banking" by Visa Europe and Roland Berger Strategy Consultants.

Based on an extensive analysis, the study produced detailed insight into what customers expect from the bank of the future. A total of 3,000 account holders from Germany and Switzerland were interviewed. The study found that digital-savvy customer groups already represent 60% of total income in Germany. And demonstrated that the desire for online banking services is not confined to the young generation but spans all age groups.

The majority of study participants already think "online first" when it comes to making bank transfers and checking balances: 63% of them do their everyday banking online. The figure is as high as 96% among the digital-savvy group. Customers like the flexibility and the speed of the Internet, especially when they're dealing with simple financial products. One in four customers already consider the Internet the most important channel for discovering and getting more information on new banking offers.

Banking customers have a wide range of channels at their disposal these days – from financial advisors in branch to the website and brochures, from call centers to mobile banking. But so far, there seems little appetite among customers to switch between channels in the process of purchasing a banking product. "Where customers' attention is first drawn to new products offline, 92% of them will make the purchase offline, too," explains Bj?rn Bloching, Senior Partner at Roland Berger. "If they do switch channels, they primarily go from online to offline, because there is still rather a lack of options for completing a purchase on the Internet. Financial institutes should take action on this front and support their clients digitally, right up to the point of purchase."