Research

The Banking Battleground 2022: Finding the Opportunities

Overview

This second edition of The Banking Battleground presents the findings of CCG Catalyst’s 2022 US Banking Study. Building on last year’s report, we asked C-level bank executives in the US about their attitudes and priorities as we look toward the future. As in 2021’s installment, this report focuses on the differences in perspectives between more forward-thinking institutions and those that have generally taken a traditional approach.

Key Highlights

CCG Catalyst surveyed 127 C-level bank executives between November 2021 and February 2022 to gauge their attitudes and perspectives on their business and the market.
Using specific criteria, we grouped respondents into two categories: traditional and progressive. Based on this segmentation, we conducted an analysis to determine how the different groups approach the market and how prepared each is for the future.
Our focus this year included three core areas: business trends and priorities, technology and innovation, and new frontiers.
Overall, we observed progressive institutions doubling down on their existing innovation efforts and working to further improve the customer journey with advanced tools like data analytics, as well as demonstrating a greater tendency to employ agile product development approaches.
Traditional institutions, meanwhile, seem to be waking up to new areas like Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) and collaborating with fintech providers. While these players are still a bit behind in a number of ways, their intentions are promising. Success will depend on finding the right places of focus.
Additionally, as in our 2021 survey, the large bulk of all respondents believe they are at least generally technologically prepared for the next five years. However, progressive institutions by and large feel more prepared from a technology standpoint than their traditional peers. This is particularly apparent on areas like artificial intelligence (AI) and microservices infrastructure.
This year, we also analyzed institutions’ intentions across a number of emerging areas. These included open banking, BaaS, cryptocurrency, and cannabis banking — all of which we expect to be important frontiers heading into the next few years. Based on our data, open banking, BaaS, and crypto are poised to continue to gain traction, with cannabis making slower but relevant progress.
An important note is that our findings broadly are meant to be directional, not instructive — meaning, not every institution needs to be leading the way on every front. While it’s important to understand what others are up to, how those insights are applied to each bank and its own strategy will be different.

The Bottom Line

The purpose of this report is to give banks a better understanding of where their peers are today — and not just when it comes to capabilities. It’s one thing to look at how other banks are deploying new tools, and there is value in that. But there is perhaps even greater value in looking at how institutions are thinking about things. The data in this report is meant to show how different institutions are approaching the future and identify areas more forward-thinking participants are focused on. As always, banks should take these insights as they make sense for their businesses.

Download now to read the full report.