A new survey has found that banks in some of the world’s fastest-growing emerging markets are struggling to keep up with changing customer expectations, particularly in multichannel areas such as social media and mobility.

New research, undertaken by Celent on behalf of SunGard, consisted of two surveys of more than 1,000 consumers and 100 banks in eight countries across the Middle East and South East Asia.

It investigated how prepared banks are to respond to the needs of their retail customers, says a press release received here.

Building on the research, Celent has developed the Bank Readiness Index (BRI) on behalf of SunGard, an online tool to help banks benchmark their ability to cater to customer expectations.

The SunGard BRI uses 17 parameters and aggregates banks’ capabilities across four metrics, including multichannel and customer metrics.
Key findings of the research are:

Banks lag customer demand for a multichannel experience: Most consumers are prolific online and mobile users yet many of the surveyed banks do not offer a fully integrated multichannel experience. Only 34 percent of Southeast Asian banks and 17 percent of Middle Eastern banks currently have tablet offerings and most mobile banking offerings are still basic. While 63 percent of banks in Asia are now offering native apps (i.e. built for Android or iPhone) only 25 percent are doing so in the Middle East.

Less than 40 percentof banks offer personalized landing pages: While 88 percentof banks surveyed offer online bill payment and 69 percent P2P payment capability, just 39 percent offer personalized landing pages or the ability for users to tailor content. Of the banks surveyed, only (31 percent) integrate with shopping or discount programs and even fewer (27 percent) offer personal financial management capability online.

Consumers are talking on Facebook, but banks are not “listening“: 90 percentof consumers surveyed use Facebook at least weekly, with approximately half of respondents confirming they would use it to share banking experiences. While 76 percent of banks agree that innovation in mobility and digital technology is a key opportunity to personalize offerings only 21 percent have a fully developed social media strategy and just 13 percent believe they are using social media to its fullest potential. Only 38 percent monitor social media. .

Consumer enthusiasm toward their bank is modest at best: Less than 50 percent of respondents in the Middle East felt their bank understands their needs well, with just over half agreeing with this statement in Asia. Barely half of consumers perceived their bank to be a technology innovator. Just 28 percent of bank respondents have a 360-degree customer view across products and delivery channels. Customer analytics and relationship pricing are similarly lacking.

Commenting on the research, Bob Meara, senior analyst, Celent, said: “Consumers in emerging markets feel that banks are not doing enough to understand their needs. While consumer trust is evident, banks need to capitalize on this opportunity to get a better handle on changing customer habits and engagement strategies in order to help maintain customer loyalty in the future.”

Dean Young, vice president of product management for SunGard’s banking business, said, “Increasingly, online channels present consumers with more freedom to ‘shop around’. Banks need the ability to understand their customers’ needs, in order to create a better user experience, which in turn will help to capitalize on cross-sell opportunities, build customer loyalty and improve profitability. The SunGard Bank Readiness Index will help banks in emerging markets gain a true picture of just how ready and capable they are to meet customer demands and develop offerings to meet their customers’ needs and preferences.”

The Bank Readiness Index research was undertaken in March-April 2012.
The study is based on two surveys, a survey of 102 banks undertaken by Celent, and a survey of 1,073 consumers, undertaken by Loudhouse Research.
Analysis of the research findings was then undertaken by Celent.

The surveys cover the following countries: Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand.