Q&A: 60 seconds with Alexander Zwart, Rabobank

The Tribe Lead Digital Platform at Rabobank’s Digital Transformation Office,  Alexander Zwart, joined the speaking faculty for Open Banking Expo Europe back in October 2019. His opening keynote session “Innovating the customer proposition in Open Banking” explored Open Banking in practice; what can customers expect? What will be the roadmap for banking and fintech to meet these expectations? And what are the challenges which still need to be overcome?

Here, we g0t a 60 second insight into Alexander’s role, what he thinks are the biggest challenges ahead of the PSD2 deadline and what he thinks the financial services industry will look like in 10 years’ time as a result of Open Banking.

Q: Explain what you do in less than 50 words

As Tribe Lead Digital Platform in the Digital Transformation Office, I am responsible for developing Rabobank’s digital user interfaces, like the banking app, our business banking portal and our websites

Q: Why did you choose to keynote at Open Banking Expo Europe?

Rabobank  is speeding up its digital transformation. It is time to share our successes with the wider market and help drive innovation across the sector. Rabobank also understands the importance of attracting the right people to work for us; in order to serve our clients better. So to be involved in Open Banking Expo is a good opportunity to meet the right people at an important time in our transformation.

Q: What were the biggest challenges the financial services industry faced in meeting the PSD2 deadline on 14 September 2019?

The biggest challenge still remains to be; putting the market dynamics we want to achieve into the standards that have been set. Executing it is difficult to get to where we want to go.

Q: What can the audience expect to learn and hear about during your session? 

Rabobank has made a huge step up in its digital servicing, both in design and also in its features and marketing. I’ll explain during my session. Unlike some other financial services firms, we have opted for a one app strategy. It has been a strategic choice and I’ll reveal how we have applied the Simplify@Scale model to our business and how it has helped to speed us up.

Q: What do you think the financial services industry will look like in 10 years’ time as a result of Open Banking? Will much have changed?

Absolutely yes! I used to work in the energy sector, where companies once fulfilled every role in the electricity & gas supply chain, from power plant to billing but then had to unbundle , allowing new players to enter the market. I see the same happening in financial services and especially in transactions; first more players with specific specialistions and then the scaling of these specialisations. It will have fundamentally changed to how we know it today.

Q: What innovation do you see in Open Banking in the next 12 months?

I see a number of innovations. Payments will become more frictionless each day. There will be a lot of development in multi bank insights and there will be more opportunities for  financial help. Finally, the availability of transaction data will develop all kinds of different services.