Digitalisation has dramatically accelerated to meet the challenges of 2020. Like many organisations, Banking Circle has had to innovate - and fast - in the face of Covid-19. Our research has identified that banks are now more open than ever to joining forces with external providers to deliver better solutions more quickly.

A recent UK Finance webinar sought to explore this topic further. A panel of industry experts discussed how partnerships are helping banks in meeting the innovation challenges they face, and how the landscape will change in 2021 and beyond.

The panel comprised:

• David Birch, author, adviser and commentator on Digital Financial Services, 15Mb Ltd and Consult Hyperion
• Becky Clements, Director, Payments, UK Finance
• Jon Levine, Co-Head of Institutional Banking, Banking Circle
• Mark Mcnulty, Head of Payments and Receivables EMEA, Managing Director, Citi
• Juan Jiménez Zaballos, Head of Financial Industry Transformation, Santander Group

Asked about the changes that they expect to see in the banking sector, webinar participants demonstrated a clear appetite for collaboration and an interest in fintechs.

According to Mark Mcnulty (Citi), banks should be utilising all options in order to future-proof their businesses. ?It's not an ?either-or?. Banks need to do all of these things. They need to invest in their own digitalisation, they need to partner, they need to think about the deployment of fintechs in terms of the value-added services they can provide.?

You can sign up here to watch the webinar on demand.

Where are the opportunities now?

Banking Circle's research found that more than 80 per cent are already partnering with an external provider for services including payments, FX and trade finance or plan to do so in the next year.

According to Juan Jiménez Zaballos (Santander Group), while payments has in the past been considered a commoditised business, that notion has since become outdated - and there is ample opportunity in the space.

Banking Circle's offering of an infrastructure that can be plugged into seamlessly allows banks to do just that. Payments is a complicated field and it is expensive. What makes more sense is to work with a provider who can offer a centralisation of service that enables banks to serve their customers both faster and cheaper.

You can download Banking Circle's latest whitepaper on how banks are future-proofing their businesses and utilising partnerships for innovation in 2021 here.