Business View Magazine | January 2021

249 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE JANUARY 2021 The digital channel has provided a vital economic lifeline as financial institutions and their clients navigate the displacement associated with the Covid-19 pandemic and will play an expanded role in the “new normal” for long-term relationship management going forward. Online applications have increased by over 35% since early February when compared to 2019, based on Bottomline’s index including over 30 of our nearly 300 digital account opening customers. Even after a dramatic spike in April and early May subsided, an ongoing 20%-year over-year growth rate speaks to what is likely an enduring migration of application activity online. Successful financial institutions weathered the initial surge in digital applications by recognizing key shifts in engagement patterns, updating fraud management strategies to re-balance risk and growth across new customer segments, and providing newly expanded support teams with intuitive, integrated administrative tools. One trend which has outlasted the initial Covid-19 surge is a migration back to desktops as a large number of applicants continue to stay closer to home. Up to 40% of recent new applications originate from desktops at FIs who also offer mobile capabilities, increasing the value of an omni channel approach. New Rules for the New Normal