CBA: Customers decide direction of bank-fintech competition

Customers determine the direction of competition between banks and fintechs, Ramil Mahmudov, deputy director of the Payment Systems and Payment Product Inclusivity Department at the Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA), said at the 10th International Banking and Finance Summit in Baku, Report informs.

According to him, fintechs are now growing toward the areas traditionally covered by banks and trying to reach that field.

"At the same time, banks also want to move closer to the services offered by fintechs. This process is neither good nor bad. The most important point is that customers receiving services benefit from this competition. Customers evaluate which service is more advantageous to receive and from whom. Today, each of us is a service user, and in the end, we make the decision. Whichever company or bank offers a higher-quality, more convenient and more valuable service, our choice is directed toward it. A large bank may have a broad service portfolio, but if the customer is not satisfied, they return to that service only when necessary. Otherwise, they prefer to work with an alternative that provides better service," he said.

Mahmudov believes that ongoing discussions with banks also show that they are being encouraged to make their applications more productive and more innovative.

"However, banks sometimes note that even if all functions are integrated into an application, customers do not use them, which creates additional resources and costs. As a result, the main factor determining which technology or service model is successful is again customer choice," he said.