DATA FOR DISRUPT

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Issue 6: October 2018

What’s the first thing you do when you wake up? Grab your phone to catch up on the local news, get the weather forecast or perhaps sneak a peek at the online bus timetable to see if you’ve time to hit the snooze button again?

These simple and quick actions are common place, but did you know the one thing they all have in common is they leave a data footprint? With our data universe expanding at an exponential rate, we produce a mind-boggling 2.5 quintillion bytes of data every day! It’s a monster, with hundreds of billions of our transactions, interactions and behaviours recorded every day.

But how many of us have ever stopped to wonder what happens to the data collected from all of these every day interactions? What are businesses doing with our data and why? We hear about ‘Data breaches’ often, companies having to admit to their customers that their data may have been compromised and personal information may have been affected.

So what does this mean for us? As a bank it goes without saying that we have a duty to protect our customers and colleagues by doing the right thing when it comes to their privacy and the data we collect. The consequences of not doing so are high! Yes, GDPR has also given consumers more protection by boosting our right to control the information we choose to share. But in reality for many of us this simply means clicking yes to agree to a privacy statement before accessing a website – do we really understand the small print?

But that doesn’t mean we can’t look at innovative ways of collating this data and offering a proactive service which makes banking even simpler and easier and dare we say it fun?

Our new companion app Mimo is doing just that. Currently in pilot, it gives customers a huge range of personal insights and new services that banks haven’t been able to provide before. It does this by using contemporary and clever technologies, such as Open Banking APIs, AI and data analytics.

Through extensive research, our customers have told us they lack the time or motivation to manage their life admin. This results in poor outcomes for our customers, e.g. they forget important tasks such as paying their credit card bill, and then get hit with unnecessary charges, or they miss opportunities to save money.

So Mimo has been designed to help customers save time, money and give them financial peace of mind by reminding them of the financial tasks they need to do and helping them to keep on top of things, a 24/7 virtual assistant if you like.

Mimo provides proactive and personal insights into their total financial position, such as their income, bills or day-to-day spending, as well as their insurances, subscriptions and utilities. These insights are delivered through notifications and interactive roundups (kind of like an Instagram story). Mimo also helps them budget their money and it will be able to take direct action for them - bringing them the best deals in the market delivered through our network of partners. What’s not to like?

Now maybe you’re thinking that’s interesting, but it’s now time to get back to the day job. Hold on for a second, we’ve got news for you – data is for everyone. It’s a key part of the here and now, it touches everything we do and it isn’t going anywhere. So no matter what job you do in the bank, embrace it, dive into it and don’t be afraid of it. You never know you might even come to love it.
Need a little help in deciding where to go from here? We’ve got just the place for you. Browse through our newly launched Data Academy – a first for a UK bank – and take the first step on your data journey. Or if you’re already a data driven demon, there’s also plenty on offer to help you to build your knowledge, critical thinking and data skills. Together, our innovations will help us to transform our business into the bank we want to become.