This year, electronic trading will finally come to the bond market and more banks will adopt technologies that harness social media to flag potentially fraudulent customers.
Let this be the year that the financial industry stops using the phrase "big data" and remembers that the goal of technology is to make people's lives simpler.
EMV cards are moving payments security in the right direction. But if hackers tamper with the hardware or associated software on merchants' EMV-enabled equipment, they can silently spirit off customer data.
Banks can be compliant with cybersecurity guidelines and still remain vulnerable to massive liabilities. One case in point: many financial institutions carry mandatory insurance policies that could leave them on the hook for six-figure losses from corporate account takeovers.
Customers affected by cyberattacks frequently direct their wrath at financial institutions, whether or not a bank is responsible for the breach. Therefore banks need to have a strategic communications strategy in place.
Financial institutions need to have good digital offerings, but they also need to find ways to stand out from the crowd. That's why branches will remain a crucial home base.
The ideal digital bank would respect customers' privacy and relate to them as human beings while offering an array of simple, easy-to-use mobile and online apps.
Technology companies are wooing customers away from traditional financial institutions. If banks want to address this threat, they need to rethink their business models and stop chasing profits at all costs.
This may be the year that banks finally adapt to the new risk landscape by shaking up their boards, bolstering cybersecurity and increasing vendor management.
