South Africa, June 4 -- This is according to Sydney Mbhele, group chief marketing & corporate affairs officer at Absa, who says that there are three macro-trends driving this transformation.

The Democratisation of technology & fintech agility

"The entry of digital-first neobanks and agile fintechs has permanently shifted consumer expectations. "Consumers now benchmark their banking experiences not against other banks, but against their seamless, everyday digital interactions with global tech platforms," says Mbhele.

Data ubiquity and predictive analytics

Mbhele says they have graduated from basic demographic segmentation to behavioural, real-time data. "The trend now is predictive banking, anticipating a customer's financial needs bef...