The Future of Finance in the UK 3/11/2000 At the recent Research Show, Gareth Deere, Associate Director, MORI and Ciaran Browne of Amacis discussed the Changing Face of Finance. The paper was based on research undertaken by MORI on how the Internet and other distribution channels are changing banking in the UK. The key points to arise from the paper were that the future of banking is multi-channelled and that the development of new channels is the major issue facing traditional banks at the present time. Although bank branches and telephone banking are currently the main channels, the paper predicted that the Internet will emerge as the major channel within the next three years. Clearly the main benefit of Internet banking is cost reduction, but this may not be what the customers want. It was forecast that use of the Internet for banking is likely to double over the next three years, at which point over one in every three UK consumers will bank online. Indeed, a proliferation of Internet channels for banking purposes is predicted with 12% using digital tv, compared to 3% at present and 15% using mobile phones compared to 2% currently. Over the same time period, both branch usage and telephone banking usage are expected to stabilise. Ultimately, the paper advocated that the banks will have to review and improve their customer service levels. Many banks have set high targets of responsiveness to Internet customers but the research found that, in practice, these targets were not being met. Almost a third (30%) of online requests to banks did not receive an answer and half of those who made an online request received a reply within 7 hours. A separate mystery shopping exercise, undertaken by Amacis, found that banks were underperforming more than they were willing to admit. The MORI research involved 50 telephone interviews and six depth interviews with strategic decision makers for Internet banking or strategy working for retail banks and building societies in August 2000.