Europe’s banks eye an Amazon-like future as Covid-19 hastens the online push – The National

Europe’s banks eye an Amazon-like future as Covid-19 hastens the online push – The National

Banks of the future may adopt a similar model to the e-commerce giant with online store fronts for financial products

















A retail banking survey by McKinsey & Co from mid-April found a jump of as much as 20 per cent in digital-channel use across Europe. Getty Images







As Spaniards endured one of Europe's most stringent pandemic lockdowns, Banco Santander's digital-only Openbank did roaring business. Its brokerage client base expanded 58 per cent in the first four months of the year and trading in shares, exchange traded funds and warrants on its platform more than doubled.



The confinement has made people digital beings "by decree,“ says Ezequiel Szafir, Openbank's chief executive. With that trend likely to continue, he sees banks of the future looking increasingly like Amazon.com - online store fronts for financial products in much the same way as the retailer is for consumer goods.









Amazon took something that's real, which is retail, and simply made it digital. We're trying to do the same transformation in banking.





Ezequiel Szafir, Openbank





"Amazon took something that's real, which is retail, and simply made it digital,“ says Mr