Mine was a Motorola MicroTAC from 1994. It was one of the first ‘flip phones’, and despite its bulky battery by today’s standards, it was considered fashionable back then.

Fast forward to June 2007 when the first iPhone was launched, and our world changed forever. The iPhone did not just change phones, it revolutionised every aspect of our lives, and helped us reimagine how we live, work, and connect. It has had a profound impact on consumer expectations and has propelled new ecosystems and players — from banking to entertainment, transportation, and beyond.

From transactions to relationships
Imagine a bank that not only extends student loans to medical students, but connects graduates with practicing doctors, helps secure loans for new practices, and provides wealth management services as their careers evolve.

Or a bank that connects homeowners with contractors in the construction industry, provides free personalised plans to renovate and future-proof their homes to make them more sustainable, provides advice on financing, and connects homeowners with reliable installers to put in the upgrades. Taking it one step further, imagine the bank automatically adjusting (lowering) the interest rate for the mortgage financing after the upgrades for the homes are complete.
Real transformation in financial services is not just about faster payments. It is about moving from reactive banking to proactive financial wellness — from processing transactions to nurturing genuine intelligent relationships throughout our customers’ life journeys, including the moments in between milestones.

Welcome to the age of life-stage banking, powered by human insight and data intelligence.

Nubank in Brazil offers another great example of intelligent relationships. The bank has launched an Overdraft Alert feature that enables Nubank customers to receive alerts when one of their non-Nubank accounts goes into overdraft, made possible by open finance and data sharing with consent. The overdraft alerts help to reduce the impact of the overdraft fees charged by other institutions by enabling users to take corrective actions promptly.

Another feature that Nubank provides via open finance are personalised recommendations for money sitting idle with low or no profitability. Such recommendations serve to help customers better manage their finances by optimising their money allocation to more profitable accounts or products.