How banks, insurance companies and financial service providers work with digital publications 

Banking and insurance industry in digital change 

According to the „Millennial Disruption Index“, the banking and finance industry is the industry that is most affected by the disruptive radical change of future generations. 

You are wondering what examples of the current „radical digital change" for banks and their customers are? Alipay, the online payment system of the Chinese online trading platform Alibaba, counts around 500 million users - which is more than the population of the European Union. PayPal has 30 million users only in Germany. Around one million people signed up for the contactless payment method Apple Pay within the first week after the launch. According to the Bitkom digital association, 7 out of 10 Germans were doing their banking online as early as 2019, which means before the Covid pandemic started. It goes without saying that this quota is a good deal higher without including the over 65-year-olds. Its well known, that the Covid crisis, didn’t necessarily damage digitization, but rather gave it another boost.

These numbers speak for themselves. Younger generations think and act in other dimensions. The financial sector only has limited time to make use of this trend. Until recently, all processes were often handled linearly, from the customer inquiry to the contract, primarily through consultation in the branch. But since Covid19 things have changed enormously and not only in terms of order processing.

Challenge: sustainability 

Next to the digitization, the importance of the topic of "sustainability" is increasing and receiving a great deal of attention in the media, also in regard to climate change. The words "must" or "have to" often appears in media reports on these topics.

Although there is no official obligation for banks and insurance companies to prepare a sustainability report, it is still important for many to take a transparent approach. The tendency is to present sustainable activities in annual reports.

Publish sustainably, digitally, interactively and flexibly 

In order to consider the idea of sustainability right from the production stage, the trend is consequently moving more and more towards promoting digital and particularly flexible solutions. These solutions should meet the demands for climate friendliness and the waiver of paper but also still keep a self-contained magazine character (no blog or similar).

Digital formats, in which interactive elements (such as infographics, videos, call-to-action buttons and feedback channels) can be integrated, also make reports more vivid and modern. Also they seem more interesting and worth reading, especially in the eyes of the younger generations. Small changes can also be done flexible and web-based at any time.  

Also: more and more people are reading online – on PCs at work, on the go on their smartphones or at home using their tablets. Among other reasons digital possibilities are also moving into the focus of those responsible in the banking and insurance industry because of this trend.  

7 good reasons for digital publishing in the financial sector 

1. High security: Thanks to the simple publishing via subdomains, the IT effort is minimal and data security is at its maximum. 
2. Customizing: Modern building block solutions enable a custom-fit, efficient and customized presentation. Created templates can be reused for future issues and reduce your overall editorial effort. Once created, special features can be implemented by using drag & drop easily.
3. Full service: The right software is the first step towards digital communication. Custom-fit services are required to ensure a smooth, successful implementation. Comprehensive service offers now save time. Only the content needs to be provided.
4. Digital report: It’s the end of less interactive and non-evaluable PDFs. Instead: maximum flexible & digital content marketing.
5. Interactive elements: Make reading more modern, lively and interesting.
6. Share via social media: Reports can be shared via Facebook & Co. easily. Sharing content frequently increases reach, leads to further interaction with the target group and increases the contents ROI.
7. Environmentally friendly: Compared to PDFs, digital publications are ahead in terms of sustainability. Downloads in particular cause enormous power consumption. The potential environmental advantage of digital media over print media especially disappears, when unnecessary printouts are made from the web.