Four New Revenue Streams for Banks

Creating a healthy bottom line is the biggest goal for most financial institutions. If your bank can’t consistently turn a profit, you’ll quickly be out of business.

Maintaining a profitable bottom line requires a consistent flow of revenue. This can be difficult, especially for financial institutions that rely on both retail banking and enterprise customers to generate revenue.

Why is that? Because 40 to 60 percent of all retail banking customers are not profitable, according to a report by Zafin. Combined with the fact enterprise customers are consistently asking for a more robust product suite with high-tech payment options, turning a profit becomes difficult. Banks can alleviate the pressure by finding new ways of generating revenue that will improve the organization’s profitability.

Here are four ways you can create new revenue streams:

1. Reloadable Cards
If revenue has stagnated, it may be time to reinvigorate your product offerings. A good place to start for retail customers is reloadable cards. A report published by Allied Market Research, titled, “Prepaid Card Market – Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2014 – 2022” predicts the global market for reloadable cards will reach $3.6 billion in 2022.

The benefits customers receive from reloadable cards are exceptional—fraud protection, no credit risk, and spending limits—and the profits financial institutions can reap are even better.

With reloadable cards, financial institutions can charge customers a variety of fees, including a fee to purchase and use the card, and a fee to withdraw funds for PIN-based transactions. Reloadable cards can also provide depository income.

2. White Labeling
White labeling can be a great way to generate new revenue streams by letting bank treasury departments resell funds disbursement platforms to their business customers. This makes payments more convenient for customers by speeding up and streamlining the process.

By reselling the right platform, banks can gain a competitive advantage by offering multiple emerging payment methods, such as virtual cards and real-time payments, to business customers. These high-tech payment methods are becoming more and more popular, helping financial institutions win new customers and retain established accounts.

3. Mobile Device Payments
The demand for mobile payment capability has been steadily growing since early 2000. Now, with digital natives like Gen Z entering the workforce, financial institutions have an opportunity to create mobile payment strategies that focus on customer satisfaction and retention.

This is a still an emerging space, but one that holds many possibilities for delivering products and services customers want and need. White labeling and reselling a funds disbursement platform, including mobile payment options, can help treasury clients in this area.

4. Improve Data Analytics
While not a revenue stream per se, analyzing data more effectively can help you identify new ways of increasing revenue unique to your business. For instance, if your analytics reveal many of your customers are small businesses struggling with treasury management, consider launching products and services that help.

The more you know about your consumers and the way they interact with your organization, the better equipped you’ll be to address their needs. Advanced customer data analytics will allow you to improve performance and add products in multiple areas of your financial institution, including:

• Credit revolvers
• Credit cards
• Lending programs

Thoroughly analyzing customer data can also improve your ability to target new services and products to customers who want them.

Find New Products and Services that Appeal to Your Customers
Use your data and experiences with current customers to find areas where they’re struggling. Can you step in with a new offer that solves their problems? Options for improvement with existing customer accounts are the best new revenue streams for your financial institutions.

We’ve seen many banks succeed specifically by optimizing fee collections, delivering white-labeled products to improve customer convenience, and taking advantage of emerging payments technology. Use these revenue streams as a starting point, customizing them for what’s right for you and your customers.