We found widespread awareness of the importance of investing in technological innovation, albeit only as a means to increase business volumes and revenues by reaching customers who cannot be served by the physical distribution network. The potential for development in terms of cost-cutting and of process and product innovation was less of a consideration.
More marginal still was understanding the value of the information acquired in the context of financial intermediation. Developing good data processing and control capabilities is instead key, not only to responding promptly to information requests from the supervisory authorities, but especially to providing timely reports for corporate executives to make informed decisions. Digitalization fosters cooperation between financial intermediaries and technology service providers.