D-Rating has completed its annual digital campaign, particularly regarding one of its three modules, Digital Proposition. This study looks up the level of digitization of journeys, customer support and features offered to the customers of the banks tested on both channels, web and app. The data collection is done completely outside-in using real life customers of the banks in the regarded country.
This article will focus on the results of banks in the Nordics region, including Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland. Banks tested are listed below, ranging from big financial groups to new digital banks. The selection of the panel is done to include the established banking actors but also the new challengers, the scope of the study takes into account as well the needs of the D-Rating clients and subscribers.
For information, OP was primarily tested in Finland, Sydbank, Lunar and Jyske Bank in Denmark, whereas Bank Norwegian, DNB and Komplett Bank were tested in Norway. The rest of the banks were studied in Sweden.
Digital Proposition Nordics’ Results
Digital Proposition analyzes elements of digitization of 3 main subjects: Offers & Journeys, Customer Support and Features.
The ranking of Nordic banks shows a dominance of “traditional” banks in the top 4 of Digital Proposition results, we have in order:
Nordea in Sweden, OP in Finland, DNB in Norway and Lunar is Denmark.
Nordea dominates the 1st place of the ranking consecutively this year, being both the first in Sweden and, globally, in the other countries of the northern region. The Swedish bank scores very high in all 3 subjects of the study, specifically in Offers & Journeys and Customer Support.
OP follows holding the second place, its strengths are in its great score in expert support and to the top performance in features web and app.
DNB, on the other hand, comes 3rd in the ranking, scoring high in features app and access to the banking products on the web personal space.
Lunar, first digital bank in the ranking, holds the 4th place and has scored high in instant support and access to banking products via the web.
When we look at the 3 mains subjects of Digital proposition, two specific banks come up regularly in the top 2 spots of the rankings of each of these parts.
We have tested in Offers & Journeys: account opening journey, access to mortgage loan, personal loan, ISK account, Junior account, cashback offer and card both web and app. In customer support, we test “Instant Support” meaning, chat(bot) and FAQ, but also, “Expert Support” including contact form, inbox or advisor’s email, call-back and appointment scheduling. Nordea has the best score in both Offers & Journeys and Customer Support of all Nordic banks, specifically in access to offers in app and Chat(bot) performance. Nordea offers a visio call option when scheduling an appointment online.
Features score aggregates the presence and easiness to find certain features app and web, in relation to account management, card settings, biometric authentication, sustainability, beyond banking, budgeting and aggregation, etc. OP has scored the highest amongst the rest of the panel of the Nordic region, both on web and app.
Features, the newer the better?
When studying the Nordic region, we have been able to come up with some differences of practices when compared to other western European countries.
Using our proprietary Market alerts tool (monitoring in real time innovation brought to the apps) that the main areas that have been subject to updates by Swedish banks include Personal Finance Management and aggregation, followed by account management, addition of online features related to financial products, junior account and card settings.
Beyond banking features and cashback are not very common amongst the banks tested in the Nordics region. However, when found, it was integrated seamlessly and innovatively. One particular service that we haven’t seen in other european countries but seems to gain interest more and more in Sweden and its neighbours is the Subscription Manager (Swedbank), a feature that allows its users to change, cancel and subscribe to new plans ranging from Netflix, mobile, to fitness.
Another common practice that was less observed in Nordic countries was the ability to set by customers, the alerts you wish to receive in order to be informed of the balance state of your account (whether it reached a low threshold a card payment, or received a salary). These features are generally a great added value to existing features that complement each other, i.e. categorization of expenses and budgeting.
Overall, Nordic banks are home to some of the best performers in Europe, following our methodology of scoring. The existence of innovation such as Bank ID allowing new customers to enroll and login easily and simplify the KYC and acquisition tremendously, on the other hand, some good standards may be less common when compared to other European regions and can create a competitive advantage (alerting, extensive card settings and aggregation).
