The Wow!Banking Initiative has presented an analysis of the future viability of the German banking sector with the latest edition of its Future Report German Financial Sector for 2027. The study, conducted under the leadership of Professor René Schleus from the Fachhochschule für die Wirtschaft (FHDW) Hanover, is based on a survey in which 397 financial institutions participated. Professor Schleus emphasised that the strong response underscores the relevance of the topic of future viability as a concrete strategic question for the industry.
The report assesses the future viability of banks across six dimensions, including technology and artificial intelligence (AI), customer experience, innovative strength and adaptability, sustainability and social responsibility, regulatory resilience, and strategic business model and earnings capacity. The latter was included for the first time in the current survey. The assessment is made on a scale from 1 (very high future viability) to 5 (very low future viability).
The study includes feedback from 208 cooperative banks (52%), 113 savings banks (29%), and 76 private banks (19%). This distribution of participants reflects the composition of the total population of the three banking groups in Germany, thereby increasing the significance of the analysis. Due to the first-time inclusion of the dimension of strategic business model and earnings capacity, as well as private banks, the current report is only partially comparable with the previous year's report.
Challenges in Implementation and Customer Experience
For savings banks and cooperative banks, which were included in both reporting periods, a slightly improved future viability score from 3.0 to 2.9 was observed. Nevertheless, a discrepancy between strategic planning and its implementation was identified. Aleksandar Jeremic from fino digital, a founding member of the Wow!Banking Initiative, stated that the deficiency lies less in good ideas than in their consistent realisation.
The study identified a significant need for improvement in the area of customer experience. Although slight improvements are discernible, the personalisation of customer experiences, in particular, represents one of the weakest points of the entire survey. Christian Dechert from BSI Software, also a founding member of Wow!Banking, explained that while banks understand the strategic value of customer relationships, translating this strength into the digital world requires personalised, end-to-end solutions, the consistent implementation of which often fails at present.
Progress in AI Deployment and the Role of Employees
Positive developments were observed in the field of artificial intelligence (AI). While there is still potential in the category of “innovative strength and adaptability” to transfer AI from pilot projects into productive banking and customer processes, significant progress is already evident in the dimension of “Technology and Artificial Intelligence (AI)”. This applies particularly to employee competencies. The initial results of the report were presented by Professor Schleus on 1 September in Frankfurt as part of the Wow!Banking Future Dialogue and discussed with industry experts. The complete report will be available at the beginning of October.
