We’ve heard a clear message over the course of our conferences this year: the industry has moved beyond digitising yesterday’s processes and reacting to fintech insurgents. Banks are now redefining their identity, architecture and social role.

I wasn’t at the very first event in Brussels when The Banking Scene started back in 2017, but I do remember the mood in the industry at the time. Many banks were driven by the fear of disintermediation from neobanks and fintechs, and it seemed they were consumed by the need to constantly play catch-up.

That era is now (almost) over.

The mood across all our events this year has been purposeful: fintechs, neobanks and digital transformation are no longer threats to manage, but rather catalysts to rebuild institutions around trust, speed and service. Banks are pivoting from “doing digital” to “being digital”, and from defensive compliance to mission-led transformation.

I’ve felt this shift from a personal perspective too.

One of my favourite quotes of the year came from Karin Van Hoecke who said: “If you act and react, the future can really look bright”.

This was music to my ears!

Having been deeply embedded in the financial services industry for the last two decades, where action and reaction were measured in years, I have recently found that I no longer have many reasons to moan about the gap between incumbent banks and the more recent entrants to the industry.

This is a distinct management, cultural, and operational shift from years gone by.

We explore the technological, regulatory, societal and cultural drivers behind these shifts in our latest white paper: “From Reinvention to Relevance”, which you can download on the link below. It summarises the insights shared on the stages at our flagship conference, The Banking Scene Conference Brussels. We’ve also included a handy “Field Guide to Relevance: Strategic Priorities for Banks in 2025 – 2030” as a directional guide to navigate the next steps.

As we compiled the paper, our theme for next year, “Rethinking Relevance”, naturally emerged.

We came to the conclusion that “relevance” will be the next battleground for banks as they reevaluate not only how they serve, but who, why and to what end.

It may just be a case of confirmation bias, but when I read that Monzo is considering following in the footsteps of Bunq, Revolut, N26, Klarna and others by launching their own digital eSIM / mobile phone service, I immediately thought: “are they doing this as a way to remain relevant to their customers in the future?”, even though the article views the move from a revenue diversification perspective.

According to pg 24 of their annual report, Revolut customers can buy eSIM data plans directly in the Revolut app, get online instantly in 100+ countries, and 600,000 customers purchased a plan in 2024. There is no specific line item that indicates how much this contributed to their bottom line; however, for a service launched only last year, their offering appears to resonate with their customer base.

A different article quotes a Monzo representative as saying: “When we heard from our customers that mobile contracts can be a pain point, we set out to explore how we could do this the Monzo way”.

As a Monzo user myself, I didn’t immediately think an eSIM offer might be relevant to me, other than convenience and being another option to consider when it comes to global roaming if their offer is similar to that of Revolut. I personally don’t see my mobile phone contract as a pain point.

Then I read Chris Skinner’s blog “Should Banks be telcos (and vice versa)”, which made me reconsider my standpoint.

Chris pointed out that by issuing an eSIM, “the bank’s fraud and detection systems become symbiotic with the phone and its access controls” and goes on to say “not to think of this as a revenue and profit generator, but as a cost and loss preventer.”

It’s an interesting thought that, for me, would indeed increase the relevance of Monzo’s eSim offer, but potentially not increase their overall relevance to me as a bank.

Banks offering non-financial services to customers via their apps is nothing new, of course, and we have heard about “super-apps” for years as many Western banks strive to replicate the legendary success of Ant Financial’s Alipay platform.

Belgian banks are no strangers to the concept either. Rik is constantly telling me about all the (non-banking) things he can do in his KBC app and again in my personal opinion, KBC’s investment in Setle has enabled them to offer one of the most relevant service offerings to home buyers and renovators that I’ve ever seen – as I wrote about in this post here.

However, even this example is relatively superficial, as it only caters to a small niche of customers.

We need to dig deeper into the concept of relevance and its implications for the future.

As layers of technology, coupled with open banking and embedded finance, threaten to push bank brands further and further into the background, how will they remain relevant in tomorrow’s world?

Will they retain their historic role of custodians of our (digital) cash?

What role does society expect banks to play in improving the lives of others?

What moral and ethical codes do society expect them to uphold?

What obligations do they have to future citizens, and how should that shape the decisions they make today? (Think climate, wealth, politics, war etc.).

How should they respond to an increasingly complex geopolitical environment? Where should the lines be drawn?

What role should they be playing in improving financial health and literacy?

How should their impact beyond the balance sheet be measured?

In essence: what does it mean to be a “relevant bank” in the 21^st century?

That is the question we will contemplate in our conferences next year – join the conversations and help shape the future of banking.

Andrew invited Chris Skinner, CEO of The Finanser (and well known Chief Trouble Maker), for a Director's Cut Debrief Session to dig into the story behind the story of eSIMs and banking.

As can be expected by those of you who know Chris, he got the session off to a fiery start, challenging Andrew's views about the progress made by banks, before sharing his insights :)

If you prefer to listen, you can also find us on your favourite podcast platform here.