'Banking As A Service' is the way for banks to evolve
An innovative model in which banks, platforms and third parties actively cooperate to develop and offer themselves and their customers new financial services. It is the "Banking As A Service" (BAAS) model. Initially born in the digital world and subsequently landed also in the financial sector, bringing considerable advantages in terms of use, speed, scalability of solutions, econometrics of the products offered, time to market, response to an increasingly digital offer, and final customer satisfaction.
A cutting-edge service, therefore, for corporate companies, fintech, institutional entities and start-ups, that is part of the strategic offer of Banca Sella to consolidate its position in the world of open banking and open finance: the two main guidelines that will be at the base of the evolving financial sector, in the near future.
Banca Sella was one of the first companies to incorporate the "Banking As A Service" area within its model. This choice allowed Banca Sella to have ample space for manoeuvre, compared to those institutions that, despite implementing the As A Service model, do not have all the resources required to deliver products and services in this way.
In this context, the Sella group is to be considered as a "first-mover" because it is among the first to offer "As A Service" products with the advantage of already being part of an open financial ecosystem, which nourishes the BAAS growth in a very positive and proactive way. The "revolution" brought by the introduction of the PSD2 Directive, which opened the world to open banking and the use of Application Programming Interfaces (API), once again saw Sella anticipating the evolution of the market. Thanks to its centre of innovation Sellalab, the Fintech District of Milan and the first open banking platform promoted in Italy, Banca Sella can design products and services already in an "open" perspective.
Furthermore, we should emphasize that Banca Sella was one of the first companies to integrate the "Banking as a Service" area into its business model. This choice allowed Banca Sella to have ample space for manoeuvre, compared to those institutions that, despite implementing the As A Service model, do not have all the resources required to deliver products and services in this way. Confirmation of the above comes from the recent partnership launched by the Sella group with BBVA, one of the most successful financial institutions globally, which represents a fundamental part of our strategy, aiming to enable third parties in an open finance perspective.
The skills needed to ensure the effective operation of a Banking As A Service area such as that of Banca Sella are diversified and very vertical, from the Project, Product, Program and Business Manager to the experts in the legal department.
There are three main advantages that we want to offer our customers. Enable the business for the end-to-end processes that underpin BAAS, reducing complexity while increasing simplicity. In fact, through Banking As A Service, financial services move on from constrained management and the complexity of the processes that often characterize them to a method fostering digital channels, smart solutions and contractual frameworks, thus enabling B2B2B, B2B2C processes et cetera. All this allows delivering the products to the final customer very simply and quickly.
Certainly, rules are dictated by the market while the customer guides and chooses who provides the best services. Sella, by focusing on innovation, precisely continues in the direction of serving its customers at its best.