Session conducted at Central Bank Training Institute highlighting the Social Media Potential for the Financial Sector – Jan 2014

1. Social Media and the Financial Sector
Parakum Pathirana
Head of IT Security & Compliance/ Principal Consultant – LOLC Technologies
MSc, FBCS, CISA, CISM, CGEIT, CISSP, ISO 27001 LA, MCP, CHFI, QCS, ITIL

2. Dilbert on Social Media

3. Agenda
Introduction
Social Media potential in the finance sector
Untapped potential
Fears and challenges
How the finance sector is utilizing social media
Social Media Growth
Social Media : Core Principles
Challenges for the Financial Sector
What interests your organization most about social media?
Five Financial sector fears of social media
Current social media interactions
Who holds responsibility for social media

4. Introduction
•Match made in heaven? Or ?
•Similarities
•“Many talk about it? Few are doing it and those that are, aren’t doing it that well, with one or two exceptions”
•Realities
•Marketing of financial products are highly regulated
•Financial crisis & potential customer backlash
•Lost of customer trust
•“In 1983, 90% of public agreed that banks in Britain are well run, compared to 19% in 2003” – British Social Attitudes Survey

5. Social Media Growth

6. Social Media potential in the finance sector
•25% of respondents felt that social media offers a new way to communicate to tomorrow's consumers
•57% of financial services professionals are interested in social media
•41% interested in discussions of their brand on social media
•30% see social media as the future of communications
•81% feels that Twitter is more important than Facebook or LinkedIn
-Cicero Consulting 2012-

7. Untapped potential
•Nearly 60% think that their industry has so far not been effective in utilizing social media
•38% are concerned that they are missing out due to lack of time and resources dedicated to social media
•Less than half of surveyed firms are making effective use of social media, and a tenth are not even considering how they could do so
-Cicero Consulting 2012-

8. Fears and challenges
•Five fears: potential brand damage, compliance issues, lack of expertise, difficulty in measuring ROI and resource
•25% are daunted by volume of traffic and how to monitor and manage
•One third are concerned of lack on internal understanding within their organization to make the most out of it
•38% concerned because lack of time and resources dedicated to it -Cicero Consulting 2012-

9. How the finance sector is utilizing social media
•36% to support business activity, 11% have fully integrated into their business strategy
•40% interested because their brand is discussed online
•59% of firms spending less than 50,000 GBP per year, while 29% are spending nothing -Cicero Consulting 2012-

10. Social Media Growth
Facebook users in millions
Source: Benfoster.com

11. Social Media : Core Principles
“Man is by nature a social animal”

12. Challenges for the Financial Sector
•External
•Loosing consumer trust
•Consumer behavior
•E.g. National Union of Students protest against HSBC, #occupywallstreet
•Other movements

13. Challenges for the Financial Sector
•Internal
•Strictly regulated with detailed compliance and guidelines
•Regulators fall behind
•Inability to enforce certain controls due to social media’s fluidity

14. What interests your organization most about social media?
-Cicero Consulting 2012-

15. Five Financial sector fears of social media

16. Current social media interactions

17. Who holds responsibility for social media

18. Questions and Answers