Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken (SEB) - Digital Transformation Strategies

This report provides insight into SEB's digital strategies, including its digital transformation strategies, its innovation programs, its technology initiatives, its estimated ICT budget, and its major ICT contracts.

Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken (SEB) provides corporate and institutional banking as well as retail and SME banking. The corporate and institutional banking segment offers life insurance, pensions, shipping and real estate financing, transaction services, capital markets, investment banking, asset management, venture capital, and investor services. The retail and SME banking segment includes savings, lending, digital services, exchange and finance, overseas services, and wealth management. The bank serves individuals, SMEs, and institutional and corporate clients through a network of branch offices, ATMs, and online portals primarily in the Nordic and Baltic regions.

In 2018, SEB partnered with Mastercard and NFT Ventures to launch Lighthouse Development Programme, an innovation program focused on fintech startups. The program aims to foster innovation by supporting promising fintech startups, helping them develop products and services as well as establish collaborations with financial institutions and investors.

In 2017, SEB launched an innovation center for businesses in Estonia. The center helps SMEs grow their business while fostering economic growth in the country.

Funded by SEB through its innovation center, the three-month Business Growth Programme was designed to help SMEs explore new opportunities to grow their business. The objective of the program is to combine innovative solutions with traditional businesses and implement the results within SEB’s internal operations.

In 2019, SEB set up a new venture capital fund along with several Nordic institutions to invest in industrial tech companies. Launched with initial venture capital of SEK900 million ($95 million), the fund acts as an independent entity and provides SEB with the scope to partner with technology companies to enhance their operational capabilities.

In 2018, SEB created a program for investing in early-stage fintech companies in Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia. The program focuses on identifying potential startups that can benefit the bank’s clients, providing them with the financing to turn ideas into real-world solutions.

SEB’s Innovation Lab acts as an innovation agency that works to develop innovative business solutions. The lab brings together internal IT skills, business expertise, and other specialists, organizing hackathons and design sprints to develop ideas that address challenges in the banking sector.

Launched in 2018, SEBx is a strategic initiative focused on exploring new technologies, alternative technical platforms, and innovative customer offerings. The studio aims to develop cutting-edge solutions in partnership with technology providers including Google Cloud and Thought Machine.

Launched in 2018, SEB Singular was created as an independent business to act as an internal advisor on digital business models and strategies. SEB Singular combines the group’s business units with corporate customers, technology companies, and investors to create a digital ecosystem.

In October 2021, SEB launched an open innovation challenge in collaboration with national initiative Digital@idag to identify new ways to prevent digital fraud. In its first edition, a total of 20 submissions were received, with five finalists chosen to present their ideas before a jury of specialists.

Scope

• SEB is focusing on connectivity, automation, and analytics to enhance the customer experience, increase speed and robustness, reduce risks, and save time. The bank is using artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, data analytics, and cloud technology to enhance its operational efficiencies.

SEB is partnering with technology solutions providers to offer seamless services to individual and business customers. In 2021, SEB partnered with Google Cloud to accelerate its digitization journey. In 2019, the bank partnered with PE Accounting to automate accounting and payments and to reconcile processes for its business customers.

• SEB is collaborating with various third-party providers and offering other institutions’ products through its own channels and platforms. SEB is embracing open banking through its developer portal, offering APIs to external developers.
• SEB is focused on developing its digital channels in order to improve the customer experience. It has enabled customers to buy and sell mutual funds via its mobile app. The bank also offers SEB Singular (which provides digital investment banking advisory services) and SEBx (which offers real-time cloud-based solutions for businesses). These efforts have resulted in an increase in digital services, with mobile accounting for more than 80% of customer interactions within the Corporate & Private Customers division as of the end of 2020.

Reasons to Buy

• Gain insights into SEB's tech operations.
• Gain insights into its digital strategies and innovation initiatives.
• Gain insights into its technology themes under focus.
• Gain insights into various product launches, partnerships, and acquisition strategies.