NEW DATA: Why Top FI Innovators Play In The Sand(box)

Who are the top-performing financial institutions (FIs)?

According to recent research from PYMNTS, the industry’s innovation pacesetters are those who devote the most time to developing new features, products and services. They are also the FIs that allocate the majority of their budget and other resources to testing those innovations.

But testing new technologies is a complex, intensive process, which can take on a variety of forms. The decision of how to go about testing new technologies can be daunting. So what’s an FI to do?

Enter the sandbox test.

According to the latest Innovation Readiness Playbook, sandbox tests are a favorite tool of top innovators. That’s because these tests are designed to provide a closed environment in which FIs can experiment with new features and products before commercial release, helping to ensure success and higher ROI.

Sandbox testing is rare – just 22 percent of FIs report having used it. But those who do use the approach, including commercial banks, community banks and other FIs, report being more satisfied with their most recent product launches than those that do not.

The Scaling Payments Innovation Edition of the Innovation Readiness Playbook aims to examine these rare but effective tests, and the ways in which real FIs are incorporating them into their larger innovation strategies.

PYMNTS research found that innovative institutions come in all shapes and sizes – sandbox testing can help FIs of any size compete against the leading technological innovators in finance. What’s more, a massive budget is not necessary to perform like a top innovator.

Other key findings from the latest Innovation Readiness Playbook:

100 percent of sandbox FIs said their IT infrastructure was well-suited for innovation.

70 percent of FIs with flexible IT structure said their recent innovations were extremely successful, more than double the percentage of average merchants who said the same.

40 percent of top performers trust sandbox to scale functionality.

To find more insights, check out the new Playbook by filling out the form below:

About the Playbook

The Innovation Readiness Playbook, in collaboration with payments and commerce solutions provider i2c Inc., gauges where banks are on the road to becoming innovators. The Scaling Payments Innovation edition is designed to examine the role of the sandbox environment in helping banks test new ideas and innovative payments products, and to reveal how they are using sandbox methodologies and to what extent they contribute to their success. The findings in this Playbook are based on survey responses of FIs in the U.S. that were then scored from zero to 100 in terms of innovation readiness.