Daniele Tonella: “ING’s tech awareness is inspirational”
In a Fintech Futures podcast, ING’s chief technology officer (CTO) and Management Board Banking member Daniele Tonella has described his first six months at ING as a “phenomenal experience.”
“I sometimes say I was born orange. I found a place that is culturally absolutely akin to my nature and my style… a place with a large number of outstanding engineers, and a place where you don’t see a divide between business and tech that I have seen in many other places.”
![ING’s chief technology officer Daniele Tonella speaks to Fintech Futures on ING’s digital transformation strategy exploring a range of topics including GenAI. [29:05]](/upload_mm/b/5/6/bacd0909-c65d-44bf-88a2-ac6a6efb270f_Podcast-What-the-fintech-with-Daniele-Tonella-1200px_500x150.png)
ING’s chief technology officer Daniele Tonella speaks to Fintech Futures on ING’s digital transformation strategy exploring a range of topics including GenAI. [29:05]
Daniele said ING is a company that has been built around technology with a very high level of awareness about what technology can and cannot do, right up to the Supervisory Board… and it facilitates the conversations that we are having.
Challenges
“I find that highly inspirational for the things we are doing and how we are doing things. Which at the same it is a challenge, because it means some of the problems we need to solve on the journey ahead are not too common, not too standard in the banking sector.
“We have look beyond our industry to learn from others to really move forward.”
In the 29-minute podcast, Daniele said that digital transformation is a must for ING.
“Technology changes have been there forever. ING is one of the very first true digital native banks. I’m talking about 15-20 years ago, so it’s part of our DNA. Technology in the meantime has massively changed the way we work as a bank, but also the way that societies conduct their own lives.
Customer expectations
“Our customers, of course, expect more and more. They are getting more used to more and more to digital experiences on all platforms of the universe. We are responding to them with services that provide a seamless digital experience with all customers wherever they are, whenever they want and whatever they need.
“Now that requires from us to keep pace with new technological developments. Both in our market and beyond. But also, to look at what we already have, and run a Feng shui of tech if I can call it this… so we can keep focussing on what clients can most benefit from,” said Daniele.
On the subject of GenAI, Daniele said ING had been exploring it from the very early stages, always from the perspective of providing a better customer experience.
“This is defined in not just what you see in your mobile banking app, in your e-banking system or your interaction, but also the invisible customer experience. The fact that our systems are up in the night is an element of customer experience,” he said.
Fool with a tool
Daniele told podcast host Paul Hindle that we want to keep going on the journey where customers interact with us in a personal, fast, relevant and easy way.
“That requires us to keep exploring new technologies but also to think and rethink how we deploy those technologies. Because a fool with a tool remains a fool. And a traditional bank with a tool remains a traditional bank.”
Daniele said with these new technologies it is not a question of just deploying and dumping technology on our users, but how we make the experience different thanks to the technologies we are rolling out?