Uni-Verse: What Can Customers Expect from Banking Metaverse And What’s The Next Step Forward?

Union Bank of India (UBI), a public sector government-owned entity, recently jumped into the metaverse world. Earlier, HSBC Bank and JP Morgan Chase also jumped into metaverse.

The banking industry has come a long way. From making ATMs and visits to bank branches almost irrelevant, it is now taking a new technological leap by taking banking to the metaverse, in turn easing the process for customers further.

While metaverse may help bridge the gap between the virtual and physical worlds, it will offer a marketing platform for banks. Piyush Gupta, President, Kestone, a metaverse solutions marketing company, says, “Metaverse expands the scope for banks to connect with the younger population and therefore creates an opportunity for introducing new products and business models to them. It’s also an opportunity to address new customer segments like creators, gamers and artists.”

Here's what UBI is offering and what customers can expect going forward.

Uni-Verse: The UBI Metaverse

Last week, UBI, in partnership with Tech Mahindra, announced the launch of a Metaverse Virtual Lounge & Open Banking Sandbox environment.

Initially, Uni-verse, the bank’s Metaverse Virtual Lounge, will host product information and videos, according to media reports. Information about banking products such as deposits, loans, government welfare schemes and other digital initiatives will be available on Uni-verse.

As of now, UBI has launched the metaverse service for desktop and VR devices. UBI’s Open Banking Sandbox is aimed at launching innovative products in collaboration with fintechs and start-up partners.

Rajiv Mishra, CGM (IT), Union Bank of India, said, "Union Bank of India's metaverse is built upon Unity platform and it uses 30 animation, modelling, simulation, and rendering toolset. The Bank's metaverse named as "Uni-Verse" can be accessed through Bank's corporate website and it can be viewed from desktop or laptop and it can also be viewed from VR headset. Currently, the file size is approximately 350 MB. Uni-Verse is presently an informative virtual lounge displaying Bank's products such as deposit, loan, digital products, government welfare schemes, others."

“Banking stands on two pillars: swiftness & safety! Metaverse will offer both along with an immersive experience at an individual level. Banks will get an opportunity to customize and deliver not just the service but an experience that will help them grow," said Agam Chaudhary, a serial entrepreneur, and investor in the Web 3.0 and e-commerce space.

What Will Banking Metaverse Offer?

Banks’ entry into the metaverse shows that they hope to make banking more experience driven in the future.

Lokesh Rao, co-founder and CEO, Trace Network Labs, a Web 3.0 tech company, says, “The metaverse of the future will absolutely be experience-driven for all practical purposes in a person's life. It applies to a bank and their retail customers as well. It actually means that people will not be just looking for ‘transactional interaction’ with banks, but also seeking to have a seamless ‘banking experience’ without having to step physically into one.”

Here is what banking customers can expect from the new technology.

Bridging The Gap Between Real And Virtual: UBI aims to offer a more engaging digital banking experience in the metaverse world. Om Malviya, president, Tezos India, an organisation that empowers Tezos blockchain ecosystem in India, says that metaverse technology can help encourage the sense of community and cooperative involvement among customers since it connects entities from both virtual and physical worlds. “For instance, a customer might find a lifelike metaverse avatar of a support agent or advisor to be more interesting than the computer screen of a chat application or even a video call,” he adds.

Ease Of Transactions and KYC: The new technology can help simplify activities such as taking loans, making payments and buying investment products and insurance. “Retail customers might also be at ease as metaverse collaboration banking sectors bring in newer technologies in communication, transaction processing, and basically overall advancement of the industry,” says Malviya.

Although in India currently, the Reserve Bank of India has not permitted KYC (Know Your Customer) verification to be done via metaverse technology specifically, but other digital means like e-KYC and video KYC are allowed. Ankitt Gaur, founder and CEO, Easyfi Network, a decentralised finance blockchain company says that in the future, the possibility of conducting KYC verification using metaverse technology cannot be fully ruled out. “Users will be able to do everything that they are able to do online. One aspect of banking that can completely change is the KYC verification. You will be able to do KYC verification through immersive experiences, which will reduce the chances of KYC failure,” he adds.

Faster Support: UBI’s metaverse lounge will be accessible from virtual reality (VR) headsets too. Gaur says that banks are setting up their virtual branches powered by artificial intelligence customer service agents and with the usage of VR technology, the virtual experience will be elevated.

“(Eventually), all the banks will have their virtual branches setup in metaverses along with interactions being facilitated by AI-driven customer agents, making the whole process more scalable while still delivering instant gratification to the consumers of being able to talk to the customer care executives in the Metaverse,” he added.

What’s Stopping Wider Adoption Of Metaverse?

Rajiv Mishra, chief technical officer of UBI told The Financial Express in an interview recently that the bank is testing waters in the metaverse world and, hence, has not taken the next step (transactions and payments) yet.

There may be other reasons that is stopping banks in general to go for wider adoption.

The concern about the security of customer’s data and transactions is paramount. There are several aspects of the technology that are unexplored still.

“Foraying into the digital cosmos of Metaverse, the banking industry is endeavouring to keep pace with the rapidly evolving technology and be future-ready. New digital expectations have been fastened onto the banking industry as well, and it has begun to indulge them recognising the tremendous potential that this emerging immersive tech (metaverse) has to offer,” says Tapan Sangal, founder and chief evangelist, P2E Pro Pvt Ltd, a metaverse technology company.