PwC survey: Financial innovations worry bank executives executives

More than half of senior retail banking executives consider nontraditional financial-service providers a threat to traditional banks, while 31 percent believe they present innovative partnership opportunities.

The findings are in a report on the retail banking outlook for 2020 that was released by PricewaterhouseCoopers in Beijing on Tuesday.

An increasing number of new players are joining the retail banking industry in recent years, and they have a flair for innovation and a deep appreciation for the value of data analytics. Many such capabilities are missing from traditional banks, and whether banks can transform themselves to compete with this threat remains uncertain, the report said.