Many major banks and financial institutions today are collaborating with Augmented Reality apps or providers to bring a difference to their user experience. They are in the pursuit of creating a world where a user can experience a virtual product, a financial service and enjoy a virtual purchase in such a way that it is actually right in front of them no matter where they are. With such immersive technologies, users are able to simulate real life scenarios, understand the financial service or offering better and enjoy an enhanced brand experience.

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Early adopters of virtual reality tools in fintech have already developed some notable experiments and have raised the bar.

How will Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality impact finetch?

1. Data visualization with Augmented Reality

The financial world is booming with increased amounts of data, data which is becoming more and more complex day by day. Salesforce has leveraged the power of Oculus Rift and it successfully created an immersive environment for analyzing data. Besides this, Fidelity Labs has also taken advantage of the immersive technology of Oculus Rift to derive better data insights.

2. An era of Virtual Trading

Then there’s popular global bank Citi, which has successfully created the concept of a virtual trading desk. They call it their ‘Holographic workstation’, which uses the Powerful HoloLens from Microsoft. Traders can trade conveniently on this virtual desk instead of toiling on their traditional flat screen monitors. Yet another example virtual trading is Comarch – a popular IT solutions provider based out of Poland. They use a prototype to disrupt the conventional client-service approach in private banking by blending human relations, wearables and advanced algorithms.

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3. Stepped up Customer Service

Every business looks forward to improving their customers experiences and this is true for finance and fintech companies. Many such institutions are leveraging the power of Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality to not only understand their customers better, but to also offer precise and personalized customer service. Several banks have tied up with Augmented Reality app developers to help their consumers track the nearest ATM and branches easily, for instance, by navigating through the city keeping an eye on their phone screen using a different experience. Banks such as Halifax have also paired with Augmented Reality apps to help enhance the consumer home-buying experience. The customers can get a detailed 3D view of the home they have their eye on.

4. Benefits of Virtual Payments

From digital payments to an immersive experience, customers are surely going to have a great time with such timeless payment apps and experiences in time. Take the example of Mastercard, which partnered with Wearality to create a 3D world where consumers can roam around the store, make purchases and complete their payment without leaving the virtual world. They went more popular with their Virtual Reality golf experience, which they termed ‘Priceless’. Players were able to buy golf clothing in the virtual world without the need to do anything else offline and the products were delivered to their doorsteps.

5. Virtual Branches

Last but not least, virtual branches can make us believe in the power of Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality more. Today’s digital and mobile online banks can now be true virtual banks. A simulated 3D bank, which will give you the feel of entering a physical branch.

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