The Best of FinXTech’s Annual Summit

Quickly:

FinXTech’s annual Summit brought together senior executives from across the financial space to focus on new growth strategies and opportunities related to technology.

PHOENIX — I’ve spent the past few days with bank leaders, technology executives, investors and analysts interested to explore emerging trends, opportunities and challenges facing many as they look to grow and scale their businesses. So as I prepare to head home to DC after some wonderfully exciting days at Bank Director’s annual FinXTech Summit, a few highlights from my time in the desert.

The 10 Finalists for 3 FinXTech Awards

For me, one of the signature pieces of this year’s program occurred on Thursday evening. Under the stars, we recognized ten partnerships, each of which exemplified how banks and financial technology companies work together to better serve existing customers, attract new ones, improve efficiencies, bolster security and promote innovation. The finalists for this year’s Best of FinXTech Awards can be seen in this video.

Winners of the 2018 Best of FinXTech Awards

We introduced these awards in 2016 to identify and recognize those partnerships that exemplify how collaborative efforts can lead to innovative solutions and growth in the banking industry. This year, we focused on three areas of business creativity:

Startup Innovation, to recognize successful and innovative partnerships between banks and startup fintech companies that have been operating for less than five years.
Most Innovative Solution of the Year, to highlight forward-thinking ideas, we recognized partnerships that have resulted in new and innovative solutions in the financial space.
Best of FinXTech Partnership, a category to recognize outstanding collaboration between a financial institution and fintech company, we based this award on growth by revenue, customers and/or reputation plus the strength of integration.

The winners? Radius Bank and Alloy for Startup Innovation, CBW Bank and Yantra Financial Technology for Innovative Solution of the Year and Citizens Financial Group and Fundation for Best of FinXTech Partnership. To learn more about each, check out this cover story on BankDirector.com

Favorite #FinXTech18 tweet

A star is born! It's our own @BrennanSteven filming a thought leadership video with @BankDirector at the @Fin_X_Tech Annual Summit. Visit our booth in the exhibit hall and tell him how sharp he looks! 🤵🎥😁#finxtech18 pic.twitter.com/4xMiUQm689

— Validis (@ValidisGlobal) May 10, 2018

Well played with the ZZ Top reference — now we just needs to grow out that beard and drop a pair of RayBans into the shot.

Favorite picture

Three timely (and paraphrased) comments

COMMUNICATION is key…. said nearly every presenter.
Make the tough call to kill bad tech or a bad relationship. You’ll lose customers if you don’t react quickly (h/t to our VP of Research, Emily McCormick).
Change is the key to being valuable; start thinking and working like a startup (h/t @nabeelmahmood).

Video Recaps

During our time in the desert, we shared a number of videos on BankDirector.com. The page with all videos can be found on FinXTech Annual Summit: Focusing on What’s Possible. To get a sense of what these short videos look like, here is an example:

Thanks to all those who joined us at the Phoenician. For more ideas and insight from this year’s event, I invite you to take a look at what we’ve shared on BankDirector.com (*no registration required).