Category: Innovation

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Push, Push… Push, Push

Last October, I journeyed to Austin, Texas, to watch my first Formula One race. Like many, Netflix’s wildly popular Formula 1: Drive to Survive drew me in. That series dramatically increased the popularity of the sport in the United States, with plenty of drama on track — and off. 

Inevitably, the show takes viewers inside a showdown between two cars jostling for points, separated by mere milliseconds.

While being out front has its advantages, so too does drafting your competition. Personally, I love watching/hearing a team’s crew nonchalantly imploring its driver to “push, push… push, push” over the radio. This call to click the push-to-pass mechanism on a race car —which provides a temporary jolt of speed — typically results in the hunter becoming the hunted.

So yes, speed, competition and risk-taking is on my mind as we prepare to host Bank Director’s Experience FinXTech event May 5 and 6 in the same city as the Circuit of The Americas (aka COTA).

Much like Formula One brings some of the most ambitious and creative teams together for a race, Experience FinXTech attracts some of the most inspiring minds from the deeply competitive financial services space.

Now in its seventh year, the event connects a hugely influential audience of U.S. bank leaders with technology partners at the forefront of growth and innovation. Today, as banks continue to transition towards virtual or digital strategies, fintechs become partners rather than just competitors in the race to succeed. 

We’ll look not only at fintechs offering efficiencies for banks, but at fintechs offering growth and improved performance as well. As fintech guru Chris Skinner recently noted, “If you only look at technology as a cost reduction process, you never get the market opportunities. If you look at technology as a market opportunity, you get the cost savings naturally as a by-product.”

We’ll consider investor appetites, debate the pros and cons of decentralized finance and share experiences in peer exchanges. 

Throughout, we’ll help participants gauge technology companies at a time when new competitors continue to target financial services.   

Most Formula One races are won on the margins, with dedicated teams working tirelessly to improve performance. So too are the banks that excel — many of them with dedicated teams working with exceptional partners.

*I am delighted to return to Texas and see so many of my former friends and colleagues at Bank Director. Heck, I’ll tease Naomi Snyder (the editor-in-chief), that I found a way to use my original title for this piece I authored for BankDirector.com.

In addition, I’ll be on stage, rep’ing the team as a member of the company’s board of directors (and as a minority owner), perhaps in boots, maybe without a tie… Saying hello to so many friends from across the industry — like the team at Nymbus who graciously hosted me and some incredibly awesome folks in our industry last October at F1’s COTA race… and yes, flying the skull & crossbones for the team at Cornerstone Advisors.

This is an awesome annual event, and one worth following on social media if you’re unable to join in person. Check out @Fin_X_Tech on Twitter to keep tabs on the provocative conversations that inevitable take place.

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What To Expect at the 2022 Acquire or Be Acquired Conference

When Robert Iger joined The Walt Disney Co. as its new CEO in 2005, the company’s storied history of animation had floundered for a decade.

So Iger turned to a competitor whose animation outpaced Disney’s own and proposed a deal. 

The relationship between Pixar Animation Studios and Disney had been strained, and Iger was nervous when he called Pixar’s CEO, Steve Jobs.

The two sat down in front of a white board at Pixar’s headquarters and began listing the pros and cons of the deal. The pros had 3 items. The cons had 20, as the now-retired Iger tells it in his this Masterclass online. 

“I said ‘This probably isn’t going to happen,’’’ Iger remembers. “He said, ‘Why do you say that?’”

Jobs could see that the pros had greater weight to them, despite the long list of the cons.

Ultimately, Disney did buy Pixar for more than $7 billion in 2006, improving its standing, animation and financial success. In the end, Iger says he “didn’t think it was anything but a risk worth taking.” 

I read Iger’s memoir, “The Ride of a Lifetime,’’ in 2021, just as I began planning the agenda for our annual Acquire or Be Acquired Conference in Phoenix. Widely regarded as the premier event for the financial industry’s CEOs, boards and leadership teams, we are preparing to welcome nearly 1,400 to the Arizona desert this weekend.  His story resonated, and not just because of the Disney/Pixar transaction.

I thought about that line of risks worth taking… and was reminded of the leadership traits Iger prizes; specifically, optimism, courage and curiosity.

Many of this year’s registered attendees wrestle with the same issues Iger confronted at Disney. They represent important brands in their markets that must respond to the monumental changes in customer expectations. They must attract and retain talent and to grow in the face of challenges. 

While some look to 2022 with a sense of apprehension — thanks to Covid variant uncertainty, inflation, supply chain bottlenecks and potential regulatory changes — I feel quite the pep in my step this January.

I celebrate the opportunity with our team to return, in-person, to the JW Marriott Desert Ridge. With so many registered to join us Jan. 30 through Feb. 1, I know I am not alone in my excitement to be with people again in real life.

So what’s in store for those joining us? Conversations around:

  • Capital allocation.
  • Balancing short-term profitability versus long term value creation.
  • Managing excess liquidity and shrinking margins. 
  • Re-thinking hiring models and succession planning. 
  • Becoming more competitive and efficient.

Naturally, we discuss the various growth opportunities available to participants. We talk about recent merger transactions, market reactions and integration hurdles. We hear about the importance of marrying bank strategy with technology investment. We explore what’s going on in Washington with respect to regulation, and we acknowledge the pressure to grow earnings and the need to diversify the business.

As the convergence of traditional banking and fintech continues to accelerate, we again offer FinXTech sessions dedicated to delivering growth. We unpack concepts like banking as a service, stablecoins, Web3, embedded finance and open banking.

Acquire or Be Acquired has long been a meeting ground for those that take the creation of franchise value very seriously — a topic even more nuanced in today’s increasingly digital world. The risk takers will be with us, which is great company to keep. Indeed, “there’s no way you can achieve great gains without taking great chances,’’ Iger says. “Success is boundless.”

To follow along with this year’s event, I invite you to bookmark this blog, visit BankDirector.com and search #AOBA22 on LinkedIn and Twitter.

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What APIs Can Do For Your Bank

WASHINGTON, DC — In 2017, Bank Director magazine featured a story titled “The API Effect.” It showed how banks could earn revenue by using application programming interfaces, or APIs. It considered the pros (and cons) of banks turning themselves into technology platforms. And it concluded with a prediction:

APIs will be so prevalent in five years that banks who are not leveraging them will be similar to banks that don’t offer a mobile banking application.

Less than three years later, the banking industry is on a fast track to proving that hypothesis.

Let’s start with the basics. An application program interface, or API, controls interactions between software and systems. As the American Banker recently shared, “APIs are the glue of the internet and allow digital businesses to interact seamlessly. Banks create a digital-first business model by offering services, such as treasury or loan origination, through APIs in an open-banking system.”

So to help bank executives better understand the promise and potential of APIs, our team developed a special FinXTech Intelligence Report. In it, we explore use cases with a focus on banking, and detail the forces driving adoption of the technology among financial institutions of all sizes.

Divided into five parts, we explore:

— Market trends driving the adoption of APIs;
— Actionable API use cases for growing revenue and creating efficiencies;
— An in-depth case study of TAB Bank, which reimagined its data infrastructure with APIs;
— Key considerations for leadership teams developing an API strategy; and
— A map of the API provider landscape, highlighting the leading companies enabling API transformation.

Kudos to the talented Amber Buker for spearheading this effort. As she makes clear, there are several ways for banks to implement APIs. Some will work with their cores (e.g. FIS, Fiserv and Jack Henry) to access the necessary connectivity. Ready-made APIs from fintech providers can quickly address the most common connectivity requirements.

For more complex use cases — like large banks running on old mainframes — the line from systems of record to end users could be longer, with several providers along the path. Regardless of where you are on your journey, understanding the landscape of API providers helps banks get a firmer grasp on the technology and start conceptualizing the scale and design of their potential API project.

To learn more about how banks use APIs, I invited you to download, for free, our FinXTech Intelligence Report, APIs: New Opportunities for Revenue and Efficiency. 

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What Is FinXTech Connect?

WASHINGTON, DC — Last month, our team celebrated ten years of “Bank Director 2.0.” As I look back on what we’ve accomplished, a few projects stand out. Today, I’m shining a light on the development of our FinXTech Platform, which we built specifically for financial institutions.

Bank Director’s FinXTech debuted on March 1, 2016 at Nasdaq’s MarketSite in Times Square. Positioned at the intersection of Financial Institutions and Technology Leaders, FinXTech connects key decision makers across the financial sector around shared areas of interest.

We initially focused on bank technology companies providing solutions geared to Security, leveraging Data + Analytics, making better Lending decisions, getting smarter with Payments, enhancing Digital Banking, streamlining Compliance and/or improving the Customer Experience.

As our brand (and team) grew, we heard from a number of bank executives about the challenges they faced in discovering potential technology partners and solutions. To help solve this issue, we built FinXTech Connect.

Sorting through the technology landscape is no easy feat. Nor is finding, comparing and vetting potential technology partners. But week-by-week, and month-by-month, we added to this proprietary platform by engaging with bankers and fintech executives alike. All the while, asking (whenever we could) bankers who they wanted to learn more about at events like our annual Summit or Experience FinXTech events.

Banks today are in the eye of a digital revolution storm. A reality brought about, in no small part, by this year’s Covid-19 pandemic. So I am proud that the work we do helps banks make smarter business decisions that ultimately help their clients and communities. To wit, the various relationships struck up between banks and fintechs to turn the SBA’s PPP program into a reality.

As we look ahead, I’m excited to see Bank Director’s editorial team continue to carefully vet potential partners with a history of financial performance and proven roster of financial industry clients. For those companies working with financial institutions that would like to be considered for inclusion in FinXTech Connect, I invite you to submit your company for consideration.

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Tech Trends in Banking (Since WFH Began)

WASHINGTON, DC — Since March, I’ve talked with quite a few bank CEOs about their interest in modern and secure technologies. The underlying focus? Improving the experience provided to their customers.

In parallel to such one-on-one conversations, my colleague, Emily McCormick, surveyed 157 independent directors, chief executive officers, chief operating officers and senior technology executives of U.S. banks to understand how technology drives strategy at their institutions — and how those plans have changed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

She conducted the survey in June and July — and we just released the results in Bank Director’s 2020 Technology Survey, sponsored by CDW. Here are a few key takeaways:

Focus on Experience
Eighty-one percent of respondents say improving the customer experience drives their bank’s technology strategy; 79% seek efficiencies.

Driving the Strategy Forward
For 64% of respondents, modernizing digital applications represents an important piece of their bank’s overall technology strategy. While banks look to third-party providers for the solutions they need, they’re also participating in industry groups (37%), designating a high-level executive to focus on innovation (37%) and engaging directors through a board-level technology committee (35%). A few are taking internal innovation even further by hiring developers (12%) and/or data scientists (9%), or building an innovation lab or team (15%).

Room for Improvement
Just 13% of respondents say their small business lending process is fully digital, and 55% say commercial customers can’t apply for a loan digitally. Retail lending shows more progress; three-quarters say their process is at least partially digital.

Spending Continues to Rise
Banks budgeted a median of $900,000 for technology spending in fiscal year 2020, up from $750,000 last year. But financial institutions spent above and beyond that to respond to Covid-19, with 64% reporting increased spending due to the pandemic.

Impact on Technology Roadmaps
More than half say their bank adjusted its technology roadmap in response to the current crisis. Of these respondents, 74% want to enhance online and mobile banking capabilities. Two-thirds plan to upgrade — or have upgraded — existing technology, and 55% prioritize adding new digital lending capabilities.

Remote Work Permanent for Some
Forty-two percent say their institution plans to permanently shift more of its employees to remote work arrangements following the Covid-19 crisis; another 23% haven’t made a decision.

Interestingly, this survey reveals that fewer banks rely on their core provider to drive their technology strategy. Forty-one percent indicated that their bank relies on its core to introduce innovative solutions, down from 60% in last year’s survey. Sixty percent look to non-core providers for new solutions. Interested to learn more? I invited you to view the full results of the survey on BankDirector.com.

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2 Years’ Worth of Transformation in 2 months

WASHINGTON DC — Microsoft Corp. CEO Satya Nadella noted in late April, “we’ve seen two years’ worth of digital transformation in two months,” due to the speedy adoption and implementation of new technology by the U.S. business sector.

As our team at Bank Director writes, “navigating the short-term impacts of these shifts has bankers working round-the-clock to keep pace, but the long-term effects could differentiate the companies that take advantage of this extraordinary moment to pivot their operations.” This transformation makes up the core of the discussions taking place at Microsoft’s Envision Virtual Forum for Financial Services.

As part of that event, I sat down (virtually) with Luke Thomas, Microsoft’s managing director, U.S. banking and financial providers, to discuss how financial institutions can use this opportunity to modernize their operations. Together, we addressed the adoption of technology, legacy vs. new core providers and how business leaders encourage continued improvement.

This seven-minute video runs on both Microsoft and Bank Director’s websites, with a longer write-up on the Covid-19 Shift appearing here.

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Predicting The Future, Based On 6 Timeless Tenets

WASHINGTON, DC — Over the years, I’ve used this blog to share stories and ideas that reflect words like resiliency, agility and resourcefulness.  Typically, posts distill my experiences gained through travel or conversation.  Today, I am taking a slight detour in order to highlight a new project that gets to the heart of running a strong and successful business.

Our team crafted this 20-page report from interviews with more than a dozen CEOs.  All from top-performing financial institutions, you will recognize names like Brian Moynihan from Bank of America, Rene Jones from M&T Bank and Greg Carmichael from Fifth Third. This piece offers unique and valuable insights on:

  1. Leadership;
  2. Growth;
  3. Risk management;
  4. Culture;
  5. Stakeholder prioritization; and
  6. Capital allocation.

Bank Director and nCino, a provider of cloud-based services to banks, collaborated on this special project, which takes its inspiration from Amazon’s business model.

Entitled The Flywheel of Banking: Six Timeless Tenets of Extraordinary Banks, I strongly encourage anyone interested in the future of the banking industry to take the time to read it.  Make no mistake, this is no 500 word op-ed.  But it will be worth the hour or so it takes to unpack the insight and inspiration gleaned by our team.  I invite you to let me know what you think.

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3 Approaches to Shaping a Bank’s Digital Future

  • To compete in this new era of heightened digital competition, it is more important than ever for banks of all sizes to stay committed to the quest of constant improvement.

WASHINGTON, DC — How should you position your bank for the future — or, for that matter, the present?  This is one of the most perplexing questions challenging leadership teams right now.  It is not a new consideration; indeed, the industry has been in a constant state of evolution for as long as anyone on our team can remember. Yet lately, it has taken on a new, possibly more existential sense of urgency.

Fortunately, there are examples of banks, of different sizes and a variety of business models, keeping pace with changing consumer expectations and commercial clients’ needs. The industry seems to be responding to the ongoing digital revolution in banking in three ways.

#1: Forge Your Own Digital Frontier

The biggest banks—those like JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp. and Wells Fargo & Co.—have the resources to forge their own paths on the digital frontier. These banks spend as much as $11 billion a year each on technology. Each hires thousands of programmers to conceptualize digital solutions for customers. And you know what? Their results are impressive.

As many as three-quarters of deposit transactions are completed digitally at these banks (take a minute and let that number sink in).  A growing share of sales, account openings and money transfers take place over these banks’ digital channels as well. This allows these banks to winnow down their branch networks meaningfully while still gaining retail deposit market share.

*IMO, the next step in their evolution is to combine digital delivery channels with insights gleaned from data. It’s by marrying the two, I believe, that banks can gain a competitive advantage by improving the financial lives of their customers.

#2: Look Outside For Tailored Solutions

Just below the biggest banks are super-regional and regional banks.  They too are fully embracing technology, although they tend to look outside their organizations for tailored solutions that will help them compete in this new era (rather than develop the solutions themselves).

These banks talk about integration as a competitive advantage. They argue that they can quickly and nimbly integrate digital solutions developed elsewhere—growing without a burdensome branch network while also benefiting from the latest technologies without bearing the risk and cost of developing many of those solutions themselves. It is a way, in other words, for them to have their cake and eat it too.

U.S. Bancorp and PNC Financial Services Group fall into this category. Both are reconfiguring their delivery channels, reallocating funds that would be spent on expanding and updating their branch networks to digital investments.

In theory, this makes it possible for these banks to expand into new geographic markets with far fewer branches. Indeed, U.S. Bancorp announced recently that it will use a combination of digital channels and new branches to establish a physical retail beachhead in Charlotte, North Carolina. PNC Financial is doing the same in Dallas, Texas, among other markets.

#3: Go Off-the-Shelf

Finally, smaller community banks are adopting off-the-shelf solutions offered by their core providers—Fidelity National Information Services (FIS), Fiserv and Jack Henry & Associates.

This approach can be both a blessing and a curse. It is a blessing because these solutions have enabled upwards of 90 percent of community banks to offer mobile banking applications—table stakes nowadays in the industry. It is a curse because it further concentrates the reliance of community banks on a triumvirate of service providers.

In the final analysis, however, it is important to appreciate that smaller banks based outside of major metropolitan areas still have a leg up when it comes to tried-and-true relationship banking. Their share of loans and deposits in their local markets could even grow if the major money-center banks continue fleeing smaller markets in favor of big cities.

Smaller regional and community banks dominate small business loans in their markets—a fact that was recently underscored by LendingClub Corp.’s decision to close its small business lending unit. These loans still require local expertise—the type of expertise that resides in their hometown banks. The same is true of agriculture loans.

Let’s Not Forget: Banks Are Still Banks

Trust is still the top factor cited by customers in the selection process. And loans must still be underwritten in a responsible way if a bank wants to survive the irregular, but not infrequent, cycles that define our economy. The net result is that some community banks are not only surviving in this new digital era, they are thriving.

But this isn’t a call to complacency—far from it.

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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

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

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Three timely (and paraphrased) comments

  1. COMMUNICATION is key…. said nearly every presenter.
  2. 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).
  3. 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).

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3 Ways Banks Can Pick Up their Pace of Creativity

Quickly:

  • Financial institutions need a culture that allows for, and encourages, leadership teams to test & implement new approaches to traditional banking.

PHOENIX — Many financial institutions face a creativity crisis.  Legacy systems and monolithic structures stifle real change at many traditional banks — while newer technology leaders move quickly to pick up the slack.  During the first day of our annual FinXTech Summit at the Phoenician, I picked up on a few practical ideas to break down a few of the most common barriers to innovation inside financial institutions.

As our managing editor, Jake Lowary, wrote for BankDirector.com this morning, “the cultural and philosophical divides between banks and fintech companies is still very apparent, but the two groups have generally come to agree that it’s far more lucrative to establish positive relationships that benefit each, as well as their customers, than face off on opposite ends of the business landscape.”

So with this in mind, I invite you to follow the conference conversations via our social channels, where our team continues to shares ideas and information from Day 2 of this event using @BankDirector and @Fin_X_Tech on Twitter. In addition, you can search & follow #FinXTech18 to see what’s being shared with (and by) our attendees.

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Kicking off FinXTech’s Summit

Quickly:

  • Technology continues to transform nearly every aspect of the financial services industry — from mobile payments to peer-to-peer lending to financial management.

PHOENIX — Tomorrow morning, we kick off our annual FinXTech Summit.  As I wrote yesterday, this annual event serves as our “in-person” bridge between banks and qualified technology companies.  Personally, I am so impressed to witness numerous financial institutions transforming how they offer banking products and services to businesses and individuals.  As such, I find myself eager to engage in tomorrow’s conversations around:

  • Partnerships, collaboration and enablement;
  • How and where banks can invest in cloud-based software; and
  • The business potential of machine learning, advanced analytics and natural language processors.

Joining us at the Phoenician are senior executives from high-performance banks like Capital One, Customers Bank, Dime Community Bancshares, First Interstate Bank, IBERIABANK, Mechanics Bank, Mutual of Omaha Bank, PacWest, Pinnacle Financial, Seacoast National Bank, Silicon Valley Bank, South State Bank, TCF National Bank, Umpqua, Union Bank & Trust, USAA and US Bancorp.  Long-time tech players like Microsoft share their opinions alongside strong upstarts like AutoBooks during this two-day program.  So before I welcome nearly 200 men and women to this year’s conference, allow me to share a few of my preliminary thoughts going into the event:

For those with us here in Arizona, you’ll find nearly every presentation explores what makes for a strong, digitally-solid bank.  So to see what’s trending, I invite you to follow the conference conversations via our social channels. For instance, I am @AlDominick on Twitter — and our team shares ideas and information through @BankDirector plus our @Fin_X_Tech platform.  Finally, search & follow #FinXTech18 to see what’s being shared with (and by) our attendees.

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3 Key RegTech Themes

Quickly:

  • Machine learning, advanced analytics and natural language processors dominated conversations at yesterday’s RegTech program at NASDAQ’s MarketSite.

NEW YORK — Where will technology take us next?  As many banks embrace digital tools and strategies, they inevitably grapple with regulatory uncertainty.  This naturally creates friction in terms of staffing levels, operational expenses and investment horizons.  With so many regional and national banks continuing to grow in size and complexity, the responsibility to provide appropriate oversight and management escalates in kind.

Likewise, as more and more community banks rely on technology partners to transform how they offer banking products and services, management teams and boards of directors grapple to assess how such relationships impact compliance programs and regulatory expectations.  Can technology truly deliver on its promise of efficiency, risk mitigation and greater insight into customer behavior?

To address questions and observations like these, my team hosted the Reality of RegTech at NASDAQ’s MarketSite on April 18.  Entering the MarketSite, we aspired to surface ideas for banks to better detect compliance and regulatory risks, assess risk exposure and anticipate future threats by engaging with technology partners.

Over the years, our annual one trek to NASDAQ’s New York home afforded us opportunities to:

  • Learn how BNY Mellon encourages innovation on a global scale;
  • Identify where early-stage technology firms realistically collaborate with financial services providers; and
  • Explore lending strategies and solutions for community banks.

This year, we focused on the intersection of technology with regulation, noting that banks can and should expect an overall increase in regulatory constraints on topics including supervision, systemic risk (such as stress tests), data protection and customer protection.

For Forward-Thinking Banks

At Bank Director, we see the emergence of regulatory-focused technology companies helping leadership teams to bridge the need for efficiency and security with growth aspirations. However, understanding how and when to leverage such technologies confounds many executives.  As our Emily McCormick wrote in advance of the event, forward-thinking banks are looking within their own organizations to figure out how the deployment of regtech fits into the institution’s overall strategic goals while matching up with culture, policies, processes and talent.

Key Takeaways

  1. RegTech is, by its very nature, constantly evolving.  Current solutions focus on one of two things: reducing the cost of compliance via automation or leveraging technology to deliver more effective compliance.
  2. The flip side to the promise of these solutions is a skepticism and concern by both regulators and banks that RegTechs really are in this for the long-haul, are reliable and “safe” to work with.
  3. A first step for banks not already using RegTech?  Develop an implementation road map for one specific need (e.g. BSA / AML) which aligns to the overall strategic vision of the organization (in this case, a desire to grow through acquisition).

Interesting Reads on RegTech

Multiple presentations touched on how and where banks can maximize the potential benefits of their RegTech endeavors by addressing key risks; for instance: uncertain development paths, provider reliability, increased regulatory scrutiny, limited judgment and privacy concerns.  For those looking to go deeper on these issues:

  1. PwC authored a Regulatory Brief that discusses (a) how banks are using RegTechs, (b) the current RegTech landscape, and (c) what banks should do to prepare for RegTech.
  2. Continuity offers an e-book along with a step-by-step system for predictable, repeatable compliance results.
  3. Ascent blogs about the impact of artificial intelligence on regulatory compliance in its Top 5 Ways AI in Compliance Will Affect You in 2017.

Multiple members of the team shared insight and inspiration with #RegTech18 on Twitter (usually tying into our @Fin_X_Tech and @BankDirector handles).  Finally, be sure to check out BankDirector.com (no subscription required) as our editorial team offers up a number of perspectives on RegTech and this year’s event.

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