Tag: Competition

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Strong Board. Strong Bank

Quickly:

  • A bank’s CEO, Chairman and board of directors face a number of challenges in today’s ever competitive, highly regulated and rapidly evolving financial services industry.

By Al Dominick, CEO of DirectorCorps — parent co. to Bank Director & FinXTech

ATLANTA — Complex regulations, technological innovations and a highly competitive environment that leaves little room for error have placed unprecedented demands on the time and talents of bank boards.  Still, no one I’m with today seems interested in pity or sympathy.  To wit, I’m in Atlanta, at the Ritz-Carlton Buckhead, as we host Bank Director’s annual Bank Board Training Forum.  With us are 200+ men and women committed to strengthening their bank’s performance by enhancing the skills and abilities of their boards.

I’m buoyed by their collective optimism, especially having surfaced myriad governance issues, compliance challenges, audit responsibilities, risk concerns and areas of potential liability. What follows are five takeaways from presentations made today that are growth, risk or team-oriented.

  1. When it comes to growing one’s bank, an acquisition of another institution certainly helps a buyer achieve operating scale efficiencies, which in turn increases its valuation.
  2. In addition to traditional M&A as a driver of growth, we are seeing more partnerships with (and outright acquisitions of) non-banks in order to enhance non-interest income and the expansion of net interest margins.
  3. Personally, I appreciated Jim McAlpin (a partner at the law firm of Bryan Cave) for elaborating on the phrase “Strong Governance Culture.” As he explained, the regulatory community takes this to mean a well developed system of internal oversight and a board culture focused on risk management.
  4. When it comes to risk, financial institutions face a quite a few. Indeed, Eve Rogers, a Partner at Crowe Horwath, touched on cybersecurity, economic factors, regulatory changes, shrinking margins and fee restrictions. As she made clear, proactively identifying, mitigating, and, in some cases, capitalizing on these risks provides a distinct advantage to the banks here with us.
  5. In terms of compensation, a good checklist for all banks includes (a) the bank’s compensation philosophy, (b) specific details for how to incorporate a performance plan against a strategic plan and (c) details around how one’s compensation peer group was formed — and when was it last updated.

Tomorrow morning, I share some new ideas for approaching technology in terms of growth and efficiency given the digital distribution of financial goods and services.  As I noted from the stage, we’re seeing some banks, rather than hire from the ground up, take a plug-and-play approach for partnering (or acquiring) FinTech companies. While I certainly intend to talk about the culture and team aspects of technology tomorrow, my focus goes to how and where machine learning, RegTech, payments, white labeling opportunities and core providers allow financial institutions to present a cutting-edge looks and feels to its customers under the bank’s brand.  (*If you’re interested, click here.)

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Banks Vs. Fintechs

By Al Dominick, CEO of DirectorCorps (parent co. to Bank Director & FinXTech) | @aldominick

Quickly:

  • I’m in from Dallas at the Consumer Bankers’ Association “CBA Live!”
  • Thanks to Richard Hunt, the CEO of the CBA, for inviting me to participate.  Richard spoke at our Acquire or Be Acquired conference in January + I hope to live up to his great speaking standards when I’m given a mic tomorrow.
  • The rapid pace of change in the financial sector took center stage during yesterday’s opening session.

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Since arriving in Big D on Sunday evening, I’ve met quite a few interesting men & women from great financial institutions at this annual event for the retail banking industry.  This year, more than 1,300 are at the Gaylord Texan (with some 550 being senior-level bankers) to talk shop.  Personally, I’m looking forward to presenting on “Economic States of America” with Amy Crews Cutts (Chief Economist, Equifax), Robert Dye (Chief Economist) of Comerica Bank and Cathy Nash, the CEO of Woodforest National Bank tomorrow morning.  From credit trends to banking consolidation, if you’re in Dallas, I invite you to join us for this Super Session as we explore the economic state of our union.

Before then, I thought to share a few interesting takeaways from a “FinTech vs. Bank” general session that pit SoFi and Kabbage “against” PNC and BBVA.  As part of the panel discussion, CBA posed a number of interesting questions to the audience; most notably, “do you believe fintechs are built to last.”  Given our upcoming FinXTech Summit in NYC, I thought the answer (which reflects the thoughts of many of the biggest banks in the U.S.) was interesting, but not surprising.

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Further, I found the results of this question pretty telling (given we asked a similar question at this year’s Acquire or Be Acquired conference and received a similar response from an audience of CEOs, CFOs, and members of a bank’s board).

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Finally, I think the results of this question best represent the types of conversations I’ve found myself in when I explain what I do + who I meet with.

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As I’ve shared in recent posts, an increasing number of financial institutions are using partnerships with technology companies to improve operations and better meet customer needs.  Given the input on these questions from various heads of retail, product lines and product development + compliance, risk and internal audit, I feel these three pictures are worth noting — and sharing.  Agree or disagree?  Feel free to leave a comment…

 

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3 Challenges That Comes With Technology

In this brief video, I share three major areas of risk facing financial institutions today.  Filmed during yesterday’s Bank Audit & Risk Committees conference in Chicago, IL, these points reflect my time with Chief Financial Officers, Chief Risk Officers, General Counsels along with Audit and Risk Committee members and various executives from leading professional services and advisory firms.

As new technology players emerge and traditional participants begin to transform their business models, I believe that successful institutions will enable financial services for life’s needs through collaboration and partnerships with the very fintech companies that once threatened to displace them.  In case you’re interested in issues like these, take a look at FinXTech, our “new” platform that promotes collaboration between the most forward thinkers in the industry – in order to create real innovation, change and a better future for all.

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Three FinTech Companies I’m Keen On

It seems not a day goes by where I’m not coming across a story about Venmo.  Maybe I should thank holiday shoppers; more specifically, friends or family member that go in on a joint present for someone.  Rather than accept an IOU, the social payments company has made story titles like “Cash is For Losers!” en vogue by allowing its users to settle debts without cash or check.  So the company’s success had me exploring the world of FinTech and other companies worth taking a look at.  Here are three I’m keen on along with a short overview on what they offer.

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Wealthfront is an automated investment service with over $1 billion in client assets.  The Palo Alto-based company manages a “diversified, continually rebalanced portfolio of index funds” on behalf of its clients.” Their proposition: “Wealthfront takes the guesswork out of sound, long-term investing through effortless automation. Wealthfront manages a personalized online investment account for you that is fully diversified and periodically rebalanced – accessible anytime and anywhere from your desktop, tablet or phone.” For an individual, their service premise is quite attractive, given “the consistent and overwhelming research that proves index funds significantly outperform an actively managed portfolio.”

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I wrote about Kabbage last year (A Pop Quiz on the Future of Banking) as a platform for online merchants to borrow working capital. Per Time’s Business & Money site, “Kabbage financing resembles a line of credit in that customers only pay for what they use, but it isn’t a loan and doesn’t require merchants to use their personal assets as collateral. Rather, as with a business factor, a Kabbage financing is structured as a cash advance against future sales.”

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Dwolla is a payment network that allows any business or person to send, request and accept money. As they say, they are “not like those other big payment companies that rely on plastic cards and charge hefty fees.” Instead, the company built its own network that “securely connects to your bank account and allows you to move money for just $0.25 per transaction, or free for transactions $10 or less.”

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I’m on record with my feelings that bank leaders have real and immediate opportunities to expand what banking means to individual and business customers by offering services that go beyond a traditional business model.  These three companies provide alternatives to traditional lines of business, and are just a few of the many that are working to create a “newer” normal for individuals and businesses.  If you are interested to share your thoughts on FinTechs worth watching, feel free to comment below about those companies you find compelling.

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Today is FinTech Day at NASDAQ (here’s what you need to know)

The who, what, when, where and why of FinTech Day at NASDAQ, a collaboration between the exchange and my company, Bank Director, that celebrates the contributions of financial technology companies — fintech for short — to banks across the U.S.

 

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Who: Bank Director, a privately-held media & publishing company focused on issues fundamental to a bank’s CEO, senior leadership team and board members, teams up with the NASDAQ OMX to showcase various technology-driven strategies and tactics successful banks use to fuel profitable, sustainable growth.

What: FinTech Day at the NASDAQ

When: Today, September 8

Where: The NASDAQ MarketSite (4 Times Square – 43rd & Broadway)

Why: Because who says there is no innovation in banking?  During this day-long event, we keep our focus on a board’s level, exploring growth opportunities made possible by various technology products and services.

To Watch: We will welcome a number of executives from the Fintech community throughout the day, along with one of the country’s biggest (and actually, oldest) institutions: BNY Mellon.  Personally, I’m looking forward to chatting with their Managing Director – Strategic Growth Initiatives, Declan Denehan, at 2 PM ET for an hour-long session focused on innovation, competition and staying relevant. Thanks to our friends at NASDAQ, you can watch the live feed for free (click here to register and watch).  At 3:55 ET, I’ll join our publisher, Kelsey Weaver, to ring the closing bell. A webcast of the NASDAQ Closing Bell will be available (click here or here) if you are keen to see how we wrap up FinTech day.

Of Social Note: To follow the conversation, let me suggest these twitter handles: @bankdirector, @nasdaqomx, @bankdirectorpub and @aldominick. For photos from the ceremony and event, you can visit NASDAQ’s Instagram Page or Facebook page later today.  As we are all about being a part of the community and broader conversations, Bank Director will use #fintech for its tweets.

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