IoT – About That Ratio

Quickly:

Thanks to companies like Amazon, we are closing the gap between the physical & digital world.
Given our industry’s relentless pace of change, I think banks should place a big bet on figuring out how to “get involved” with the Internet of Things (IoT).
I am personally intrigued by the potential of car-based payments.

Getting smarter about the Internet of Things has been a focus of mine since talking with US Bancorp’s CEO, Richard Davis, in January. He shared various areas of technological interest for the 5th-largest bank in the U.S. (e.g. biometrics & security to machine learning… distributed ledgers to digital identify). However, his take on our interconnected world and the promise of IoT really captured my attention and imagination. Since then, I have taken much deeper dives into the world of Amazon’s Web Services, IBM’s Watson and Salesforce’s IoT Cloud. I’ll not break any new ground for those well versed in the underlying technologies or principles with this post, but I would suggest that those in the banking world think about how connected devices might catapult their businesses forward.

Take, for example, the potential of a Tesla. Last week, I had a chance to see one of their high-end model S cars here in DC. Spectacularly designed, I couldn’t shake the idea that the way we bank might radically change given innovations taking place at companies such as this one. (*To be fair, I had recently read a McKinsey report that suggests a linking of the physical and digital worlds could generate up to $11.1 trillion a year in economic value by 2025).

Still, if I were running a bank today, I would immediately make a commitment to figuring out what we can do to intersect with the waves of new opportunity being created by companies like this.

I would dedicate both time and resources to figuring out how emerging technologies might enhance our institution’s insight into revenue opportunities, areas of unexpected risk and emerging customer expectations. I’d welcome as many new ideas in now while I have the chance to consider what remains strategically possible. Basically, I’d stick a sign on our front door with a simple word: Ambitious.

January 31, 2017March 9, 2017

Inspired by U.S. Bank’s CEO at Acquire or Be Acquired

#AOBA17 conference intel (Monday/Tuesday)
By Al Dominick, CEO of Bank Director | @aldominick

Quickly

Most M&A activity will continue to take place among banks with assets between $1 billion and $10 billion.

For an acquirer, the level of underwriting for deposits can be more rigorous then underwriting for loans. Indeed, because of BSA & AML concerns, it takes a high degree of effort to realistically measure the risk of buying “someone else’s cooking.”

This year’s keynote, Richard Davis, is the Chairman & CEO of U.S. Bank — which has $446 billion in assets. FWIW, he started his career as a bank teller at Security Pacific Bank in Los Angeles on his 18th birthday.

_ _ _

Over the past decade, U.S. Bank’s consistent results made it, according to the Wall Street Journal, a darling with investors and analysts. While impressive, their CEO’s perspectives on where we are now — and where we might be heading — inspired this short video recap.

In addition to his remarks on building a great team, his perspectives on technology struck a real chord given my background (I worked at great technology company in Bethesda, MD for 6+ years). Specifically, his encouragement to focus on:

Tokenization/EMV/mobile
Real time payments
Open APIs
Identity management
Distributed ledger / blockchain
Internet of things (IoT)
Machine learning

In subsequent posts, I’ll elaborate on these issues. But for those interested in following the conference conversations that are more M&A-oriented via our social channels, I invite you to follow me on Twitter via @AlDominick, the host company, @BankDirector and its @Fin_X_Tech platform, and search & follow #AOBA17 to see what is being shared with (and by) our attendees.

December 23, 2015

Bank Director’s annual Tech Issue is now available for free

Take a look at Bank Director’s just-published “Tech Issue.” In it, we look at how bank CEOs and executive teams can better engage with fintech companies, what the biggest banks are doing in terms of technology strategy and what the Internet of Things (IoT) means for financial institutions in 2016.

To download this free issue:

On Your Tablet or Mobile Device, Select Apple’s AppStore, Google Play or Amazon’s Apps;
Search “Bank Director Digital Magazine;” and
Download the App to Your Digital Device & Enjoy.

Happy Holidays!