BAI Banking Strategies

COVID-19 has everyone hyper-aware of many things that most of us didn’t think twice about before. Take cash, for instance. Who wants to touch paper bills or coins nowadays when they don’t know who’s been handling that money before them? As a result, cards are used for even the smallest transactions. Nicole Machado, executive director of product strategy for card services at Harland Clarke, discusses the latest in card technology, and how the pandemic has particularly spiked demand for cards that don’t require punching in a PIN.

Whether measured by new account growth, deposit growth or deposit share, a handful of America’s biggest financial institutions dominate retail banking. It’s a tough uphill fight for smaller banks trying to compete. Tom Brown, editor-in-chief of Tom Brown’s Banking Weekly newsletter and CEO of Second Curve Capital, discusses where smaller institutions might find opportunity and advantage.

Economically speaking, COVID-19 has been particularly virulent for small businesses. We’ve all seen the “closed for good” signs on the doors of favorite restaurants, retail shops and other businesses that were at least holding their own just a few months ago. Tens of thousands have failed, and even more are still struggling to stay afloat. Jay DesMarteau, head of commercial distribution at TD Bank, discusses a recent TD small business survey on the pandemic’s impacts, and also what more financial institutions can do to help these small but vital companies stay in business.

Online retail powerhouse Amazon knows a thing or two about deepening a customer relationship and using those stronger ties to generate more revenue. Financial institutions also want deeper connections with their customers. This is at the heart of customer lifetime value. This episode's guest is Tom Long, co-founder and principal at The Long Group, a New Hampshire-based strategic consulting firm. Long believes banks and credit unions can borrow from the Amazon playbook to enhance customer loyalty and boost their bottom line.

When people interact with a financial institution, they expect to be treated fairly. It’s not too much to ask, yet the complaint files suggest there may be gaps between the goal and the reality. Marcia Tal, CEO of Tal Solutions and a former executive at Citigroup, discusses bias in banking and a new AI-based tool her company created to identify bias incidents affecting customers and employees.

Digital banking was already growing at a healthy clip when the coronavirus arrived in the U.S. in early 2020, and it’s only gained momentum as branch visits and face-to-face interactions have largely dried up. BAI research directors Mark Riddle and Jason Mencias discuss results from recent BAI surveys on digital banking trends, what different demographics value and how financial institutions are handling the pandemic’s disruptions.

Across the country, banks and credit unions are welcoming customers back into their branches. But like other businesses reopening their doors, there are clear differences between how things worked pre-March 2020 and how they’ll be going forward. Brian Wallace, general manager for banking at Reflexis Systems, joins us with insights on what financial institutions can learn from the COVID-19 experience in making their branch operations more efficient.

Why is customer experience so important? One of the biggest reasons is that so much of banking is largely commoditized. CX is one of a shrinking number of ways that a financial institution can truly differentiate itself in a crowded marketplace. This episode's guests are David Williams and Joan McGowan, both principals at SAS. They offer insights from their respective vantage points on how the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the trend toward digital, and how banks and credit unions can modernize their digital CX to gain a competitive advantage.

Diverse, equitable and inclusive workforces are significantly more productive and more profitable than workforces that aren’t. This is backed by a number of studies over the years. Financial services organizations have this valuable diversity in their lower ranks, but it peters out pretty quickly when you look higher up on the corporate ladder. Diane Ashley, CEO of DTA Diversity Counts and formerly the chief diversity officer at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, discusses the current diversity, equity and inclusion landscape within banks and credit unions, and what these organizations can do to address long-standing issues of race and inequality.

Banks and credit unions scrambled to keep their customer support going as a work-from-home job after the unwelcome arrival of the coronavirus. Now, with reopening talk getting louder, it’s hard to see that that important function simply going back to the way it was pre-COVID-19. D.J. Haskins, head of marketing at SilverCloud, shares what he's seeing from clients as a result of the pandemic, and how the lessons learned this spring may change customer support in the years ahead.