BAI Banking Strategies

Over the last decade, financial services innovation has flourished not just in volume but also in variety. In areas such as societal impact, marketing and human capital, a few special institutions are changing how business gets done and progress made. Fresh off announcing this year's winners of the BAI Global Innovation Awards, BAI president and CEO Debbie Bianucci shares what makes this year's crop stand out and how true innovation permeates every layer of a forward-thinking financial institution.

Digital transformation demands that the role of the CFO change to meet a very particular, poignant set of challenges. The question is: How? Enter the "superhero CFO," a gifted and proactive leader who can literally save the day Whether that means breaking data out of silos or finding hidden efficiencies, the tasks of today's data-rich environment demand focus, perseverance and forward-thinking momentum. Danny Baker, vice president of market strategy, Financial and Risk Management Solutions, Fiserv, discusses how today's CFOs can shine in a fast-moving digital world.

Today's community banking environment demands an extra layer of hustle and decisive action to grow and compete. Fortunately, there's already a blueprint for success that leverages three factors: planning, marketing and talent management. To get the mix right, banks must forego the shortcuts and set their sights on creating lasting change. On this podcast, David Furnace, the CEO of Haberfeld Associates, shares nuances and strategies culled from more than 30 years in the financial services industry.

With roots in business academia, behavior finance provides answers to explain the perplexing things all of us do as consumers. Why do we follow others in our spending decisions? Why are we motivated more by what we might lose than what we can gain? To explain, this week's podcast features Meg Goodman, operational leader for Jacobs & Clevenger.

Fraud has moved far beyond the days of passing bad checks and rigging ledger books, both in its volume and sophistication. In the hands of determined hackers, high tech stoops to low levels that threaten everyone, financial institutions and customers alike. Yet banks can build robust defenses into the foundation of all they do and stay steps ahead of even the most determined thieves. Alisdair Faulkner, chief identity officer, Business Services at LexisNexis Risk Solutions, shares how banks can balance the customer's need for speed and friction-free service with sophisticated fraud protection.

Wouldn’t it be nice to program a bank’s digital journey into a computer? Aside from being impossible, the task of digital transformation becomes that much harder for those who run community and regional banks in competitive markets. But there are ways to win the game, which include smart alliances with fintechs. Christopher Maher, president and CEO of OceanFirst Bank in New Jersey, explains how his financial institution has successfully adapted to life and business in a digital age.

Innovation in financial services sometimes overlooks the pressing needs of consumers who teeter on the edge of financial peril. Causes for trouble are many: staggering student loan debt, massive credit card balances and minuscule savings. Yet fintechs can make a major difference. To explain how, we'll chat with David Reiling, CEO of Sunrise Banks and author of the book "Fintech4GOOD."

Thanks to mobile technology and easy ecommerce, consumers find themselves in a new position of power where they compare their banking experience to other aspects of their effortless, seamless world. That poses a major quandary for financial institutions as they struggle to keep up, even as nimble fintechs enter the picture. Tyson Nargassans, CEO of Saylent Technologies, shares how banks can make the best use of data and technology to become increasingly invested--and relevant--in people's lives.

Pinning down the fine points of how banks can conduct themselves ethically--and establish best practices across the organization--has always been tricky. On this podcast, BAI's Byron Marshall and Jason Mencias share new findings and actionable insights from a BAI Banking Outlook survey that addresses the major challenges banks face surrounding risk, ethics, compliance and more.

Data can yield great value for banks and even more for customers. But so much hinges on defining the pain points account holders struggle with and how banks can best aggregate and leverage the data they have. What's more, data behemoths such as Google, Amazon and Facebook may arrive at the financial services winner's circle before banks do. But there is good news in terms of banking data blossoming into insight, shared on this podcast by Todd Barnhart, executive vice president, head of retail distribution for PNC Financial Services Group.