Bai Banking Strategies

The national focus on inequality is driving greater efforts to address long-standing issues around diversity, equity and inclusion in the financial services industry. Nate Bennett, chief diversity officer at Comerica Bank, discusses the industry's successes and ongoing challenges when it comes to DEI, as well as to discuss what’s working for Comerica in its approach to DEI that might also work for other banks and credit unions.

What are the key factors driving a financial institution’s profitability? How do banks set strategy and then support it? What are the products and services of tomorrow, and how should they be priced? Enterprise performance management (EPM) can help answer these questions and more. On this podcast, Danny Baker, vice president of market strategy at Fiserv, discusses how EPM works and how it may provide value for banks and credit unions dealing with a disrupted financial services landscape.

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.

Whether it’s dealing with an extreme disruption like COVID-19 or just to be more effective competing every day, banks benefit from new ideas to streamline current operations and to spot new business opportunities. An innovative mindset within an organization starts at the top and filters down so workers at all levels know their ideas for how to improve are welcome. Vanessa Colella, chief innovation officer at Citi and head of its Citi Ventures equity investing arm, talks about how financial institutions can -- and why they should -- embrace a culture that encourages and rewards innovation.

By moving fast to ease the economic hardship felt by businesses and families, financial institutions have built up trust and good will with their customers through their COVID-19 response by embracing the idea that “we’re all in this together.” But at the end of the day, banks are businesses that depend on revenue and profits to remain healthy. Debbie Bianucci, president and CEO at BAI, discusses why banks are well-positioned to deal with the COVID-19 disruption, and what they can and should be doing for their customers to help them get through these unprecedented times.

The federal Paycheck Protection Program was built for speed -- get Congress to expedite the loan funding and then get it out ASAP to small businesses reeling from the coronavirus shutdowns. But in all of the well-meaning haste, banks have been challenged to make the nuts and bolts of the program work on a hurry-up schedule, and with so much competition for a limited pot of money. Brian Mauntel, president of Heartland Bank in central Ohio, discusses how his community institution quickly worked through the obstacles of PPP and delivered for its small business customers.

Generation Z may have grown up as digital natives, but when it comes to banking, they’re not just about the technology. A recent BAI Banking Outlook survey shows that Gen Z also likes to get face-to-face financial service and advice, and for a generation that freely shares so much information about their daily lives, they want a surprising amount of privacy when it comes to their finances. ​Karl Dahlgren, managing director of research at BAI, tells us more about the emerging financial habits and preferences of the generation that’s America’s youngest and, at 90 million strong, its largest.

We hear a lot about the need for digital transformation in the banking industry and, if nothing else, the COVID-19 experience is reaffirming for banks the importance of their digital identity and capabilities. But what does a true digital transformation look like for a financial institution, and what are the key ingredients needed to get it done? Chris Skinner -- influential commentator, blogger and author -- discusses his new book, "Doing Digital," which highlights five banks that are leading the way in digital transformation, and why digital matters as the industry contends with the coronavirus pandemic.

The coronavirus pandemic has closed the doors of small businesses, driving up unemployment and stress levels across America. Part of the federal government’s plan to help small businesses stay afloat is the $350 billion PPP loan program, but there have been some snags in getting the money into the hands of those who need it. In this episode, Mark Messick, director of products at Jack Henry Lending, says some of those issues are being worked out, while others will be tougher to fix.

Spare rooms, couches and dining room tables are now office space for millions of Americans working from home due to COVID-19. But a dispersed labor force still needs access to data and documents to get their work done, as well as powerful workflow tools to integrate individual efforts across the organization. Josh Spisak, senior product manager for the Nautilus ECM suite at Fiserv, says enterprise content management can be one of those centralizing tools. During this podcast, he discusses how ECM can prove its worth by efficiently analyzing and sharing data, which is a valuable asset for today’s financial services organizations.

Whenever there’s a disaster, you can count on scammers and fraudsters to be quick to try to exploit our fears and sense of compassion. So it’s no surprise that the current COVID-19 crisis has already spawned a spike in online criminal activity, including sales of fake vaccine kits, bogus crowdfunding appeals and virus-tracking apps loaded with malware. Mary-Helen McElfresh, senior director of Zelle fraud risk prevention at Early Warning, is with us to discuss how her company is working to stay ahead of cybercrooks.