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Best of Bank Innovation 2012- Part 2

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Yesterday I brought to you some of the best thoughts from Day One of the Bank Innovation conference held last week in San Francisco.  It was a great event filled with some of the sharpest minds in financial innovation. Today, I bring you  some of the best ideas from Day Two, plus a few of my closing thoughts.JJatBI2012

Channel Agnosticism: Being Everything to Every Customer

“Multi-channel strategy is solving issues that exist in a single channel world…Think full service vs. self service, not traditional vs. alternative (channels)”

—Ginger Schmeltzer, SVP, Digital Channel Management, SunTrust Banks

“Be the right things to the right people in the right channel…Focus on optimization, not migration…” Think in terms of an analogy to eating:

  • Snacking- wherever, whenever = check your balances, transfers
  • Lunch- diverse, habitual and regular = online banking, bill pay
  • Fine dining- staff assisted =  important and meaningful decisions”

—Geoff Knapp, Vice President, Online Banking & Consumer Insight, Fiserv

“Mobilize and optimize– don’t miniaturize…Continuously evolve the experience as devices change…so many mobile capabilities to leverage– maps, GPS, messaging, speech input, camera, video, etc., etc.”

—Brian Pearce, SVP, Head of Retail Mobile Channel, Internet Services Group at Wells Fargo & Co

My Closing Thoughts

  • There continues to be a tremendous amount of innovation in the payments and transaction space, both from within the banking industry and from disruptive forces outside the industry.
  • Several speakers talked about moving beyond the efficient utility of flawless execution to creating more engaging experiences.
  • There was also increasing talk of creating more consistency in functionality and experiences across multiple channels (web, mobile, apps, mobile web and “real life”)– what Steve Jobs would have called an “ecosystem”.
  • Accordingly, financial institutions are beginning to integrate Big Data into the ecosystem (and vice versa), but most have a long way to go.
  • Most financial institutions are still in the early stages of integrating digital marketing and social media into their overall strategies, and many are still struggling with more basic concerns of sales and revenue growth, talent management and trying to figure out how to take market share from one another.
  • As far as I know, I was the only person in the room with a background in wealth management. I continue to be energized by how much white space there is to explore at the intersection of leadership, advice and technology.
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Best Ideas From Bank Innovation 2012- Part 1

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Last week I attended the Bank Innovation 2012 Conference in San Francisco. I met a lot of great people and picked up some new ideas. Here’s what stuck out for me (in a good way):

What Is “Banking” Today?  A Debate on the Future

“We need to marry the online experience to the real world experience– especially for high value transactions, while lower value transactions need to get more efficient.”

—Noah Breslow, Chief Operating Officer, On Deck Capital

“In essence, banking is a utility. Removing pain is a win. You need to give clients a reason to care…The key is to use data to predict what customers want, not dictate it.”

—Shawn Budde, Co-Founder & Chief Risk Officer, ZestCash

“We’ve reached the tipping point on electronic banking, but people need a better reason to go with a direct bank.”

—Dan O’Malley, Founder & CEO, PerkStreet Financial

“We should be trying to build brands that people want to be associated with. They should want to wear our logo because it says something about who they are.”

—Jeff Stephens, Founder, Tribed and CBC

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New Product Strategies & Possibilities


“We don’t have an ‘innovation department’. All 2500 associates are responsible for innovation.”

—Todd Sandler, Head of Product Strategy & Deposits, ING Direct

“Consumers want a lot of help, and they still look to banks for it. They are moving past transactions and history, and they want help and advice for the future.”

—James Shanahan, President, Shanahan & Associates, LLC

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Social Banking Without Being Insecure or Annoying

“Companies don’t blog, people do…we replaced logos with faces for our twitter responders and we expanded our 6AM-6PM coverage to 24×7…We pay more attention to sentiment rather than number of followers.”

—Darius Miranda, VP, Social Business Strategist, Wells Fargo

“We actually sat down and wrote 20,000 personalized emails…We got a 40% response rate”

—Josh Reich, CEO, Simple Finance Technology Co. / BankSimple

“You have to think anywhere/anytime and you have to be authentic…You have to connect your brand to employees first. You have to work inside out.”

—Eric Rinebold, Industry Principal — Digital Engagement, Infosys

Coming Up Tomorrow: 

Best Ideas From Bank Innovation 2012- Part 2