Dear Financial Institutions,

How would you react if I walked into your bank or credit union and said, “I’d like to create a budget and track my spending in your online banking and mobile app. Can you help me get started?” Would you smile as you showed me where to access your personal finance management (PFM) tool, or would you dab at your beads of sweat as you explained that you don’t offer anything like that?

A buzz term we hear a lot these days is GAFA – an acronym for Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Apple. The expansion of services offered by these tech giants (and others) is considered one of the biggest threats facing the financial services market. For the sake of this blog, I’m going to pick on Amazon, since it seems to have successfully moved into the small business lending space. 

"We've had three big ideas at Amazon that we've stuck with for 18 years, and they're the reason we're successful: Put the customer first. Invent. And be patient." Jeff Bezos, CEO, Amazon 

Swipe left (not interested), swipe right (interested). While it may not be as easy as a dating app to choose your next business partner, let’s explore a few reasons why traditional financial institution (FI) and fintech relationships may be a great match.

 With the recent release of our whitepaper, “Smooth Sailing Through the Ideal Customer Experience,”  we began to wonder what other sailing terms might apply to the world of financial services. Many of these terms date back centuries and have survived changes to our English vernacular while being adapted for more general use. Maybe you’ve even recently heard some of these around your institution.

Effective April 2018, all major card brands including American Express, Discover, Mastercard, and Visa will modify requirements to allow U.S. merchants the discretion to choose whether to prompt for a cardholder’s signature on a transaction receipt or electronic reader. This is true for both credit and debit cards in a face-to-face transaction environment. This change is not expected to alter risk or add to fraud losses, as merchants and card issuers increasingly rely on EMV chips, tokens, biometrics, and other security tools available today.

“Steps and missteps.” That’s how one friend of mine recently described her career in a joking way. As accurate as that brutal assessment was, it hit home with me on my own path. I thought about her comments and how succinctly that describes so many things in work and life. Even in our banks. Even in our compliance programs. About how important it is to assess and make adjustments as needed.

I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that didn’t work. ~ Thomas Edison

The ProfitStars’ Lending Solutions group released an excellent white paper in 2017, written by Patrick True, titled Searching for the Magnificent Seven: Critical Personality Traits for Commercial Lending Officers. As with many of Pat’s writings, he reflects upon his experience as a loan officer serving commercial customers in his past banking career. Covered in his paper are vital personal behaviors outlining honesty, drive, and ethical standards.

In addition to finding the right personality, trends happening in the industry are starting to demonstrate a shortage of candidates in the recruiting market. Many bank officers and staff are retiring or approaching retirement and financial institutions are finding it challenging to fill these positions. And millennials aren’t as interested in working for a bank or credit union, finding it either too traditional or offering little opportunity for advancement.

Reaching the Final Four requires both teamwork and effort. As John Wooden famously stated, “It’s not how big you are, it’s how big you play.” Community-based financial institutions can certainly relate to that sentiment. The fact is, playing big often translates into leveraging the technology of third-party vendors to help ensure your success and to bring the latest technology to your game without having to develop it internally.

If you were to thumb-scroll through my inbox, you’d see close to a dozen vendor emails each day, desperately trying to disrupt technology as it relates to people. It runs the gamut from the sure-fire engagement fix, the cloud solution one can’t possibly live without, or a talent assessment that guarantees to screen out the ill-equipped. I’ve come to adore our one-click unsubscribe feature and toss them into the abyss.