Lee Wetherington

2022 produced a cascade of inflection points that required significant adjustments to the operation and management of financial institutions. Record-breaking inflation led to rapidly rising rates, reduced loan demand, and declining deposits. In 2022, total deposits experienced their first sustained fall in 80 years. And as consumers chase ever higher rates in 2023, deposit churn will accelerate. While the instinctive response to an economic downturn is one of withdrawal and retrenchment, financial institutions are uniquely positioned to lean on their risk competence, capital reserves, and compliance rigor to tap outsized upside potential while less experienced, unchartered, and poorly capitalized competitors struggle. Join Lee for a look at the lowest-hanging opportunities now, soon and later.

What strategies are your peers pursuing over the next 2 years? Which competitors and threats keep them up at night? How many are focused on embedding banking (outbound) into 3^rd parties? How many are focused on embedding fintech (inbound) into digital experiences? Which fintechs are financial institutions embedding? And what about niche strategy? Join Lee Wetherington for a revealing look at where your peers are headed, why, and what new opportunities are being presented by the ecosystem disruption reshaping financial services.

Strategy is best done from the future backwards. What will financial services (and financial institutions) look like 10 years from now? Will the value of your charter increase or diminish over the short-, mid-, and long term? Will ongoing shifts in the nature of money be good or bad for financial institutions and accountholders? How will regulation, compliance and exams change? Join Lee Wetherington for a long view on the future of banking and what opportunities and threats that future presents now, soon and later.

In 2022, higher rates tightened fintechs’ access to venture capital, brought the era of consumer-oriented Fintech 2.0 to a close, and launched enterprise-focused Fintech 3.0. Growth no longer substitutes for sound unit economics, and many fintechs who lack the runway to achieve those economics will fail or be acquired in 2023. The consolidation and demise of smaller direct-to-consumer fintechs and non-chartered neobanks in 2023 also means that Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) providers—and/or the financial institutions standing behind them—will be challenged, especially those with exposure to fallout in the crypto space. Which fintechs are producing the most value? Which categories of fintech should you consider? Which fintechs are your peers prioritizing? Join Lee for the low down.

How is consumers’ ability to share financial data impacting your institution, and what should you do about it? In 2023, successful financial institutions will use open-banking rails to solve financial fragmentation, achieve first-app status, eliminate inbound screen scraping, improve authentication/security, and reclaim their position at the center of their accountholders’ financial lives–allowing them to see, share and control all of their financial data easily and securely in one location (your institution), far ahead of any mandate by the CFPB in 2024 related to Section 1033 of the Dodd-Frank Act. What’s your open banking strategy? Join Lee for insights on how to capitalize on new opportunities in the open-banking era.

Consumers returned to in-person shopping at physical stores in 2022, slowing ecommerce growth from 40%+ CAGR in 2020 and 2021, to 10%+ CAGR in 2022. Meanwhile, debit cards overtook credit cards as the most preferred payment card, driven by double-digit growth in debit card usage among younger generations. Looking to avoid debt amid rising recession concerns, preference for debit cards, cash, and Buy-Now-Pay-Later (BNPL) will grow in 2023. An economic slowdown in 2023 will further slow payments growth and severely challenge the payments-based business models of direct-to-consumer fintechs and neobanks. One out of every four payments fintechs is projected to fail in 2023. Moreover, the payments space will continue to fragment and grow in complexity as new tender types proliferate and new public payment rails come on line. Account-to-account transfers (A2A), also known as pay-by-bank, will gain traction as merchants look for cheaper, faster ways to get paid in the downturn. Are cryptocurrencies dead? What about a U.S. CBDC? Which strategies can solve for payments fragmentation and protect your payments franchises? Join Lee for the answers.