While banks are historically slow-moving institutions, the landscape around them and the customers that live within it are not. As the industry and its consumers move towards an increasingly digital world, customer behaviors and expectations are changing and banks need to adapt.
This requires a fundamental reimagining of the way relationship banking works as a key model of success for regional and community banks.
And, on Oct. 9, this topic of discussion was front and center during a Fireside Chat between our Founder and CEO Dan O’Malley and Dollar Bank SVP of Commercial Banking Dave Weber. The hour-long chat—moderated by BAI Managing Director Karl Dahlgren—encompassed a wide range of topics, but mainly focused on Dollar Bank’s recent foray into digital lending and how they see technology helping them build better relationships.
While Dave provided banker perspectives on everything from hiring talent to identifying lendable businesses, Dan got more into the nuts and bolts of how data and technology is changing the way bankers both approach and handle customer interactions.
The full fireside chat can be viewed here, but we’ve pulled together some of the most important highlights together for you below.
The Convenience Factor in Business Lending
If you’ve read our blog in the past, then you already know that, in some markets, upwards of 33 percent of revenue growth is going to financial institutions that did not exist prior to 2005.
This new competition—like alt lenders, Big Tech, and digital-first challenger banks—isn’t winning business from traditional financial institutions by beating their rates. Rather, digital lending has become one of the fastest growing segments because it can charge rates that are much higher than a traditional bank, while providing something most traditional banks cannot: convenience.
Using Data to Help Bankers Grow Relationships
Banks have a ton of data, but simply don’t have the time or resources to use it properly.
That’s a key takeaway from Dan on how the nature of data within banks has changed. While the information has always been available to bankers, it’s never been actionable. But today, with new technology, banks can put that data to work by letting software handle the legwork and providing bankers with actionable insights. This makes them more efficient, and better able to serve their customers.
Leveraging Technology to Solve Banking’s Talent Gap
In Oct. 2019, unemployment in the United States hit a 50-year low. For businesses of all shapes and sizes, across seemingly every industry, this has lead to one of the most competitive talent markets recruiters have ever seen.
For banks, this problem undergirds seemingly every other challenge they face today—presenting a kind of chicken or the egg paradox. Banks know they have a digital problem and a talent problem. But can they fix one without fixing the other? Dan and Dave examined this interdependency during their fireside chat.
Watch the full fireside chat with Dan and Dave, here.
