The Buzz

Banks are considering where to invest in 2023 to meet client needs, ranging from digital offerings to customer experience. Understanding the priorities of a vast client base can help large banks like $1.8 trillion Wells Fargo decide which products or services are needed, as well as strategy for the year ahead, Reetika Grewal, executive vice president and head of digital transformation, commercial...

Small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) must navigate several challenges during their first years in business.  Understanding the needs of SMBs is critical, as more than 50% of small businesses fold within the first five years, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Listen as Eytan Bensoussan discusses the challenges faced by many SMBs and how they can use data to discover new business opp...

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) plans to propose a new open banking rule in 2023 requiring financial institutions to share consumer data upon consumers’ requests. Along with the new parameters come fresh opportunities for exploitation of data from bad actors — and financial institutions should remain aware of gaps in the rule that fraudsters could take advantage by implementing aut...

Company treasurers and chief financial officers are worried about access to cash and the risks associated with keeping cash on hand amid drastic changes to the investment market during the past six months that have followed the pandemic, stimulus payments and rising inflation. Listen as Stephane Lintner discusses how corporate finance professionals can access and de-risk their idle cash through au...

Banks can onboard and meet the evolving needs of business customers when they integrate and use data analytics to tailor the customer experience. Listen as Dean Jenkins, vice president of product marketing at e-banking platform Q2, discusses how understanding what the data reveals about clients in this episode of “The Buzz” podcast.

Raleigh, N.C.-based First Citizens Bank is leveraging the services of a fintech to offer search personalization and improve the customer experience. The $108 billion bank has a search bar in the middle of their homepage which allows customers to get direct answers to exactly what they are looking for at the start of a transaction. Listen as Shane Closser, head of industry of financial services at...

Community banks can contend with their larger counterparts by leveraging artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbots to improve both customer experience and internal efficiencies. Listen as Murali Mahalingam, senior vice president of AI business at Eltropy, discusses how community banks can implement and deploy virtual assistants using AI-based technologies in this episode of “The Buzz” podcast.

Fintech partnerships allow smaller financial institutions (FIs) to remain competitive in digital banking. Listen as Corserv Chief Executive Jerry Craft discusses how smaller community banks can leverage fintechs in this episode of “The Buzz.”

Banks and fintechs are realizing in today’s volatile economic environment that they need each other to survive, which is spurring innovative partnerships. Listen as Vijay Sondhi, CEO of NMI, discusses the complexities of banks and fintechs partnerships in this episode of "The Buzz."

Banking-as-a-service (BaaS) provider Treasury Prime connects banks and fintechs to improve customer experience and build relationships. Listen as Jeff Nowicki, vice president of banking, at Treasury Prime discusses how the company’s technology is integrated, recent partnerships and why partnering with a BaaS provider delivers high ROI.

Michael Lehmbeck, chief technology officer at BankUnited, gives Bank Automation News a glimpse into what he will share with attendees of next week’s Bank Automation Summit panel discussion.

Artificial intelligence (AI)-based software can streamline the commercial loan process and remove inconsistencies in the traditional approach many financial institutions use today. Listen as Hugh Shannon, head of sales and customer success, at OakNorth discusses how AI can improve the commercial loan process in this episode of “The Buzz.”

Millennials and Gen Z customers are opting for a frictionless banking experience through automation in digital payments, loan approvals and money transfers. Listen as Bryce Deeney discusses how banks and financial institutions can target younger generations by offering digital installment payments and other automated processes.

The role of the chief compliance officer (CCO) at financial institutions has evolved as technology, automation and access to data present new opportunities and challenges for executives. Listen as StarCompliance Chief Executive Jennifer Sun and Chief Technology Officer David Rowland discuss the dynamic role of compliance officers as technology advances at financial institutions.

After a financial institution has successfully digitized its loan origination and account opening system, improving the user experience is the next step. Listen as Kristiane Mandraki, director of business development and marketing at software developer fintech Praxent, details how financial institutions can leverage automation in their back-end processes to enhance their customer experience.

Businesses looking for quick credit-decisioning can benefit from financial reporting that gives banks a clear picture of data. Listen as Sid Saxena, chief executive of artificial intelligence (AI)-powered accounting automation platform Docyt discusses the technology, its integration and how lenders can benefit from automated accounting to streamline decision-making.

The $1 billion Cogent Bank recently integrated blockchain-based, real-time payment platform TassatPay to provide its business-to-business (B2B) clients with 24/7 instant payment options.

Cybersecurity measures are a priority at Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), from monitoring and mitigation to solution investment. Banks rarely consider cybersecurity a finished process; the nimbleness of fraudsters and quick development of new hacking technology spur perpetually evolving security measures for risk and anti-money laundering (AML) divisions at most large financial institutions. But keepin...

Synthetic identities are increasingly used to attack buy now, pay later (BNPL) offerings, says Mike Cook, vice president of fraud solutions commercialization at identity verification firm Socure.   “Synthetic identities take a different bunch of different forms, but basically, they're just identities that don't really exist,” Cook tells Bank Automation News in this episode of “The Buzz” podcast. “...

Customer service systems often automate call recording and processing analysis, but you can tell a lot by detecting just the tone of a conversation.    Los Angeles-based Behavioral Signals says its technology is more effective than humans at determining empathy and intention. Rather than attempting to detect the actual words being said and how they’re used, there is the “acoustic” content of a con...

Use cases for intelligent document processing (IDP) include automating the know your customer (KYC) process.  The KYC process previously was performed by humans, which led to plenty of effort and errors, says Sateesh Seetharamiah, director at artificial intelligence and automation company EdgeVerve. Using IDP, one “very large U.S. financial bank” is now able to process 20 million documents through...

Two trends emerging as opportunities for banking-as-a-service (BaaS) are the growth of the gig economy and small businesses, and Green Dot, the fintech and holding company that powers services for Uber , Walmart , Amazon Flex and Intuit, is getting in on the action.   Green Dot is currently focusing on those BaaS opportunities, Amit Parikh, executive vice president of BaaS at Green Dot, tells Bank...

Daylight Automation co-founder explains the challenges  Commercial banks are focusing on a human-centric approach to relationships that may be holding them back when it comes to digitizing such basic functions as account opening.  This more human approach is a challenge, Art Harrison, co-founder and chief growth officer for workflow automation vendor Daylight Automation, tells Bank Automation News...

The years of anticipation surrounding the development and adoption of Federal Reserve instant payment service FedNow is a case of much ado about nothing at the bank level.   Although industry experts have wondered what the upcoming adoption of FedNow will look like at financial institutions — especially community banks and credit unions —the onus will be on core providers to adapt and provide, Vin...

Microsoft plans to expand its Cloud for Financial Services offering beyond the U.S. and Canada to Australia, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Switzerland.  Beyond geography, the expansion also includes updated language and functionality, Bill Borden, corporate vice president of worldwide financial services at Microsoft, says in today’s episode of “The Buzz”...