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A letter from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) issued Tuesday, April 2, contained a warning that caught the attention of many financial institutions and their vendors. Specifically, the FDIC stated that it had encountered a number of situations where banks were not sufficiently controlling the risk associated with their supplier relationships.

The “hawks versus doves” debate regarding financial institutions and FinTechs has been raging for years. Are these startup firms (and even some established industry service providers) that seek to reinvent financial services actually out to steal banks’ and credit unions’ lunches? Or is there more that unites these groups than divides them, creating opportunities for synergy and collaboration?

Our CEO, Brad Downs recently shared SRM’s key fintech trends for 2019, with a focus on items that banks and credit unions should factor into their near-term planning. Allow me to build upon those by looking more specifically at payments trends while also applying a broader time horizon, isolating the macro-level developments that have been underway for some time and continue to shape the industry.

Unless they work in the industry, most consumers who make a purchase with a card would struggle to define the word “interchange.” On the other hand, for the organizations who largely make it possible to use cards to make a purchase – issuers, merchants and processors – interchange is always top of mind.

At the start of each year, SRM publishes a list of the trends that are most likely to impact the financial services industry over the coming 12 months.  The trends we described are based on qualitative and quantitative research as well as from one-on-one conversations we had with bankers and thought leaders in the industry.

Sometimes it seems as if all there is to be said about financial institutions and their response to the digital age is that they are woefully behind and show little sign of “getting it” in the near term when making strategic sourcing decisions.  Certainly, banks and credit unions have struggled with the unique challenges of serving consumer that increasing live their lives through the ubiquitous devices that are available to them. 

A debate has raged for some time as to whether fintech companies are friends or foes to financial institutions. In our view, the question itself is a cynical oversimplification of the situation. While there are some aggressive startups intent on stealing business from financial institutions, there are more fintechs that want to partner with banks and credit unions to help them modernize their service offerings.

The most recent installment of our ongoing series of SRM Academy papers focused on the digital transformation at financial institutions. The latest installment explores the potential of biometrics – voice recognition and authentication in particular –to improve digital banking while also leveling the competitive field for regional and community institutions.

It’s no longer a question of “if”, but rather how and when. For an increasing number of consumers, the primary means of interacting with their financial institution is the mobile banking app that lives on their smartphone, not the physical branch. And this segment of the population will only continue to expand. Younger tech-savvy generations will continue to age into the need for banking services while, at the same time, other demographics gain more comfort with digital channels.

Last week, we presented the first half of two key considerations for how a bank or credit union committed to a mobile first strategy can best stay current in offering state-of-the-art mobile services.

If an institution is not counted among the largest of FIs, answering this question will likely involve evaluating an array of options to determine which best fits a bank or credit union’s goal. This environment is different from what has been seen in the past where a few very large providers controlled most of the offerings. This gives FIs of every size the chance to shake free of the constraints of legacy third-party solutions and become competitive again.

Let’s delve a bit deeper into what that exactly means.