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The Bottom Line

The SRM recently returned from Bank Director’s Acquire or Be Acquired conference. The event was well attended, provided great networking opportunities, and created a forum for sharing ideas on numerous growth strategies for financial institutions of all sizes.

While the event remains focused on the topic of mergers and acquisitions, this year’s sessions highlighted broader strategic initiatives that can differentiate winners and losers in the financial services industry. Naturally, fintech played a considerable role, as witnessed by the attendees and the topics.

After a two-year hiatus, Bank Director's Acquire or Be Acquired was back with an in-person event in Scottsdale, AZ, last week.

Given the whirlwind of recent events, it seems like ages since January, when one of our payments experts Larry Pruss weighed in on Visa’s acquisition of Plaid, API aggregator for P2P players such as Venmo. He discussed what this combination could mean for banks and credit unions going forward, reinforcing two key points:  

1. Financial institutions are hungry for objective expert opinions on market developments; and 
2. The strategic moves of major industry vendors – not just their direct competitors – can have a major impact on their competitive position.     

Loan acquisition is not a new topic in boardrooms by any stretch, but priorities will likely shift (or have already) in the upcoming months given the effects of COVID-19. Still, efficient access to credit remains a critical component of any economic recovery. Assuming some short-term retrenchment, automated credit decisioning will continue to play a critical role in financial institutions’ toolkits.

Las Vegas played host to another Money 20/20 the last week of October, this year’s theme being, "Journey to the Future of Money." Payments experts and influencers from the likes of eBay, Uber, Amazon and Mastercard took the stage to share their predictions on how the movement of money is changing, and to offer advice for how we can all respond.