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The Bottom Line

SRM recently announced a partnership with the Rochdale Paragon Group, incorporating SRM’s automated invoice auditing solution into Rochdale’s vendor management software and services portfolio. This alliance is an opportunity to deliver our 28 years of experience in high-dollar, complex invoice auditing to a broader segment of the credit union market as part of the best practice offering from Rochdale.  

The complexity of many critical vendor invoices makes it practically impossible for a financial institution to do a complete audit of them each month. Any auditing of these invoices is typically months after payment. Yet, over decades of auditing high-value critical invoices, our firm has discovered that 10 percent of them contain errors.  

At the beginning of 2020, "contactless" was an obscure term typically associated with the new generation of debit and credit cards. Using near-field communication (NFC) payment technology, these cards are capable of being tapped instead of swiped or dipped - shedding several seconds from time in the subway turnstile or checkout line. However, despite Visa and Mastercard's heavy promotion, US adoption has been gradual, shaded toward frustratingly slow…until the pandemic hit.

I recently had the privilege of speaking on a Minnesota Credit Union Network’s panel with some of the region’s local leaders about what they’re facing as a consequence of the pandemic. Although the venue was tailored to credit unions, I believe the perspectives apply to all financial institutions.

Four key points that stood out are noted below - some completely novel; some we can’t say often enough.

The banking industry’s biggest service providers, sometimes referred to as “battleships,”  have grown largely  through acquisitions. When market demand moves toward a new channel for delivering financial services (e.g., smartphones) or potential for a replacement solution opens up a new market tier (e.g., digital banking among regionals), these “battleships” acquire other entities to keep pace and/or unlock a new opportunity for revenue growth. Often, they wait for an upstart to gain some market traction then give its investors an exit strategy worth multiples of their initial stake.

Let’s begin by stating the obvious: this will not be a normal election season. As it has for so many aspects of everyday life, COVID has radically altered the basics of voting- from a huge uptick in advance and absentee ballots to the near-elimination of traditional campaign rallies.

We know that markets hate uncertainty – and that’s one thing in ample supply these days. Uncertainty creates hesitancy to invest in initiatives that could be upended based on the election outcome. This is especially problematic in our current environment, with so many critical issues clamoring to be addressed.

In the early stages of the US coronavirus pandemic, SRM reached out to banks and credit unions to gather insights on initial FI reactions and changes in customer behavior. A previous blog detailed the findings of that March survey.

In late June-mid July, SRM again collected responses on how perspectives had evolved once leaders had more time - and a bit more information - to assess their options. We received an even greater response, with impressive diversity in geographic footprint, asset size, and credit union/bank participation.

Google continues to make progress toward the launch of its much-anticipated checking product, recently announcing partnerships with six more financial institutions for a total of eight, so far. Both large banks and credit unions have signed on, with well-known names like Citi, BMO Harris, and BBVA on one end of that spectrum and the $2 billion asset Stanford Federal Credit Union and $800 million Coastal Community Bank on the other.

At SRM, we often receive questions about how our services can deliver cost savings without harming existing vendor relationships which have taken years to cultivate. Our answer is simple: We do not believe antagonistic, adversarial negotiations are in the best interest of anyone – be it the client, the vendor, or our firm. And we have validated this point of view with the thousands of contracts we’ve negotiated, while also adding over $3.6 billion of value to the financial institutions we have served. A recent engagement with 1^st Bank of Sea Isle City in New Jersey is an example of this conviction in action.

By now, Americans across the country have seen makeshift signs at cash registers requiring exact change or “offering” to change coins for bills, free of charge.

A few Chick-Fil-A locations have even begun offering a free sandwich to customers who bring in $10 of coins, to replenish their cash drawers. There have also been reports of some institutions offering an extra $5 for every $100 of rolled coins.

The “national coin shortage” has become so severe, the Fed has convened a task force to identify solutions and limit the economic impact.

Top-of-wallet status is highly coveted because, once achieved, the incumbent – in this case the card issuer - has the advantage. Old habits die hard. Once a consumer develops a “go-to” card for certain types of purchases, they tend to repeat that pattern of behavior.

Those habits can be cultivated by offering benefits to the user via a rewards program. Sometimes the choice can be situational, with cardholders designating certain cards for specific types of purposes. This may extend to the type of card – e.g., debit or credit – and/or a workflow established by the merchant which makes it easier to use one card rather than another – e.g., Walgreens Express Pay.