The Future of Banking

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Open banking is bigger in the United States than it is in Europe, says Lee Wetherington, the senior director of corporate strategy for Jack Henry & Associates, one of the banking industry’s largest technology solution providers. For financial technology companies, that means an unlimited potential to access data, and offer products and services that customers would like or will like in the future.

Wetherington answers three questions in this video:

  • How can fintechs leverage open-banking rails to improve their offerings and reach?
  • What will the banking industry look like in 10 years?
  • Looking beyond 10 years, will there be a banking industry as we know it now?

Use Cases, Best Practices For Working With Fintechs

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Bank leadership teams often come under pressure to quickly establish new fintech relationships in response to current market and competitive trends.

The rewards of these increasingly popular collaborations can be substantial, but so can the associated risks. To balance these risks and rewards, bank boards and senior executives should understand the typical use-case scenarios that make such collaborations appealing, as well as the critical success factors that make them work.

Like any partnership, a successful bank-fintech collaboration begins with recognizing that each partner has something the other needs. For fintechs, that “something” is generally access to payment rails and the broader financial system — and in some cases, direct funding and access to a bank’s customer base. For banks, such partnerships can make it possible to implement advanced technological capabilities that would be impractical or cost-prohibitive to develop internally.

At a high level, bank-fintech partnerships generally fall into two broad categories:

1. Customer-facing collaborations. Among the more common use cases in this category are new digital interfaces, such as banking-as-a-service platforms and targeted online offerings such as deposit services, lending or credit products, and personal and commercial financial management tools.

In some collaborations, banks install software developed by fintech to automate or otherwise enhance their interactions with customers. In others, banks allow fintech partners to interact directly with bank customers using their own brand to provide specialized services such as payment processing or peer-to-peer transactions. In all such relationships, banks must be alert to the heightened third-party risks — including reputational risk — that result when a fintech partner is perceived as an extension of the bank. The bank also maintains ultimate accountability for consumer protection, financial crimes compliance and other similar issues that could expose it to significant harm.

2. Infrastructure and operational collaborations. In these partnerships, banks work with fintechs to streamline internal processes, enhance regulatory monitoring or compliance systems, or develop other technical infrastructure to upgrade core platforms or support systems such as customer onboarding tools. In addition to improving operational efficiency and accuracy, such partnerships also can enable banks to expand their product offerings and improve the customer experience.

Although each situation is unique, successful bank-fintech partnerships generally share some important attributes, including:

  • Strategic and cultural alignment. Each organization enters the collaboration for its own reasons, but the partnership’s business plan must support both parties’ strategic objectives. It’s necessary that both parties have a compatible cultural fit and complementary views of how the collaboration will create value and produce positive customer outcomes. They must clearly define the roles and contributions and be willing to engage in significant transparency and data sharing on compatible technology platforms.
  • Operational capacity, resilience and compatibility. Both parties’ back-office systems must have sufficient capacity to handle the increased data capture and data processing demands they will face. Bank systems typically incorporate strict controls; fintech processes often are more flexible. This disparity can present additional risks to the bank, particularly in high-volume transactions. Common shortcomings include inadequate capacity to handle customer inquiries, disputes, error resolution and complaints. As a leading bank’s chief operating officer noted at a recent Bank Director FinXTech event, improper handling of Regulation E errors in a banking-as-a-service relationship is one of the quickest ways to put a bank’s charter at risk.
  • Integrated risk management and compliance. Although the chartered bank in a bank-fintech partnership inevitably carries the larger share of the regulatory compliance risk, both organizations should be deliberate in embedding risk management and compliance considerations into their new workflows and processes. A centralized governance, risk, and compliance platform can be of immense value in this effort. Banks should be particularly vigilant regarding information security, data privacy, consumer protection, financial crimes compliance and dispute or complaints management.

Proceed Cautiously
Banks should guard against rushing into bank-fintech relationships merely to pursue the newest trend or product offering. Rather, boards and senior executives should require that any relationship begins with a clear definition of the specific issues the partnership will address or the strategic objective it will achieve. In addition, as regulators outlined in recent guidance regarding bank and fintech partnerships, the proposed collaboration should be subject to the full range of due diligence controls that would apply to any third-party relationship.

Successful fintech collaborations can help banks expand their product offerings in support of long-term growth objectives and meet customers’ growing expectations for innovative and responsive new services.

5 Key Factors for Fintech Partnerships

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As banks explore ways to expand their products and services, many are choosing to partner with fintech companies to enhance their offerings. These partnerships are valuable opportunities for a bank that otherwise would not have the resources to develop the technology or expertise in-house to meet customer demand.

However, banks need to be cautious when partnering with fintech companies — they are subcontracting critical services and functions to a third-party provider. They should “dig in” when assessing their fintech partners to reduce the regulatory, operational and reputational risk exposure to the bank. There are a few things banks should consider to ensure they are partnering with third party that is safe and reputable to provide downstream services to their customers.

1. Look for fintech companies that have strong expertise and experience in complying with applicable banking regulations.

  • Consider the banking regulations that apply to support the product the fintech offers, and ask the provider how they meet these compliance standards.
  • Ask about the fintech’s policies, procedures, training and internal control that satisfy any legal and regulatory requirements.
  • Ensure contract terms clearly define legal and compliance duties, particularly for reporting, data privacy, customer complaints and recordkeeping requirements.

2. Data and cybersecurity should be a top priority.

  • Assess your provider’s information security controls to ensure they meet the bank’s standards.
  • Review the fintech’s policies and procedures to evaluate their incident management and response practices, compliance with applicable privacy laws and regulations and training requirements for staff.

3. Engage with fintechs that have customer focus in mind — even when the bank maintains the direct interaction with its customers.

  • Look for systems and providers that make recommendations for required agreements and disclosures for application use.
  • Select firms that can provide white-labeled services, allowing bank customer to use the product directly.
  • Work with fintechs that are open to tailoring and enhancing the end-user customer experience to further the continuity of the bank/customer relationship.

4. Look for a fintech that employs strong technology professionals who can provide a smooth integration process that allows information to easily flow into the bank’s systems and processes.

  • Using a company that employs talented technology staff can save time and money when solving technology issues or developing operational efficiencies.

5. Make sure your fintech has reliable operations with minimal risk of disruption.

  • Review your provider’s business continuity and disaster recovery plans to make sure there are appropriate incident response measures.
  • Make sure the provider’s service level agreements meet the needs of your banking operations; if you are providing a 24-hour service, make sure your fintech also supports those same hours.
  • Require insurance coverage from your provider, so the bank is covered if a serious incident occurs.

Establishing a relationship with a fintech can provide a bank with a faster go-to-market strategy for new product offerings while delivering a customer experience that would be challenging for a bank to recreate. However, the responsibility of choosing a reputable tech firm should not be taken lightly. By taking some of these factors into consideration, banks can continue to follow sound banking practices while providing a great customer experience and demonstrating a commitment to innovation.