To Deepen Customer Connections, Start with Payments

What would your bank look like if you could start over? Imagine being relieved of the legacy systems, traditional product categories, and assumptions about how banking has always been done.

That’s the premise behind The Bank We Never Built, a series of video podcasts from the Fintech Cowboys, the team that formed FedFis and Bankers Helping Bankers. The video series brings together industry experts to imagine a bank designed for today’s consumers from the ground up.

In a recent episode, Steve Sievert, PULSE Executive Vice President of Marketing and Brand Management, joined the conversation to explore the premise through a debit and payments lens.

Sievert sees payments as central to the customer relationship and addresses how financial institutions can use technology, data, and their community connections to become more relevant. For him, purpose comes first.

“The objective is to be the most trusted financial partner in a person’s life,” said Sievert.

Put People Ahead of Products

For consumers, financial products are tools for achieving larger goals such as buying a home, starting a business, or becoming financially independent. At the same time, Sievert cites research showing that more than 70% of consumers say money is their number one concern.

That creates an opportunity for banks to help customers achieve their goals while easing some of that financial anxiety. Data and digital tools can help by alerting customers that they may run short before payday, identifying subscriptions they no longer use, or providing a consolidated view of financial accounts.

Turn data into relationships

Community banks possess what Sievert calls a “treasure trove of data” about their customers and communities that they can turn into timely insights that build trust.

The discussion also explores rewarding customers for positive financial behaviors and why embracing change is essential, even for institutions with deep community roots. What might your institution do differently if you could start with a clean slate?

Watch The Bank We Never Built to hear the full conversation and discover ideas you can apply to the bank you’re building today.