Banks have to find a way to reconnect with their customers. Mike D King, Bankwide and FinTech Mafia member

Great interview with Mike D King, who is doing great things with Bankwide. Mike is a and BankGeek, designer creator speaker and member of the @FinTechMafia.

A little about myself, how I got started.

I started in banking shortly after the Y2K scare purely by accident. While designing a website for the local community bank, they had a computer issue. Being well informed in technology and networking, I offered my assistance. Within minutes, the problem was resolved and I had a new career path.

Several years later, I found myself as the CIO, Risk Officer and Information Security Officer of a regional bank. Quite the twist of fate, I would say, but a fortuitous one.

My background is quite varied. I am a former radio announcer, a former paramedic, professional firefighter, business owner and technology instructor. Since departing the bank, I continued to train, speak and educate bankers on issues facing banks in this globally connected and socially engaged world. I now spend my days designing the Bankwide training platform and preparing for its upcoming launch.

What challenges do you see banks facing today?

Banks are natural risk avoiders. That’s to be expected considering the threats that they face every day. Financial loss, regulations, customer data breaches and so much more. When it comes to applying technology, they often adopt a wait-and-see approach. There is a reason that it’s called the bleeding edge of technology: because there is bleeding!

Problem is, that with cobwebs on the waiting chairs in the branch, (the primary sales channel) banks are struggling to find a new way to deliver and market their products to potential consumers. Compounding that problem is the uprising of social media and a technology explosion occurring simultaneously with the economic crisis. Banks returned to business as usual, but “usual” had changed dramatically.

Banks are going to have to reassess their fundamental function in their customers lives. A bank president several years ago said to me, “People line up before we open, and if we didn’t lock the doors, we would be here all night”, now just a few years later, it doesn’t hold true.

Finance must embrace new technologies to continue to create value for their customers and their shareholders. They need to leverage tools such as big data to create user-specific marketing when the customer is actively engaged, such as at an ATM or based on geospatial location.

There needs to be a serious discussion about their online presence and persona including their apps, website, and social media. They need to be measuring return on the relationship more than ROI.

With services growing in commercial banking they need to focus on new tools such as video conferencing, bank payment obligations and business-supporting systems. A review of customer onboarding needs to take place because many of their future customers don’t even have signatures, they’ve never needed one. Let’s also not forget the core systems and legacy infrastructures that they have to contend with.

Additionally, now they have to compete with amazing financial technology (fintech) apps such as Moven and Simple as well as Apple Pay and literally thousands of others with deep investment pockets and lesser regulation (for now).

What’s coming for financial services, what’s on the horizon?

If you haven’t read Jim Marous’ Top 10 Retail Banking Trends and Predictions for 2016 on The Financial Brand website, do that next. A great look at what’s on the horizon such as removing friction from the customer’s journey, actionable big data, optichannel delivery, an emergence of a new breed of banks and responding to regulatory changes.

Bank’s are going to have to get into the game before they are replaced by new talent. Many larger banks are starting innovation centers, integrating with the Internet of Things (IoT), and partnering with fintech startups and companies (or outright acquiring them) to deliver customer value at just the right moment.

You’re a member of the #FinTechMafia, tell us about that.

Well, first rule of Fin Tech Mafia (FTM) is that what’s said in FTM, stays in FTM.

What I can tell you is this. Several people bonded and became friends over social media, several years ago before fintech was en vogue. A private discussion ensued among our club or federation. After a few days, some of the greatest minds in fintech were communicating as if lifelong friends. I was just excited that they knew my name, let alone talking with them. No top influencer, list or blog post went without the names in this group.

Now when you group together with the likes of Brett King, Chris Skinner, JP Nichols, Brad Leimer, Jim Marous, Alex Jimenez, Dave Birch, Lisa Kuhn-Phillips, David Gerbino, Sam Maule, Duena Blomstrom and Michal Panowicz you get an astonishing understanding of what’s happening in finance technology, but that’s not what connects us. Our friendship does.

You see, inside the group, you discover the person they are behind their work. Sure, they discuss and debate and even argue about the industry; however, we also share our true selves there.

We are connected when one of their children is ill or they have lost a family member. We have worried about each others well being while traveling from an airport during a snow storm or shared the joy of Bruce Springsteen in concert. We have flown in a plane piloted by Brett, and traveled the globe together and some of us have never met.

We share joys and triumphs as well as sorrows and worries. We joke and goad one another and support each other like a family, regardless of status, or power, or influence.

I have some of my closest friends spread out across the globe, spreading change throughout the financial services world and doing it all while retaining their own humanity. We all work tirelessly to better and improve the world around us. That kind of relationship cannot be replaced with technology, only augmented by it.

I guess that’s the point, isn’t it? Banks have to find a way to reconnect with their customers through the technology and noise. That’s where real value is created, the true connections.

If you would like to have your company featured in the Irish Tech News Business Showcase, get in contact with us at Simon@IrishTechNews.net or on Twitter: @SimonCocking