GroundBanking

Brick and mortar bank branches are not going away any time soon. Their purpose is simply changing. By incorporating more technology into branches, community banks can create a seamless customer experience that keeps them relevant and moving forward.In this episode of GroundBanking, Terry Ammons, partner at Wipfli, and Kimberly Kirk,EVP & Chief Operations Officer at Queensborough National Bank and Trust Co., talk about why digital transformation is equally important for small community financial instructions as it is for large banks. They discuss:•How QNB’s early preparation for digital transformation paid off when the COVID-19pandemic hit.•Why it’s important to embark on digital transformation but also stay true to your roots of intimately serving your communities. •How, despite all the emphasis on digital, QNB just opened a new brick and mortar branch.Listen now to learn how your institution can start your digital transformation journey.

When the concept of digital transformation started gaining steam, many financial institutions realized they did not have the peer group analytics, data or insights into what changes were happening in their sector. How can you gain better data? Terry Ammons, partner at Wipfli, and Curry Pelot, CIO and Founder of FI Navigator, discuss how financial institutions can best allocate their resources to drive performance. In this episode, they cover:• How financial institutions can leverage industry data to identify opportunities, develop strategy and enhance performance.• How innovative analytic sallow instant insight into an institution’s strengths, weaknesses, performance themes, cost/benefit, etc.• How rich data can help institutions look ahead at offerings such as currency exchange, artificial intelligence, chatbots and more.Listen now to learn how your institution can gain a data-driven advantage.

To compete and grow in a changing landscape, financial institutions must invest in people and technology. One key area your institution can focus on is automating key regulatory compliance requirements.How can you do this effectively?That’s what Wipfli partner Terry Ammons asks Dheeraj Singal, founder & CEO of FINBOA, which provides financial back office automation software.Plus, Terry talks to Marisa Reynolds, Senior Vice President of IT/OPS/Digital Transformation at Oconee State Bank, and colleague Jennifer Rudd, Vice President, Director of Deposit Operations, about how they used FINBOA to reduce the amount of time it took to file consumer disputes by over 80%.Listen now to learn more about Oconee State Bank’s back office automation process and their before-and-after results.

Four out of every seven people in the United States is financially illiterate. That’s a staggering number. HT Mobile Apps (https://htmobileapps.com/) is chipping away at that with their platform, which is focused on increasing financial literacy and wellness. “We’re seeing again and again that technology is what wins,” says Kathleen Craig, the CEO of HT Mobile Apps in our latest edition of our GroundBanking podcast.

In this podcast, Craig and host Terry Ammons also discuss:

· Personalize financial literacy and wellness

· How banks drive adoption of HT Mobile Apps’ app

· HTMA’s origin story

Interested in ideas it wants to learn more about or see go to market, Central Payments (https://www.central-payments.com/) set out to develop a fintech accelerator. And it succeeded. Falls Fintech (https://www.fallsfintech.com/) is up and running as a 12-week program designed to accelerate market readiness for early-stage fintech startups.

So how did Central Payments approach developing its accelerator? In this podcast, host Terry Ammons talks with Trent Sorbe, President and Founder of Central Payments and Cofounder of Falls Fintech, and Nikkee Rhody, Executive Vice President of Strategy at Central Payments and Cofounder of Falls Fintech, about their process.

Learn about:

* What Central Payments’ role was in nurturing companies through the accelerator

* How the Falls Fintech program is unique compared to other accelerators

* How Central Payments learns from cohort companies to help all of its business partners and clients

Did you know 95% of all bank statements are opened and read through?

Your customers are reading their statements, but when’s the last time your institution considered what type of customer experience you’re delivering via those statements? Are they modern, or do they look the same as they did 20 years ago?

In this podcast, host Terry Ammons talks with Griffin McGahey, President of HC3 (https://hc3.io/), about how digital statements and payment solutions are transforming the customer experience for financial institutions today. They dive into:

· Digital statements and how they’ve changed over time

· What sort of customer experience consumers are looking for in a financial institution’s digital transformation

Learn how you can transform your institution’s digital statements and customer experience.

COVID-19 shined a spotlight on the gaps in the digital banking experience, particularly when it comes to bill pay solutions. Many financial institutions have realized they need to up their game.

We’re excited this episode to host two special guests from Allied Payment Network (https://www.alliedpayment.com/): Kelli Schultz, President, and Geoff Knapp, Chief Growth Officer. Together with Terry Ammons, they discuss how the bill pay industry has transformed.

Specifically, they dive into:

· How bill pay solutions have fallen short in the past

· What the challenges are in bill pay

· How fintechs are improving and altering bill pay

· How Allied has improved upon the bill pay solution

Listen above to learn how you can improve your institution’s bill pay solution.

Financial institutions are looking for ways to accelerate innovation across the enterprise, but they sometimes feel limited by their existing technology infrastructure. Through an open API-driven approach, many institutions are finding ways to effectively build on their existing core solution and extend the value of those technology investments while modernizing the banking experience for their customers.

Integrating the best core banking software can be done efficiently — setting your financial institution up for future success. That’s why our special guest this episode is David Hunkele, Chief Strategy Officer of Finzly (https://finzly.com/). He and Wipfli partner Terry Ammons dive into:

* What actions financial institutions can take if they have not yet taken this leap toward greater technological innovation

* What you can do if you’re currently dependent on a third party

* How Finzly has developed a solution that improves a financial institution’s efficiency and offerings

Our special beer of the episode is Thrill Ride, an IPA from StillFire Brewing (https://stillfirebrewing.com/) in Suwanee, GA.

Do you know the value technology and open platforms could add to your financial institution?

Boston Consulting Group calculated that for every $100 billion in assets a bank has, revenue can be increased by as much as $300 million by personalizing customer interactions.

A full 88% of customers want to receive recommendations from their bank about the things relevant to their needs and behaviors. What are you doing to meet this need?

In this episode of GroundBanking, Terry Ammons, Wipfli partner, and special guest Jill Homan, President of DeepTarget (https://www.deeptarget.com/), discuss:

* The importance of creativity and innovation in driving business and growing your institution

* How to cater and deliver to the specific needs of customers using technology

Listen in to also discover our special beer of the episode!

How has the recent political climate affected financial institutions in the U.S.? What impact might potential upcoming changes have?

Terry Ammons, Wipfli partner, discusses these topics and more with special guest Charles Potts (https://www.icba.org/about/our-team/innovation-financial-technology/charles-potts), Senior Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer at Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA).

Listen in as Ammons and Potts also dive into:

· Financial inclusion, literacy and education as trends within financial institutions

· Non-interest income, and how it’s one of the biggest problems financial institutions have coming out of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP)

· The Consolidated Appropriations Act’s impact on small businesses

The featured brewery of this episode was Wild Heaven Beer (https://wildheavenbeer.com/).