Leaders in Lending

The lending landscape is always evolving.


Recent changes in government administration, combined with the shifting dynamic of economics in response to the COVID-19 pandemic have accelerated this evolution.


Nat Hoopes, Vice President of Government Relations and Regulatory Affairs at Upstart shares his financial lending insight from DC, the changes underway, and the way banking is evolving to keep up with a rapid digital transformation.

Tune in to hear about:


- A sharp focus on the administration and regulatory changes in DC


- Expanding access to credit and lending inclusivity


- The ways COVID has accelerated the digital transformation roadmap for financial institutions


- How banks and credit unions can evaluate their economic mobility in the communities they operate in


- A policy expert’s career advice and perspective and predictions for the future of banking

OPTIONAL: Check out these resources we mentioned during the podcast:


- Nat Hoopes


- Upstart

Want more lending advice? Find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and here.Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for [Leaders in Lending] in your favorite podcast player.

Customers Bank, with a revolutionary crossover between FinTech and traditional banking, is truly disrupting and innovating past the financial industry as we know it. One year later, we look back and ask, how did AI-enabled underwriting models perform in a time of uncertainty?

Sam Sidhu, Vice Chairman and Chief Operating Officer of Customers Bank joins us this week to discuss the bank’s enormous success, how they got there, and where they’re headed next.

What we talked about:


- Lending practices and consumer loan performance during the pandemic


- How AI credit decisioning models helped drive strategic growth


- Managing risk appropriately during the pandemic


- Leading with bravery during a period of societal and economic stress

Check out these resources we mentioned during the podcast:


- https://www.linkedin.com/in/ssidhu/


- https://www.customersbank.com/
To hear more from Leaders in Lending, check us out on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or on our website.

Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for Leaders in Lending in your favorite podcast player.

Changing company culture and implementing technology to better align with emerging digital preferences can be challenging but essential to staying ahead of the curve.


Nate Longfellow, Head of Digital, Product Strategy and Change Delivery - Home Lending at Wells Fargo, works with business partners and customers to provide them with the right capabilities to succeed. This involves implementing technology, new ways of conducting business, and strategic initiatives working in tandem to produce the best outcome.


Nate shares the challenges, strategies, and advice of his experience in four key aspects:

- Implementing change within a company using top-down goals


- Adjusting company behavior to be more accepting of failure


- When to partner, buy, or build internally


- Advice and predictions: empowering customers to self-direct

To hear more interviews like this one, subscribe to Leaders In Lending on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your preferred podcast platform.


Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for Leaders In Lending n your favorite podcast player.Connect with Nate at https://www.linkedin.com/in/natelongfellow/.

For a lot of smaller community banks and credit unions, the COVID-19 pandemic has created unique challenges as the world makes a hard left turn into a more digital focused landscape in every area, including banking.

Gary Fan, Executive Vice President and Chief Banking Officer at Gateway Community Bank, joins us to talk about the shift to digital and what it means for smaller financial institutions.

Key topics covered:


- Shifting to a more digitally enabled world


- Balancing traditional offerings with new and innovative products


- Why the COVID-19 pandemic forced Gateway to take a look at their digital offerings


- The need to adapt and be open to new possibilities, especially for small community banks


- Making sure that small financial institutions stick around long term

To hear more from Leaders in Lending, check us out on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or on our website.

Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for Leaders in Lending on your favorite podcast player.

Because of historically low interest rates, insane levels of liquidity within the banking system, and changing consumer needs, some banks need to find alternative ways to generate revenue. That means embracing change and bringing on new partners.


In this episode, we talk with Matt Gallman, VP, Enterprise Risk Officer at Drummond Community Bank, about why the riskiest strategy a bank can take is not changing at all.


Key Topics Covered:



- Entering the consumer lending space during the pandemic



- Advice for banks looking to partner with Fintechs



- Getting comfortable with originating unsecured personal loans



- Finding best-in-breed solutions through multiple partners


Mentioned during the podcast:



- The Calf-Path by Sam Foss


To hear more from Leaders in Lending, check us out on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or on our website.


Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for Leaders in Lending on your favorite podcast player.

Most banks are sitting on a goldmine of data that could be used expansively across different products and services to build a relationship with their customers for life.



Jim Deitch, Founder & CEO at Teraverde Management Advisors, joins us to talk about how banks are underutilizing one of the biggest strategic advantages they have.



What we talked about:



- The strategic advantage banks have in lending



- Why many don’t use the opportunity



- How banks can define the best way to innovate



- The transformational power of offering customers a choice



To hear more from Leaders in Lending, check us out on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or on our website.



Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for Leaders in Lending on your favorite podcast player.

Some clients want a 20 minute conversation with a trusted advisor. Some clients want to pick up their phone and get a loan in 5 minutes.


Banks that are able to meet both needs have a tremendous advantage over those who primarily provide one or the other.


In this episode of Leaders in Lending, our host talks with Dan Pogue, President of Commercial Retail and Small Business Sales at Midwest BankCentre, about the future of digital transformation in banking.


What they talked about:



- How to prepare employees for digital transformation.



- How to integrate new employees into a remote team.



- Effective communication tools for a hybrid environment.



- How Midwest BankCentre is integrating high touch with digital.


Find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or our website.


Dan Pogue is the President of Commercial Retail and Small Business Sales at Midwest BankCentre. Formerly executive vice president-commercial banking, his focus has expanded from regional commercial lending and treasury management to include consumer/small business lending and sales as well as all retail branches.


Midwest BankCentre is a values based financial institution that influences and advances communities by empowering people, enabling businesses and energizing neighborhoods.

There’s a lot of buzz about the “artificial intelligence revolution” and the impact it’s going to have on businesses as we know it. As AI and machine learning emerge in the consumer lending space, the technology has proven to provide dramatic wins for both lenders and consumers.



So what are companies doing today to help them be competitive and innovative in the unsecured lendingspace?



On this episode of Leaders in Lending, we chat with our very own Paul Gu. Paul is the Co-Founder and Head of Product here at Upstart. Paul has a unique background, dropping out of the computer science program at Yale to start an online lending company. We talked all about:



- The role of AI and machine learning in lending




- Why unsecured loans are a good place to innovate




- The need to reduce friction and effort in the lending process




- How his organization made the shift from traditional lending to AI lending



To hear more from Leaders in Lending, check us out on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or on our website.



Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for Leaders in Lending on your favorite podcast player.

In a digital world, threats to banking business models often appear on the horizon. How can banks stay aware of trends in future technology that have the potential to become disruptive threats?

Marc Butterfield, Senior Vice President of Innovation and Disruption at First National Bank of Omaha, joins us to talk about the digital transformation and how his bank identifies threats and determines how to respond to them.
What we talked about:
- 3 areas of disruption in banking
- How model development and model governance are underappreciated
- What people get wrong about digital transformation
- The ways in which customer-facing roles are changing
To hear more from Leaders in Lending, check us out on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or on our website.
Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for Leaders in Lending on your favorite podcast player.

Let’s face it. For being an industry that hits people so close to home, the banking and lending industry isn’t one that’s known for its ability to build genuine connections with customers. Not a lot of people seem to have feel-good stories about how someone in the banking industry made their day.




But that can change.




In a world where more and more people are turning to digital banking products and services, it’s becoming more important than ever before to dial in the customer service. The personal human touch that really makes all the difference.




On this episode of Leaders in Lending, we sit down with Robert Perrelli. Rob is a Senior Vice President, and Head of Product and Consumer Lending at TCF Bank. Our conversation on this episode centered around, among other things:





- The importance of “consultative conversations.”





- How to shift your mindset from being “product centric” to “consumer centric”





- How a relentless focus customer service changes the branch employee interactions





- Getting buy in from bankers on digital products




To hear more from Leaders in Lending, check us out on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or on our website.




Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for Leaders in Lending on your favorite podcast player.