I was on a call today with the digital strategy committee of a large U.S. bank. It was clear from their line of questioning that they are grappling with how to prioritize among the many major opportunities on the digital side.

I won’t list any of the specific topics here, but you could guess most of them (though one would surprise you I think). But the conversation got me thinking about what I’d recommend for next year if I was working in a bank, credit union or consumer fintech company.

In semi-prioritized fashion, here are my first three recommendations for 2015. More will follow.

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1. Insurance
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How are you going to replace NSF fee income once the CFPB gets around to capping it? (Timing hint: There’s a big election in 27 months.) One place to look: Insurance. It’s one of the last frontiers for retail banks, especially in the United States. FinovateSpring 2014 alum Insuritas (demo here) says it can launch your very own insurance store within 90 days. So if you move fast enough, you could have this running by end of year.

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2. Lifetime transaction archives
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I believe digital services will increase bank loyalty two or three-fold. So instead of accounts turning over every 7 years or so, it will be 15 or 20 years for digital-first households. Why? Once banks come to their senses and start archiving all your transactions like Google does for email, it will be much more of a pain to move.

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3. Subscription fees
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Back to the Gmail example. How much could Google charge me now that I have 100,000 messages archived there? $100/year easy. Probably more. Banks should be thinking the same way. Get #2 done, then charge $4.95/mo for a Peace of Mind package that includes lifetime archives, mobile document/receipt capture, priority customer service, and so on.  

To be continued………..