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Streamly Snapshot: Unpacking the Impact of Automation in Finance

Streamly Snapshot: Unpacking the Impact of Automation in Finance
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Sponsored, Streamly

Automation has helped the financial services industry advance rapidly. It not only helps firms save costs and better serve users, but it has also influenced everything from customer service to regulatory compliance. However, as the industry continues to embrace automation, what should financial institutions consider to ensure innovation doesn’t overshadow empathy and trust?

In this Streamly video, Finovate Research Analyst David Penn and ShareFile Director of Sales for Financial Services Matt Geiger speak about the transformative effects of automation on the finance sector. They explore the opportunities, challenges, and the balance required to implement automation effectively while maintaining a human touch.

“In some ways, automation is awesome because we can take these workflows and have our people focus on more specialized activity… The place that we need to find when we’re talking about automation is to find the balance between [automation and manual activity]. What should I automate and what should I have as a personalized customer experience that’s not automated where humans can interact with each other? And we need to have a balance of both of those things.”

ShareFile provides secure document sharing and workflow automation solutions for companies in a range of industries. Founded in 2005, the North Carolina-based company helps its financial services clients document workflow automation, enhance and simplify their client collaboration, and it also aids them in regulatory compliance.

Matt Geiger has been with ShareFile for three years and currently serves as the company’s Director of North American Sales. With over 20 years in tech sales, Matt develops go-to-market strategies that deliver exceptional value. Before ShareFile, he spent 13 years in the partner community, building strategic alliances and driving success. Matt began his career as a teacher and coach, shaping his leadership style and commitment to team development.

Photo by Pavel Danilyuk

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Streamly Snapshot: Balancing High-Tech and High-Touch Strategies in Digital Banking

Streamly Snapshot: Balancing High-Tech and High-Touch Strategies in Digital Banking
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Streamly

Since the dawn of fintech, financial services companies have struggled to find the sweet spot of “high tech” vs. “high touch.” However, in today’s technology saturated environment, finding the perfect balance between automation and personal interaction is crucial. While technology enables scalability and efficiency, customers still value connecting with a human for complex financial decisions. This balance — where high tech meets high touch — is shaping the future of digital banking.

In the following Streamly video, Finovate Research Analyst David Penn speaks with Christopher Hollins, Head of Solution Sales and Delivery at Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), who highlights the transformation of B2B client expectations through digital channels and how SVB’s approach combines high-touch and high-tech strategies.

We spend a lot of time from a design perspective recognizing the user trends both on the consumer side, as well as the business side, and figuring out what’s the most logical thing we can do to avoid obstacles and make things very simple and straightforward. We always say that we want people to feel comfortable doing banking at 4:17 pm and 4:17 am, which means that your digital capabilities must be up to snuff and that you must be able to create an experience that they feel comfortable working with you any time of day,” said Hollins.

SVB is a division of First Citizens Bank that provides commercial and private banking services to individuals and companies. Originally founded in 1983, SVB focuses on investing in high-growth companies that tend to be on the cutting edge of innovation. In fact, 50% of U.S. VC-backed tech companies with IPOs in 2024 are SVB clients.

Hollins sits at the helm of SVB’s Global Solution Sales and Delivery, where he drives business growth and fosters team motivation. With a focus on sales strategy, design integration, and product marketing, Hollins’ team has successfully executed strategies that resonate with the unique demands of the fintech industry and the innovation economy.

For more video interviews, be sure to check out Finovate’s other Streamly content.

Photo by Leonardo Iheme on Unsplash

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Streamly Snapshot: Fusing Traditional Old School Practice with Futuristic Practice in Banking

Streamly Snapshot: Fusing Traditional Old School Practice with Futuristic Practice in Banking
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Interview, Streamly

How are banks managing the challenges of digital transformation? What do financial institutions need to do in order to ensure that new digital initiatives are aligned with customer preferences and needs?

In this Streamly interview, Finovate Senior Research Analyst Julie Muhn sits down with Milton Santiago, Global Head of Digital Solutions at Silicon Valley Bank. The two discuss the bank’s current digital transformation and the role of enabling technologies like AI in enhancing the customer experience, among other topics.

“What excites me the most about what’s going on in our bank is the fact that we continue to invest, we continue to focus really on what our customers need to grow their businesses and to be successful at a variety of life stages: be it at small inception where maybe it’s just you and me as a startup to where we have gone through multiple rounds of funding, or we’re a large company that is also publicly traded. Our needs are being met by the same financial organization, regardless of our size.”

Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) serves many of the most innovative companies and investors in the world. A division of First Citizens Bank, SVB provides commercial and private banking services to individuals and companies in industries ranging from technology and healthcare to private equity and venture capital. With 70% of the 2024 Forbes Cloud 100 among its customers, SVB is headquartered in Santa Clara, California.

Milton Santiago has worked for Silicon Valley Bank for more than six years and is currently Global Head of Digital Services. In this role, he is responsible for creating end-to-end omni-channel and API experiences and solutions for startup (Pre-Series A) and mature companies, alike. Santiago is also a veteran industry speaker on topics including security and fraud, mobile and emerging payments, big data, and innovation.

Photo by Pixabay

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Streamly Snapshot: Disrupting the Market with Refunds-as-a-Service

Streamly Snapshot: Disrupting the Market with Refunds-as-a-Service
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Interview, Sponsored, Streamly

One of the latest developments in the payments space, Refunds-as-a-Service, promises to bring innovation to an area of customer experience – refunds – in which more than a trillion dollars of value are exchanged every year.

In today’s Streamly interview, Jeremy Balkin, Founder and CEO of TodayPay, talks with me about his path from a Managing Director at J.P. Morgan to the launch of his refunds-as-a-service startup. Balkin explains the inspiration behind the decision, the company’s progress to date, as well as TodayPay’s upcoming direct-to-consumer product launch.

“We’re the world’s first dedicated refund payment network. It’s an alternative payment method for both merchants and consumers to receive refunds. We’re pioneering a category we like to call refunds-as-a-service, serving merchants, marketplaces, insurers, issuers, and consumers to get a better refund experience.”

A finalist in the “Top Emerging Fintech” category of the 2024 Finovate Awards, TodayPay enables merchants to offer their customers instant refunds over a variety of payment choices, including cashback. A pioneer in the field of Refunds-as-a-Service, TodayPay is part of the Visa Fasttrack program.

Before launching TodayPay, Jeremy Balkin was a Managing Director for J.P. Morgan in New York City where he led fintech innovation and corporate development in the payment space.

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio

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Streamly Snapshot: Creating Revenue Streams for Community Banks and Credit Unions

Streamly Snapshot: Creating Revenue Streams for Community Banks and Credit Unions
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: BankShift, Sponsored, Streamly

Community banks and credit unions have long been the cornerstone of local economies. As technology and consumer preferences evolve, however, so must their revenue strategies.

Today’s Streamly video highlights a conversation I had with Rob Thacher, CEO at BankShift, a banking-as-a-service platform. During our conversation, Thacher and I discussed embedded finance, leveraging data to create personalized products, fintech partnerships, subscription services, and BankShift’s Brand on Banking.

BankShift built a business model all around the credit union space because they give dividends back to their members. And so we built a Brand on Banking ecosystem that enables community banks and credit unions to be different and have a new revenue stream. Financial institutions can embed their own technology inside that brand for revenues, for loyalty, and control.

BankShift creates a digital banking platform that helps community banks and credit unions generate new revenue streams, enforce control, and build loyalty. The company’s SDK provides low-code tools that help financial institutions create a branded, a unified app with a single login and a money transfer tool. The Oregon-based company was founded in 2020.

Photo by Museums Victoria on Unsplash

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Streamly Snapshot: Upgrading Your Digital Knowledge Management

Streamly Snapshot: Upgrading Your Digital Knowledge Management
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Interview, Streamly

With digital rising to the preferred channel for audiences across the globe, it is more important than ever for firms to manage their brands’ digital presence. Organizations no longer need to just worry about sending out consistent messaging, they also need to ensure that the information that search platforms are sharing about them is correct and consistent in order to uphold their reputation

Earlier this fall, Finovate Research Analyst David Penn spoke with Stuart Greer, VP of Enterprise Sales at digital presence platform Yext to get an idea of how the company not only helps brands manage their reputation, but also with managing information on data aggregators about their physical locations, setting up , and more.

“One of the biggest things I’d say that large enterprise financial services companies deal with… is their online presence across all of the platforms, said Greer. “Yext is a digital presence platform that essentially helps multi-location businesses. When you think about multi-location businesses, you can think of banks, ATMs, wealth advisors, insurance agents– anyone who has that presence online.”

Yext was founded in 2006 to help brands with multiple locations manage their digital presence. Companies can leverage Yext’s platform to ensure they deliver accurate, consistent information, while connecting with customers across the globe via digital channels. The New York-based company leverages AI to automate workflows at scale and provide actionable insights to do everything from enhance SEO to manage social media reputations. Michael Walrath is CEO.

Photo by KATRIN BOLOVTSOVA

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Streamly Snapshot: Revolutionizing Cross-Border Payments — The Next Frontier

Streamly Snapshot: Revolutionizing Cross-Border Payments — The Next Frontier
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Speaker series, Streamly

From the continued relevance of paper checks to the rapid growth of digital technology, payments continues to be one of the most fascinating — and important — areas in fintech.

In this week’s Streamly interview, William Mills, CEO of the William Mills Agency, talks with Kevin Brown, CMO and Head of Corporate Development for Onbe. The two men discuss a variety of key issues in the payments world, including the potential for AI to revolutionize payment systems and the future of cross-border payments.

“One of the very prevalent modalities, or payment instruments, that still exist are paper-based checks. We did research with the team at Oliver Wyman and, in 2023, there were still 1.7 trillion dollars of paper check or cash-based B2C payments. A huge amount of paper that’s out there. Checks are dated, not a great customer experience, require action on behalf of the consumer and they’re really expensive to corporate clients … As an industry, we have a huge opportunity to still alleviate a significant amount of pain, both for the ultimate enterprises and then their consumers and recipients, just by the doing away of paper checks.”

Onbe manages and modernizes consumer and workforce disbursements for corporate customers. The company’s technology platform powers a suite of turnkey managed disbursement solutions that enable its customers to outsource their entire B2C disbursement operations. Headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, Onbe was founded in 1996. Bala Janakiraman Iyer is CEO.

In his role at Onbe, Kevin Brown leads marketing, corporate development, business development, and communications. A fintech and payments operator with experience at both public and private equity-backed businesses, Brown is a graduate of Marist College (BA) and Pace University (MBA).

Photo by Nubia Navarro (nubikini)

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Streamly Snapshot: The Central Role of Contact Centers in AI-Driven Customer Experience

Streamly Snapshot: The Central Role of Contact Centers in AI-Driven Customer Experience
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Interview, Streamly

Leveraging AI to enhance the customer experience is one the biggest challenges – and greatest opportunities – in fintech and financial services.

Today we share the insights of Rahul Kumar, VP and GM for Financial Services and Insurance with Talkdesk, on the central role of contact centers in AI-driven customer experience. In our Streamly Snapshot conversation, which took place in September at FinovateFall 2024 in New York, Kumar discusses what financial institutions are doing to overcome the barriers to delivering a superior customer experience. Kumar also explains why leaders in financial services are prioritizing the contact center as a central part of their AI and CX strategy.

“One of the things we’re seeing in the industry is that customer experience is fast becoming a strategic initiative for executives across the board — for banks and for credit unions. Recently, in a survey, we polled over 200 customer experience professionals and the responses were unsurprising: 86% of executives said that they do believe CX is a strategic investment priority that can lead to brand differentiation for themselves. 63% felt that they could tie CX metrics to value. And 80% do believe that contact center is fast becoming a strategic investment area for them. It’s definitely top of mind for executives.”

Founded in 2011 and headquartered in San Francisco, California, Talkdesk is an international cloud contact center leader for businesses of all sizes. The company’s contact center platform leverages AI and automation to enable businesses to deliver exceptional outcomes for their customers. Talkdesk’s AI-powered customer experience platform helps enterprises reduce costs, grow revenues, and streamline operations to boost efficiency. Tiago Paiva is Founder and Chief Executive Officer.

In his role at Talkdesk, Rahul Kumar leads business, product, and go-to-market strategy for financial services and insurance. He also leads the customer success function for all strategic industry customers, managing C-suite relationships for enterprise customers.

Photo by Mikhail Nilov

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Streamly Snapshot: Leveraging AI for High-Touch Experiences

Streamly Snapshot: Leveraging AI for High-Touch Experiences
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Finalytics.ai, Marketing, Streamly

Personalizing the customer experience has consistently been a hot topic in fintech and banking over the past decade. This persistence suggests that the financial services industry continues to fall short when it comes to providing a high-quality, tailored user experience.

In the past year, we have seen significant promise from AI tools that can integrate personalization into the customer workflow while still maintaining a high-touch user experience. In today’s Streamly Snapshot, Research Analyst David Penn talks with Craig MacLaughlin, CEO at Finalytics.ai and Baron Conway, CSO at Finalytics.ai about the meaning of personalization, how financial institutions stand to gain from it, the role AI is playing in enhancing personalization, and how firms can embark upon their journey of personalization.

“The ability to deliver the high-touch service– something you were able to do on the phone or in the branch– has really been taken away. So we look at the opportunity to use personalization to get back that experience, but deliver it digitally,” said MacLaughlin. “We’re basically giving community FIs the ability to deliver the same experiences that mega brands are able to do in the digital channel.”

“So to build upon that,” added Conway, “from an institution’s perspective, it enables them, in the digital channel, to build closer relationships, build more loyalty, and– crucially– drive more product sales. Because, if you give someone what they’re looking for, they’re more likely to engage, and purchase, and come back for more.”

Finalytics.ai seeks to help community banks and credit unions compete with larger organizations by helping them personalize the customer journey. The California-based company leverages AI along with real-time data analytics to help drive growth, loyalty, and operational efficiencies.

By blending personalization and innovation, Finalytics.ai helps its financial institution clients meet the evolving needs of their customers in today’s competitive landscape.

Photo by cottonbro studio

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Streamly Snapshot: Leveraging AI, Insights, and Data in Financial Services

Streamly Snapshot: Leveraging AI, Insights, and Data in Financial Services
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: FinovateFall 2024, Streamly

One of the most popular use cases for AI in financial services is to leverage the technology to help companies deal with the challenge and opportunity of unstructured data.

In our latest Streamly interview from FinovateFall last month, Finovate VP and host Greg Palmer sits down with Perry Rotella, Managing Director of Financial Services at Box, to discuss the growth of unstructured data within financial institutions, the challenges these firms face in managing this data, and the role AI can play in helping them analyze unstructured data to enhance everything from personalization to compliance.

“Unstructured data really represents the vast majority of data in organizations. IDC did a study last year that found that 90% of an organization’s data is unstructured. And it’s been really challenging to extract insights out of that data at scale. What we’ve been finding working with customers is we can supercharge pulling insights out of that content, driving workflows for downstream processing, and really look across many documents to summarize and personalize communications with clients.”

The “Intelligent Content Cloud” company, Box offers a single platform that enables organizations to drive collaboration, manage the content lifecycle, secure critical content, and transform business workflows using enterprise AI. Founded in 2005 and headquartered in Redwood City, California, Box includes AstraZeneca, Morgan Stanley, and Nationwide among its customers.

In his role as Managing Director, Financial Services, Rotella provides leadership across product, marketing, business development, sales, and customer success teams. He is responsible for driving engagement with key strategic accounts, as well as customer satisfaction and retention.

Photo by Kevin Ku

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Streamly Snapshot: Micro Life Insurance

Streamly Snapshot: Micro Life Insurance
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: CEO Interview, Streamly

At FinovateFall last month, Finovate’s David Penn sat down with Wysh Founder and CEO Alex Matjanec to discuss the concept of micro life insurance.

We’ve highlighted pieces of the conversation below, and included the entire 10-minute video for you to check out the full story.

Tell us a little bit about Wysh and your approach to embedded life insurance.

Alex Matjanec: I think the first thing that surprises most people about Wysh is that we’re actually a life insurance company…. Our product is called Life Benefit, and Life Benefit is micro life insurance that sits on top of their deposit accounts…. We sell the policy to the institution, and they give it as a benefit to their customers or members as a way to differentiate their story beyond just credited interest rate, helping to bring a real protection to that story.

You spoke in the past about the context of the protection offering that Wysh provides. How does Life Benefit extend the capacity for protection.

Matjanec: Today, there is protection being offered… we have deposit insurance, FDIC insurance, overdraft protection, fraud protection. The issue with a lot of that protection is that it comes from a world of being in a negative place. What we want to do with Life Benefit is show how protection can help you from a positive direction. As you grow your deposits, you’re growing this policy and benefit along with it. That is how we’re following along with you in your journey. As you’re trying to become financially independent, we’re giving you a little bit of protection along the way.

How does an institution go about adopting Life Benefit?

Matjanec: One of the things we’re really proud about is that it takes less than 45 days to go from contract to launching Life Benefit…. We give you a one-page disclosure that you amend to your existing contract. That allows us to bring this benefit to market without requiring any sign-up, opt-in, or underwriting… That turns this into a 72-hour ability to turn on.

What makes Life Benefit really powerful is when you show the customer the benefit they’ve earned and it growing over time as you’re raising your deposits– much like showing people the value of interest rates or return on investments. That is a little bit of a larger lift, but we’ve made integrations with other cores and banking platforms, as well as built a low-code, no-code option that some of our partners have implemented, and that’s why we’re confident that… it takes less than 45 days to go live.

Catch all of this, and more, including Matjanec’s explanation of how Life Benefit can help firms avoid the “sea of sameness,” as well as a discussion on the tool’s affiliate offering, and the company’s future plans, in the full video below.

Enhancing financial inclusion with micro life insurance

Photo by Arafat Tarif

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Effective AI Implementation in Financial Services: Moving Beyond the Hype

Effective AI Implementation in Financial Services: Moving Beyond the Hype
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: FinovateFall 2024, Interview, Streamly

How can companies take advantage of the opportunity of AI to grow revenues, help develop new products, and better engage customers? Our latest Streamly interview features Chris Brown, President of Intelygenz, who shares strategies for businesses to effectively implement AI.

In this interview, conducted by Finovate Senior Research Analyst Julie Muhn, Brown talks about Intelygenz’s engagement models that quickly deliver measurable ROI. Brown also discusses Intelygenz’s “Day Zero” promise, successful use cases in financial services, and explains what the metrics for success are when it comes to AI projects.

“There are a few things actually that I think organizations can do: I think the first thing is try and get yourself out of the AI buzzword, out of that AI hype, and really try to understand where you can apply AI within your business. Try and cross match your strategy, your challenges to the art of the possible of AI.”

“Don’t get hung up and leave that technical jargon. Leave all those hype words to the machine learning engineers and data scientists. Really focus on ‘What are the challenges I’m facing in my industry?’ ‘What will make a difference to my business?’ And if you do that, I can promise people from our vantage point that over many years you will put yourself in a really good position.”

Headquartered in San Francisco, California and founded in 2002, Intelygenz provides expert AI consultancy and implementation services. Specializing in AI, Deep Learning, Computer Vision, and other enabling technologies, Intelygenz guides businesses and organizations through their AI journeys – from conceptualization to implementation.

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