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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
Celebrating and empowering women in fintech is something Finovate supports throughout the year, not just during Womens’ History Month and on International Womens’ Day – earlier this week, on March 8. And you may have already seen our next guest contributor, Janice Diner, CEO, Founder of Horizn, across other parts of the Finovate ecosystem. Be it on the Finovate Podcast to talk educating customers and turning employees into digital advocates, or at the physical (or digital!) Finovate events following Horizn’s latest demo. Today, Diner shares her journey through fintech as part of our #womeninfintech series.
What barriers did you face, as a woman, in becoming successful in your field and how did you overcome them?
Janice Diner: I think of my career in two phases, before I was the CEO and founder of Horizn I was a successful Creative Director. I had no concept of the “glass ceiling”, I was part of the 3% of successful women in advertising.
When I got into tech and started Horizn, all that changed. Back in 2013 issues that presented barriers to female entrepreneurs weren’t as loudly discussed. I remember feeling it in the room, when you are or have been successful, you know what a winning room smells like.
I often talk about being bootstrapped and proud. The hidden story behind that statement reflects my early experiences at fundraising in 2013. Remember, I had a full-blown creative director ego and had no concept of ‘ceilings’. But I ran into the “female” problem of fundraising at the time and smashed right into that ceiling.
At the time it seemed like a monumental problem, but we turned it into an opportunity and we walked in another direction. I think it has to do with how we look at money, I look at money as fuel — it’s all equal to me. At the end of the day, money is capital to build and run my business, that’s true no matter where that money comes from, whether it is venture capital, client revenue or debt financing.
And what about now, in 2021?
Diner: I am now in my 10th year of running the business. We are an award winning fintech helping many of the world’s largest banks. There is no doubt the future of banking will rely on digital platforms and the widespread adoption of new technologies. With that certainty in mind, Horizn equips both bank customers and employees with the knowledge needed to accelerate digital banking knowledge, fluency and adoption.
We won two Best of Show Finovate awards in 2020 and have multiple client awards. I am most proud when our clients speak for us about their success with Horizn, in articles, in fireside chats, webinars and on stage.
What was your first experience at Finovate like as a female CEO?
Diner: I remember my first Finovate event back in 2015, I was one of a few female CEOs on stage, nothing new for me. But this time was different. Women came up to me afterwards just to thank me for representing. They were just happy to see a female tech CEO on stage.
At Horizn we are very grateful to benefit from the diversity Toronto has to offer; together at Horizn we speak 20 languages and come from 15 countries. The team is made up of 44% women, impressive for a tech company.
On International Women’s Day, what is the most important message you want to send out to young women thinking about their careers?
Diner: When asked the question what advice would you give women, I think my advice is to entrepreneurs in general. Do what you love and be good at it, the rest will come. The five ways I have built the business are…
Build product in real time with your customers
Love your customers and make them love you
Visit/speak to your customers and go to industry events (or virtual – COVID)
Hire the best — people are everything when you are building a great company
Remember you are not in the start-up business. You are in a business.
In summary however I found regardless of what barriers I may have had or which doors have not necessarily open as I would have expected, it is always important to look at them from an opportunity perspective. Success is pretty much how you choose to define it.
Continuing our #womeninfintech series, we ask Regina Lau, Chief Strategy Officer, Retail Merchant Services, a TVC Portfolio Company and Executive Board Member of European Women Payments Network (EWPN), about her thoughts on International Women’s Day and the challenges and opportunities for women in the industry.
What does IWD & #ChooseToChallenge mean to you in your work life?
Regina Lau: International Womens’ Day (IWD) is a day to celebrate all the achievements from women around the world and also all the women who have been inspirational role models, no matter if they made big headlines or not. As a member of the Executive Board of European Women Payments Network (EWPN), this is also a very important day for us to continue the call for change and recommit to supporting all women. I believe that “when one rises, we all rise”.
What barriers did you face, as a woman, in becoming successful in your field and how did you overcome them?
Lau: I’ve always worked in male dominated industries, so I was often the only woman in the room (or at my level). It was challenging to ensure that my perspective and ideas were heard. I built as many relationships as possible with people who I knew supported and championed me. I also made sure I participated in discussions and meetings – if I was at the table, I was speaking up.
How could men contribute to support gender equality?
Lau: Mentor and sponsor women and give them equal access to opportunities. Give women credit. View women through the “people” lens – speak up and stop gender-biased language and descriptors (i.e. when a woman speaks in a direct style or promotes her ideas, she is often called “aggressive” and “ambitious.” But when a man does the same, he is seen as “confident” and “strong.”)
Can you tell us about your role model who have inspired you over your career?
Lau: I’ve admired many different women and men over my life. One piece of advice that stuck with me was “you deserve a seat at the table, and when you get that seat at the table, make it count”.
How important is it for women to lift each other up and what does that mean to you?
Lau: This is so important. I had very few female role models growing up and throughout most of my career. I wasn’t sure who had also experienced the same challenges I faced, and I didn’t know who to go to for support. This has made me even more aware of the need to support other women, no matter how small or big. Sometimes, people just need a listening ear or to know that someone else has gone through it before.
What is your favourite part of your job? And then the most rewarding?
Lau: Working in teams with colleagues and partners to solve problems is my favourite, and mentoring & coaching both women and men to help them grow and learn is very rewarding.
On International Women’s Day, what is the most important message you want to send out to young women thinking about their careers?
Lau: Be bold, try new things and don’t underestimate yourself. You won’t know unless you try – and if you need to, try again.
As our recent conversation featuring Boss Insights founder and CEO Keren Moynihan, reminds us, the fintechs (and “TechFins”) of the Great White North are engaged in some of the most forward-looking innovation on the continent.
This week brings an above average volume of news from Canada’s ambitious real-time payments industry. For one, the Vancouver Bullion & Currency Exchange (VBCE) announced a partnership with EMQ to bring “near real-time” cross-border payments to businesses and consumers across Canada. A PSP as well as a foreign currency exchange, VBCE hopes that its partnership with the global financial settlement network will give its customers the ability to move money faster and more efficiently. The firm also anticipates being able to use EMQ’s network to bring new services to market and scale existing ones.
“The speed and reach of EMQ’s global network allows us to pilot new services in one market and scale them rapidly across others to meet the evolving customer needs,” VBCE VP of Business Development Kevin Ma said. “This is especially important for our business with a diverse product portfolio.”
Elsewhere on the Canadian real-time payments beat, Payments Canada announced a collaboration with debit network Interac to support real-time payments in the country. Interac will serve as the exchange solution provider for Real-Time Rail, the real-time payments systems operated by Payments Canada and regulated by the Bank of Canada. RTR, scheduled to go live in 2022, will enable Canadians to initiate payments and receive funds in seconds.
Payments Canada President and CEO Tracey Black said that RTR will be the “foundation for faster, data-rich payments” and will serve as a “platform for innovation.” Black also praised Interac as a “well-suited partner” with the requisite infrastructure and connectivity to support “the rapid adoption of real-time payments in Canada.”
Last, some developments on the Canadian neobank front. Toronto, Ontario-based challenger bank KOHO added a no-fee savings account to its offerings this week. KOHO Save gives account holders 1.2% interest on their entire balance. There are no teaser rates and no minimum balance is required to acquire an account, which is available on the KOHO app.
“We’re excited to add KOHO Save to our product line as a simple and valuable money earning tool for Canadians,” KOHO CEO and founder Daniel Eberhard said. “We’ve been able to build a savings tool that doesn’t follow the same restrictions of most other savings products on the market. People just want to access their money freely and earn a great interest rate. We think Save is a wonderful step in that direction.”
KOHO also offers a savings and checking account and gives users a minimum of 0.5% (up to 10%) cash back on all purchases. KOHO Premium account holders get an additional 2% cash back on three major spending categories. The company, founded in 2014 and headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, has raised $57.5 million in funding from investors including Drive Capital and Portag3 Ventures.
Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.
Israel-based Rewire, a cross-border digital banking firm that serves migrant workers, announced $20 million Series B round led by Finovate alum OurCrowd.
What does International Women’s Day and #IChoosetoChallenge mean in practice, and what can be done to support and develop truly diverse teams? How does the world of fast-paced fintechs compare with legacy banking when it comes to embracing women in leadership, and empowering new voices to be heard from the bottom up?
Ahead of International Women’s Day, Charlie Burgess, Head of Digital Content for Finovate, sat down with Nicole Newlin, VP Solutions at Ocrolus and part of the Leadership Team at NYC Fintech Women, and Filippa Noghani, Head of Marketing – Banking and Financial Services at Virtusa and Board Member and Marketing Chair of NYC Fintech Women to talk opportunities and challenges, walking the walk of celebrating women, and why brands getting on-board with the IWD should look beyond making it just a marketing stunt.
Watch the full interview below. If you’re interested in finding out more about NYC Fintech Women, visit their page and learn more about the panel discussed, taking place at FinovateSpring Digital 2021 here.
With International Womens’ Day just around the corner, we continue our #WomeninFintech series and speak with Kim Snyder, CEO & Founder, KlariVis about her journey through fintech and advice to the next generation of women coming through.
Tell us about yourself and your career path to your current role.
Snyder: Personally, I am a very family-oriented person and prior to the Pandemic we had started some new traditions, like “Sunday Brunch-day”; it truly is my favorite thing to do and I cannot wait until we are able to restart those activities!
My career path to KlariVis is probably not what you would expect. I started my career with KPMG and then moved into an accounting/finance role for a small private liberal arts college. My next step was where the entrepreneurial bug hit me: I joined a local start-up company focused on creating new innovations in a variety of industries and it was here I saw what it was like to build something from scratch and it was invigorating, exciting and scary all at the same time. I then spent 10 years at a community bank, and it was my passion for this industry that fueled my drive to take the chance and start my own consulting business. During those course of 4+ years, I hired many previous team members to help me build a premier, boutique consulting firm focused on helping community banks solve the prevalent issues they are faced with in this rapidly changing industry.
The one challenge that resonated more than any other, though, is the data conundrum that exists in the banking industry. Regardless of size, core system, talent level or management team experience, our clients were paralyzed with the mass volume of data generated by the various siloed processing systems and the bank’s inability to access that data in an efficient manner, thus making it virtually useless to the institution. We knew that there had to be a better way and thus the idea of KlariVis was born. We spent about a year incubating our solution and our consulting clients became our focus group – by the end of that year, they were using phrases like “game-changer” related to our solution. So, I started a second company in February 2019 and hired a technology firm to take our proof of concept and turn it into reality. We launched KlariVis in January 2020 and the response was incredible from our prospect banks. We issued a press release last week – FVCBank has now invested in KlariVis due to the value and impact our platform is having on their bank. I’m not sure what better testament there can be than for a client to say, I want to be more than a client, I want to invest in your success and become your long-term strategic partner.
There seems to be a big push towards knowing your customer and providing a personalized and exceptional service in recent years. How should banks go about this?
Snyder: Community banks are known for their exceptional customer service – they typically have a very loyal customer base who value the personal touch. The PPP program highlighted this very fact – it was the community banks who stepped up and were the heroes by helping the small businesses in their communities.
How do they take that exceptional customer service and turn it into a more personalized experience? I believe it all starts with treating data as an enterprise-wide asset – making sure it is in the hands of the relationship managers who interact with and serve bank customers every day. The banking customer is communicating to its bank every day through transactions, whether they be transacted in person or digitally.
Unfortunately banks and credit unions are hampered by the numerous disparate systems that exist in the banking ecosystem, most of all which have critical data points about their customer base. As such, they have no choice but to leverage solution providers to enable them to aggregate this information, cut out the noise and focus on the high-value actionable data points that will allow them to offer that more personalized touch.
Allowing easy and efficient access to customer data at the front-line is paramount to improving and personalizing the customer experience.
Are there other trends you see driving innovation within banking/ fintech?
Snyder: Digital transformation is the primary focus for financial institutions of all sizes and I don’t see that changing for quite some time. We’ve been talking in the industry for years about this wave coming, and due to the Pandemic, it’s here. In a recent survey by the Digital Banking Report, the top three strategic priorities for 2021 were consistent for big and small institutions: 1) improve digital experience for consumers; 2) enhance data and analytic capabilities; and 3) reduce operating costs.
Fortunately for KlariVis, we hit 2 of the top 3 strategic priorities – enhancing data and analytic capabilities and reducing operating costs. Our solution accomplishes both and enables financial institutions to improve the overall customer experience.
What is important to you as a leader of a fintech? Does KlariVis have any initiatives that support diversity/ women in fintech?
Snyder: I strive to build a diverse and talented team. KlariVis was born out of an identified need in the banking industry but it was conceptualized through creativity and innovation. Diversity provides our team with expanded creativity stemming from different perspectives based upon life and work experiences. Absent of diversity of thought, skills and unique perspectives, our concept would not be what it is today.
My goal is to hire the best talent for the Company’s open positions, but as a female leader, I am passionate about ensuring that opportunities for women continue to grow in fintech and would like to see the same trend at KlariVis. Many tech industry roles are often filled by men. At KlariVis we have three females at the C-Suite level and each of us is equally passionate about hiring, promoting, and compensating talented deserving women. We would like to see more female applicants for technical positions particularly software engineers and have recently begun participation with a university’s internship program which may yield diverse candidates for future open positions.
What advice would you give to women looking to begin a career in banking/fintech?
Snyder: For women looking to begin a career in banking, fintech or another field, it is critical to learn the industry. Evaluating positions typical to the industry and matching that with individual skills, likes and dislikes is key to finding a position that is a good match. Passion is critical particularly in the rapidly growing fintech arena.
In addition to pursing an applicable degree and identifying a mentor, take the time to listen and learn from that person who can provide a frame of reference that you would not have otherwise. There are many different aspects of banking and financial technology is moving quickly with new innovations. Banks are trying to keep up with the latest and greatest technology advancements as well as their competitors with the goal of enhancing the customer experience. I recommend that anyone with an interest in banking or fintech read everything they can to stay current with the industry.
With new vaccines helping stoke confidence in a post-COVID summer, if not spring, what has the pandemic – and the work-from-anywhere movement it accelerated – revealed about the security of our increasingly digital world?
What is the biggest takeaway from your report on fraud?
Christina Luttrell: As COVID-19 drove 84 million Americans online for services that were previously carried out in person, businesses faced an influx of new customers to onboard. In response, many appeared to loosen fraud controls in an effort to reduce friction and simplify onboarding, particularly for digital “newbies.”
With this loosening, combined with COVID-19 factors such as dispersed fraud teams, remote work, stimulus checks, and sophisticated phishing and synthetic identity fraud (SIF) schemes, it’s easy to understand why fraud attempts surged to a four-year high. Also not surprising is the emergence of mobile as the most targeted channel, evidenced by an astounding 89% increase in fraud attempts likely due to an increased reliance on mobile devices during the pandemic.
In the report each year, we’ve seen businesses struggle with the challenge of balancing fraud with customer friction. Businesses drive revenue by greenlighting customers, which includes removing barriers and minimizing effort during the onboarding process to avoid unnecessary “friction.” Yet they must do so while deterring fraud. This challenge is exacerbated by current events and the state of fraud and, as a result, verification of identities was cited as the top challenge to fraud deterrence among businesses. Many have come to the conclusion that, at its core, fraud is an identity problem and 86% firmly view digital identity verification is a strategic differentiator across all industries.
When it comes to the future, 79% of businesses expect fraud to increase in 2021. With the COVID-induced shift to digital, fresh collection of more Personally Identifiable Information (PII) from 2020 and potential economic conditions, this is likely to be a “bust out” year for fraud.
How quickly have fraudsters followed the migration to digital channels during the COVID-19 crisis?
Luttrell: From our study, The COVID-19 Effect on Identity, Fraud and Customer Onboarding, we know that between March and July of 2020, 37% of Americans online activated an online service that was done offline prior and 46% said they have used their smartphone more often to sign up or apply for a new service. As a result, one-third of businesses experienced a customer shift of 50% or more to digital channels. In 2020, the number of new accounts opened with a mobile phone increased 43%. Fraudsters tend to follow the masses and the money and, in 2020, as those consumers went digital, criminals were quick to follow, employing rapidly shifting tactics, which was reported as a top challenge to fraud deterrence for 40% of businesses.
Mobile fraud attempts surged 89% in 2020 with increases across all fraud types, from spoofing and cloning to porting. With more consumers relying on digital information sources and businesses sending a higher number of customer communications, 56% of businesses reported phishing attacks as one of the most prevalent forms of fraud in their industries.
The pandemic provided a prime opportunity for fraudsters to take advantage of distracted Americans, the increase in digital communication between businesses and consumers and government relief efforts. Our research shows that 84 million Americans reported experiencing a phishing attack attempt in the months following the pandemic’s start, with an average of four attempts per person between March and June.
How have cybersecurity professionals effectively responded to this shift?
Luttrell: It appears cybersecurity professionals responded rapidly to this shift as best they could, but COVID-related disruption and distraction, such as remote working and government relief checks, put a wrinkle in plans and added a new layer of complexity to fraud detection and the consumer experience. Fraud is an identity problem, making identity verification the essential “digital handshake” and element of establishing trust. We expect to see more companies rely on the orchestration of blanketed layers of identity attributes, artificial intelligence, and integrated verification methods to remove friction and deter fraud.
Successfully onboarding new customers and building long-term loyalty in today’s rapidly shifting fraud landscape will require businesses to act quickly. On the back end, they will need to understand how identity verification attributes are performing so they can make adjustments to attributes that pinpoint fraud on an extremely granular scale while streamlining the verification process for real customers.
What kinds of fraud are increasingly prevalent – especially compared to the pre-COVID-19 period?
Luttrell: Aside from COVID-related fraud, such as vaccination schemes, the fundamental methods of remain relatively unchanged. Instead, the shift has occurred in the sophistication and amount of fraud which, as I mentioned, is rising across the board compared to pre-COVID numbers.
Credit, debit, and prepaid fraud were reported as the most prevalent by 63% of businesses, followed by phishing, account takeover, ACH/wire and first-person fraud. ACH/wire fraud spiked by 15% – presumably because of rising P2P usage due to social distancing and first-party, specifically “friendly or know fraud,” increased 28%. This may be attributable to chargeback fraud schemes as many Americans were unemployed, underemployed or suffering in shape or form financially, thereby increasing their pressure and rationalization of committing fraud.
Your report mentions the issue of synthetic fraud in the PPP lending program as specific challenge. Can you elaborate on this problem and what should be done?
Luttrell: A range of fraud schemes were used to exploit PPP in 2020, one of the most concerning being synthetic identity fraud (SIF). According to McKinsey, this is the fastest growing type of financial crime in the U.S. A recent report by Aite Group revealed that among 47 financial institutions surveyed, 25% experienced an increase of 10% or more since the start of the pandemic. Our own research also underscores the SIF problem, which hit an all-time high, with a 43% increase in SIF reported by respondents to the IDology Fraud Report.
SIF continues to trouble businesses, especially given the challenges associated with decentralized fraud teams working from home and the need to interpret and apply once-in-a-lifetime changes in consumer behavior and the swings and noise they create. There are also the problems created by the never-ending stream of data breaches, and the use of personally identifiable information gathered from phishing attempts and other scams that continue to thrive in the COVID era.
To quickly issue PPP loans and prevent fraud, lenders should reconsider the importance of Know Your Customer (KYC) measures. Placing a focus on strong KYC is not only best business practice, it also will help lenders prevent fraud and maintain integrity. To easily and securely ensure a borrower is who they claim to be and provide a smooth experience while battling fraud, such as SIF, the identity verification process supporting KYC should include multiple layers, control of the entire identity verification process and the flexibility to make and automatically deploy configuration changes and machine complimented with human intelligence.
How would you characterize the business world’s response to these new threats, especially in financial services?
Luttrell: The business world, as a whole, responded admirably. Consider the massive logistical shifts that needed to happen in months, if not weeks, from the mass migration of working from home to customer engagement and the shift toward digital. On a human scale, it’s a breathless achievement. Eighty-seven percent of businesses feel their organization is equipped to some degree to make the necessary changes to stay ahead of rapid digitization and COVID-19 fraud trends, indicating they recognize and perhaps, have a higher than expected sense of confidence.
Although two-thirds of Americans feel companies could be doing more to protect their identities, confidence in organizations being able to protect their data actually increased in comparison to pre-COVID-19 levels. Our data shows that financial services organizations are stepping up, forecasting larger anti-fraud investments and budgets for 2021, and leaning into a multi-layered approach to identity proofing as well as using diverse sources and types of data. Eighty percent of financial institutions expect to increase budgets on fraud deterrence in 2021, with 45% saying significantly, more so than any other industry. Though the investment varies by sub-sectors such as fintech, lenders and prepaid, prepaid firms appear to be most aggressive.
How do you think the post-COVID cybersecurity landscape will differ from the pre-COVID cybersecurity landscape?
Luttrell: The cat and mouse saga continues and the chase maze has become significantly more complicated. The lesson for many, in hindsight, is that strong, thoughtful and comprehensive digital identity verification is mission-critical. The digital handshake is essential in establishing trust.
Fraud knows no borders and the world is small and inter-related, as is identity verification. Address verification as part of identities is not only critical for accurate verification, but also for the delivery of essential items and resources. Americans have migrated much of their lives to digital, forever.
Identity collaboration between businesses and with customers will be more sought after, and technology, such as artificial intelligence, will need to be supplemented with high-touch layers of human intuition, proactive detection, fraud expertise, and consortium intelligence from other organizations. This is especially important as COVID introduces novel fraud schemes that can fool pre-COVID identity proofing methodologies. As was the case with major events in the past, the outcomes and unintended consequences of the pandemic are unknown but we know that fraudsters are harvesting data, scheming, probing new defenses, partnering with nation states and utilizing artificial intelligence to scale fraud on a global basis.
A black-owned, family-focused financial wellness app, Goalsetter, has raised $3.9 million in seed funding. The company said that the new funding will help it boost subscriber growth and enhance the Goalsetter offering, which includes a debit card (Cashola) and a financial literacy curriculum designed specifically for teens and youth.
The round was led by Astia, and featured participation from PNC Bank, Mastercard, US Bank, Northwestern Mutual Future Ventures, Elevate Capital, Portfolia Rising America, and Pipeline Angels, among other investors.
To be fair, “among other investors” is doing quite a bit of work. Goalsetter’s roster of angel investors is impressive, with National Basketball Association stars Kevin Durant, Chris Paul, and Baron Davis – as well as philanthropist Robert F. Smith, among the ranks. Also involved in the funding were actors Sterling K. Brown and Ryan Bathe.
Goalsetter, featured last fall as the Apple App of the Day, includes financial literacy modules that award users money for correctly answering questions on financial education topics (“Learn to Earn”), as well as a feature (“Learn Before You Burn”) that enables parents to freeze their child’s Goalsetter debit card if they have not completed their financial literacy lessons in a timely fashion.
Goalsetter is not only black-owned, it is female-run, as company founder and CEO Tanya Van Court underscored in the firm’s funding announcement. “As the only black-woman owned fintech company focused on the kid’s fintech space, we know how critical early finance education is to all kids in our country, and to black and brown kids in particular,” she said. Van Court emphasized the importance of raising children who are “smart spenders” rather than merely “conspicuous consumers,” and added that learning about financial education, saving, and investing are “the building blocks for achieving generational wealth.”
Founded in 2015 and headquartered in New York City, Goalsetter is partnered with Evolve Bank & Trust, which provides the company’s savings accounts. Goalsetter’s’ Cashola Prepaid Debit Mastercard is issued by MetaBank.
As part of our ongoing #WomeninFinTech series, we spoke with Kathy Strasser, Chief Operating Officer/Chief Information Officer at IncredibleBank about her experiences in and thoughts on the fintech industry today.
To start, please tell us a little about yourself and how you became involved in banking and fintech?
Strasser: After a 20-year career at Wausau Financial Systems (WFS) in various roles throughout the organization, I was approached by IncredibleBank’s CEO Todd Nagel (then River Valley Bank). He wanted a non-banker with a technology background to help him launch the internet-only division of River Valley Bank, IncredibleBank, into a leading digital bank reaching customers across the entire United States.
I never imagined myself working for a bank until 2015 when I joined as the EVP and Chief Operations Officer. Over the next few years, I’d play a key role in accelerating the growth of the bank and its digital transformation on both the technology and people side of our business.
While technology and payments are strong interests of mine, I’m most passionate about leading people, which is what IncredibleBank allows me to do. In my current position, I’m responsible for helping people find their motivation and providing them with purpose and the autonomy to be brilliant at what they do. By nature, I’m a problem solver, change guru, and love everything happening with digital transformation.
How have you seen the financial services industry change in 2020, and where is it headed in 2021?
Strasser: The work we’ve done over the past five years prepared us for this shift to digital technology. Our people were ready to meet the needs of our customers in a remote environment. We leaned on the expertise of employees from all parts of the organization for the PPP program, in addition to helping 1,000+ homeowners buy new or refinance their homes. We launched Zelle in September, made digital improvements to our customer experience, implemented new technology to help facilitate the PPP program, plus we became the first community bank to go live on TCH RTP in March.
We know that the momentum we have seen with digital is only going to continue and competition will shift as BigTech continues to make its foray into financial services. There are a few areas that are always top of mind for us: digital transformation and growth, continuing to master our incredible customer experience, talent management, employee engagement, and continuous growth in our business lines.
How can community banks make sure they’re not being left behind, especially when it comes to embracing new digital technology?
Strasser: Companies like Apple, Amazon, PayPal, and Starbucks are already in the payments space, which is traditionally a medium for banks to grow and retain deposit accounts as well as build customer relationships. We’ve remained competitive by prioritizing the customer experience and partnering with companies like Jack Henry to deliver new and innovative technology. Community banks need to stay at pace with this broader competitive market and having a differentiated customer experience that is both personal and meaningful is a strong start.
What does digital transformation entail within your institution?
Strasser: Digital transformation is about technology and people. Our people come first in our digital strategy and transformation, which is why culture must be approached with a growth mindset.
We start by mapping out our digital competencies and identifying areas of focus that will move the needle on customer experience. Some of these included the ability to confidently move between different devices and building relationships via digital channels. Our key values for our digital culture are speed, openness, and autonomy. Technology had to improve processes, productivity, and customer experience, delivering direct value to our institution and customers.
How can women help other women climb within the industry, and do you have any advice for those starting out their careers in technology or finance?
Strasser: The future is bright, and I highly recommend technology and finance for everyone, especially women. Women in the field can be a good example and share their experiences; I’m always willing to mentor, meet with young people getting ready to go to college, or those figuring out the next step in their career.
I’d give the following advice: 1) Focus on your role and how it contributes to the success of your company; 2) Seize new opportunities and don’t be afraid to ask; 3) Learn every single day; 4) Build relationships and your network; 6) Find guidance from someone greater.
What are fintechs and banks missing right now that women are uniquely positioned to help with?
Strasser: With diversity comes a background of many different experiences and approaches to problem-solving, disagreements, negotiations, leadership style, and approach. Dynamics and conversations change when the table is filled with both men and women and as a result collaboration and innovation happen. For example, knowing a large percentage of women make household decisions is important when creating and seeking feedback on new products and features. For any growing company, it’s important to have a diversified pool of candidates to choose from, and that includes women.
Drentlaw is a fourth generational banker, who is committed to serving her community and keeping the bank within the family. She is passionate about the uniqueness of community banks and their importance in the financial industry – especially given the role of community banks in the recent disbursement of Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans. Drentlaw continues to build on and add to the bank’s family-like culture, developing leaders, and helping her team achieve strategic plans. She’s also involved in her local chamber of commerce, mentorship organizations, and non-profits.
What got you interested in finance and banking, and what do you enjoy most in your role?
AnitaDrentlaw: Banking has been a family business for five generations, and I’m proud to carry on our family traditions and legacies. I’ve found community banking to be a perfect fit with my personality, lifestyle, and values.
What I like most about the role is the variety; it all starts with how we’re able to help and give back to the community. Community banking is about finding ways to work together to make something great. On any given day, I’m working with four generations of my family, including my daughter who worked with us over the summer.
I’ve also enjoyed being able to create a culture that makes everyone feel like they’re part of this family; they want to be here and are as proud of the New Market Bank as we are.
Are there family legacies you hope to pass onto future generations as it relates to the bank and its culture?
Drentlaw: Each generation builds upon our family’s culture to create something stronger. We have a great leadership development program focused on developing our team as well as the next generation of bankers. Our family is committed to staying a family-owned bank; our community has an appreciation for our commitment to staying a family-owned institution and giving back. That is a big part of our legacy.
I want to pass on the idea that not everything is black and white. I came from an accounting background where I believed everything always had to be perfect. But my dad changed this for me. He told me to accept that 80% is sometimes good enough and sometimes there’s gray in the world. This challenged me to think beyond my idea of perfection and do the same for others at our bank.
What is the difference between managing and leading? And how does it impact the bank’s culture?
Drentlaw: In the leadership development program that we have attended, our instructor, Erik Therwanger of ThinkGREAT, always says, “manage the work, but lead the people.” I think that statement is so true. We’re a bank that likes to lead; we empower our team to be leaders and provide them with the tools necessary to be successful. Being a leader requires having a stake in the game. We want our team to feel like they’re part of a larger vision and mission – one that they’ve helped create, have ownership in, and feel strongly about accomplishing. We’re not in the business of managing our employees, but want them to feel like the bank is just as much a part of their family as it ours.
Why is it important to strike a balance between in-person and digital interactions these days?
Drentlaw: There’s a place for both in-person banking and digital interactions, and the pandemic has certainly proved this concept. The need to move to a largely digital environment, for our team as well as customers, was possible thanks to the modern technologies we’ve added from partners like Jack Henry.
Moving forward, we must be available to customers whenever, wherever, and however we can be. While digital has expanded our customer touchpoints, it’s not – and shouldn’t be – the only way we communicate and build relationships. People bank at community banks like ours for the relationship; we’re the people who care – the ones at the football games, church events, restaurants. People might not think brick and mortar is important, yet branches aren’t completely obsolete, and customers still visit them. We want to be there for our customers for things they’d prefer to do in-person, as well as those that they choose to do online. For us, it’s about offering choices to our customers to meet their lifestyles and banking needs.
Why is advocating for women – and yourself – important in the industry?
Drentlaw: As women in the fintech industry, we have a duty to inspire and show other women what success can be. Advocating for yourself means standing up for what you believe in and never settling for anything less than you deserve. It’s about being brave enough to have the tough conversations and challenging the status quo. For younger women, it’s about finding their voice and tapping into the wisdom needed to reach the next level. We’re building the next generation of leaders in the industry, and that must include strong female leadership and influence.
Where do you think the future of fintech is heading over the next 12 months?
Drentlaw: This past year has shown the importance of community. We were able to help 360 small businesses in the South Metro tap into the Paycheck Protection Program – many of which were not existing customers. These loans infused more than $25 million into small businesses and our communities.
Next, fintech can help community bankers continue to revive our economies with greater customer insights that allow us to be more consultative and develop even deeper relationships. I have a feeling we’re going to see strong use cases launched to strengthen the relationships that consumers and businesses have with their bankers.
This is a guest post co-written by Dr. Anette Broløs, an independent fintech analyst, and Dr. Erin B. Taylor, author of the book Materializing Poverty: How the Poor Transform Their Lives.
Have you ever thought how strange it is that financial solutions for women should be marketed in pink? Or what financial services firms are missing by not fully meeting female customers’ needs? After all, studies indicate that financial services are missing out on nearly $800 billion in profits because they do not provide services developed with women in mind.
We set out to answer these questions in a recent report, published by the European Women Payments Network (EWPN) in partnership with Keen Innovation.
What was the impetus of this report?
It is well documented—across countries and cultures—that women undertake most daily household economic activities (transactions and decisions). Women control or influence 80% of financial decisions and 85% of consumer spending.
Women’s income, retirement savings and investments are lower than men’s – but are now rising fast. And though 25% to 30% of entrepreneurs are women, they only access 2% to 5% of venture capital.
We wondered why so few financial services were developed for women – and why this does not seem to be a concern for researchers. We found that there is a nascent industry developing in this area, and there are products on the market for women to invest, insure, save, manage money, access credit, and more.
We discovered more than 60 organizations and their range of new services provided for women or primarily used by women.
We found that these services are anchored in women’s everyday life situations, and are often delivered in a community setting that offers learning possibilities. Organisations like Ellevest or Voleo help women start saving and investing, and companies like I Fund Women support female entrepreneurs. Financial management apps, such as Nav.it, help women see an overview of their finances and feel more comfortable with their economy.
What are you hoping that readers get out of the report?
We hope that readers from all parts of the industry will consider following up on the potential to serve women better. We hope they will design and develop services with and for their customers.
We also hope that this first overview will bring about more studies in financial decision making and people’s ability to talk about their finances. Research shows that people generally, but especially women, are under-equipped to have the conversations they need to help them make informed decisions.
Finally, we want you to help us update the ecosystem. We are planning a new publication that looks further into the market for financial services for women and the characteristics of the companies that offer them. We invite you to tell us about your own efforts to develop financial services for women, and your experiences in trying to close the gender gap.
Dr. Anette Broløs of Broløs Consult is a network leader working with strategic innovation and partnerships. Broløs spent six years as CEO of Copenhagen FinTech Innovation and Research, and has extensive experience as a C-level banking executive. She is co-organizer of the Research section of the European Women Payments Network.
Dr. Erin Taylor of Canela Consulting is the author of the book Materializing Poverty: How the Poor Transform Their Lives. Taylor has been designing and carrying out empirical research since 2003 in diverse contexts across the globe. She is co-organizer of the Research section of the European Women Payments Network.
For the second year in a row, Deutsche Bank is teaming up with Google, Atos, TechQuartier to help make a difference for women in fintech. The bank announced the launch of its second Female FinTech Competition this week, featuring a spot in Atos’ Fintech Programme as the competition’s top prize.
“The Female FinTech competition is not only a wonderful opportunity to showcase technology talent, it is also a way for Deutsche Bank to engage and support a community of female founders and help foster innovation,” Global Head of Deutsche Bank’s Strategy & Innovation Network Gil Perez explained.
Fintech companies with a female founder – or with women in their top management – are encouraged to apply. The first prize – participation in the Atos FinTech Program – also features access to the FinHub, a fast-track onboarding program that connects companies with Atos’ network of financial services organization partners – and Atos Financial Services Sandbox – which makes it easy for fintech startups to combine their expertise to develop and test new ideas and solutions.
In addition to the first prize, other program winners will have the opportunity to access resources from both Deutsche Bank and Google Innovation, including the chance to work in Deutsche Bank’s Innovation Lab with the team’s experts and coaches.
The Female FinTech Competition is also in the market for coaches. Women interested in coaching program entrants are also encouraged to sign up and indicate their area of knowledge and expertise.
The deadline for applications is September 23, with applicants submitting their business cases by September 30. A short list of six finalists will be announced on October 15, with the winners announced on October 29.
“We still have a gender gap in the finance industry,” said Sima Ohadi, Chief Behavioral Officer at Odonatech and the program’s inaugural winner last year. “Yet the future looks bright in part thanks to initiatives like the Atos Female Fintech Competition. I participated as a co-founder of Odonatech in the Atos Fintech Competition last year, which helped me get to know some very ambitious and innovative women in this field.”
In the latest example of the New Economy leveraging the best of the Old Economy, online payments innovator Stripe (founded 2010) announced that it has hired Dhivya Suryadevara as its new Chief Financial Officer. Suryadevara will leave her position as CFO for General Motors, a company that was founded in 1908.
“Dhivya is a rare leader who has run an industry-leading leviathan but also gets excited about enabling the brand-new products and the yet-to-be invented products, too,” Stripe co-founder John Collison said in a statement. “She has the expertise and the instincts to help steer Stripe through our growth in the years ahead.”
More than just the corporation’s most recent CFO, Suryadevara was a long-time General Motors veteran. She joined the company’s Treasurer’s Office as a Senior Financial Analyst in 2004, and became the Chief Investment Officer and CEO of GM Asset Management by 2013. Appointed Vice President of Corporate Finance for General Motors in 2017, she was named CFO a year later. Suryadevara was educated at the University of Madras and earned an MBA from Harvard Business School.
As CFO for General Motors, Suryadevara oversaw financial operations involving more than $100 billion in annual revenue. She was credited for providing leadership in capital allocation decision-making, and for “spearheading numerous strategic transactions for the company.”
“I am very excited to join Stripe at a pivotal time for the company,” Suryadevara said. “Stripe’s mission to increase the GDP of the internet is more important now than ever.” She emphasized her enjoyment of “leading complex, large-scale businesses” adding that she hopes to “accelerate Stripe’s already steep growth trajectory.”
News of the new CFO encouraged some speculation that Stripe may be readying for an initial public offering. Company co-founder John Collison had said this is not the case.
Suryadevara’s hire comes shortly after Stripe made another major appointment: bringing on Mike Clayville as Chief Revenue Officer. Clayville arrives at the company having served as Vice President of Worldwide Commercial Sales and Business Development at Amazon Web Services (AWS).
In other recent Stripe news, the company announced that it was expanding its partnership with Jobber, a home service management provider that will leverage Stripe Capital to help its partner businesses get the financing they need to grow. Last month, Stripe teamed up with Irish online marketplace DoneDeal, enabling sellers on the platform to use Stripe for secure, contactless transactions.
San Francisco, California-based Stripe has raised $1.6 billion in funding, including $600 million announced in April as part of a Series G round that began last fall.
