Finovate’s Credit Union Spotlight is back! This month at FinovateSpring – May 21 through May 23 – Finovate will host a special session to give leaders and professionals working at credit unions an opportunity to meet and network with their peers as well as with fintech innovators who are building solutions specifically for credit unions.

Coordinated by Finovate Vice President and Director of Fintech Strategy Greg Palmer and Sam Das, Managing Director of TruStage Ventures, the Credit Union Spotlight gives those running credit unions the opportunity to speak freely and candidly about the challenges – and opportunities – facing credit unions and their members today.

We caught up with Greg Palmer to talk about the state of credit unions in 2024 and what the Credit Union Spotlight at FinovateSpring this year hopes to achieve.

What challenges are credit unions facing right now?

Greg Palmer: Credit unions are facing a myriad of challenges at the moment. High interest rates and economic uncertainty are putting pressure on everyone, but local financial institutions like credit unions are particularly vulnerable. The good news is that the fintech industry is increasingly aware of what CUs are going through, and we’re seeing more and more technologies built with CUs in mind. These technologies are arriving just in time, and it’s about to get a lot easier for smaller FIs to compete with the multinational banks that tend to dominate the headlines.

How can better, deeper relationships with fintechs help credit unions overcome these challenges?

Palmer: It’s difficult for CUs to compete with larger financial institutions with bigger budgets, more marketing power, and teams of technologists creating new innovations in-house. These same factors, though, are also making it more difficult for fintech companies to sell their solutions into those big banks. The result is that a lot of newer fintech innovators are looking at credit unions as a target demographic. CUs both need the technologies they can provide and are less likely to be able to create their own alternatives, which is why it’s so imperative for us to bring both groups together.

How important is it to give credit unions the opportunity to network more exclusively with fintech providers, as well as with each other?

Palmer: Credit unions are fundamentally different from for-profit financial institutions, and they look at new technologies through a slightly different lens. That’s why it’s so important to separate out CU executives into their own space where they can network with each other, share experiences, and view new technologies together.

Finovate’s Credit Union Spotlight will take place on May 23, Day Three of FinovateSpring. The session will be held around midday and will last for approximately 90 minutes.

Read more about the Credit Union Spotlight at FinovateSpring in this feature at Finopotamus and don’t forget to take an early look at our demo companies in our Sneak Peek series. And if you haven’t picked up your ticket yet, Friday is the deadline to take advantage of big, early-bird savings. Visit our FinovateSpring hub today and save your seat!

FinovateSpring 2024 is only a few weeks away! If you haven’t picked up your ticket, there’s still time to take advantage of early-bird savings if you register by this Friday, May 10.

This year’s FinovateSpring arrives at an interesting time for fintech and financial services. For the first time in decades, a new emerging technology – AI – promises to accelerate technological innovation in our space in a way that is truly generational. At the same time, governments and regulators are struggling to keep up with an ever-shifting, ever-growing landscape of financial products and services. Add to this the sudden shift from an easy money, ZIRP-oriented world to one that is preoccupied with geopolitics and inflationary threats not seen since the 1970s.

Our spring conference – May 21 through May 23 – will tackle many of these issues and more that are driving decision-making in fintech and financial services this year. Here is a brief survey of the kinds of conversations, keynotes, and commentaries we have in store.

It’s (Still) All About AI

It may have been an underwhelming first quarter for fintech funding. But for those fintechs who have effectively embraced AI – especially generative AI – investors have remained eager to engage.

FinovateSpring will feature multiple sessions on AI and financial services starting on Day One. These include our Out of the Box Keynote Address from author Brian Solis who will explain how to determine which emerging technologies really matter to financial services providers and why. Day One will also feature a special address from Intelygenz USA President Chris Brown on practical examples of how applied AI and hyper-automation can turn cumbersome, error-prone manual processes into fully-digitized operations in weeks rather than months or years.

Later in the day, we will feature more instances of AI at work in financial services – particularly the role of AI agents and the importance of ethical AI. And we’ll finish the day with a rousing Hot or Not Expert Debate specifically on GenAI and how banks and financial services companies can move beyond the hype to learn where the technology can be most effectively deployed.

Behavior, Financial Inclusion, and Human-centricity

One of the ironies of the “AI Era” in fintech and financial services is the way it has encouraged us to look more closely at the human behaviors, biases, and beliefs that drive financial decision-making. This development connects a number of key trends in financial services – from behavioral economics to financial inclusion to the importance of human-centricity when using technology to solve problems.

This year at FinovateSpring, we will address these ideas through sessions such as our Executive Briefing on Financial Inclusion. This discussion on “the new customer base” focuses on areas of innovation – such as investing, credit building and repair, and savings – that underserved populations often struggle to access. A keynote address later in the day looks at the psychology of financial decision-making directly as a way to help financial services companies better design and market their products to customers.

On Day Two, Danielle Shamos, Chief Revenue Officer with Revive Media, will give a Special Address on maximizing brand impact and the strategic use of tools like Amazon Ads to help financial services brands boost visibility and increase demand. We will also have a session on what banks and fintechs need to know about the worldview of Gen Z.

Our Women in Fintech Briefing is back, looking at how technology, the pandemic, and new ways of working have changed the way that companies large and small attract and retain female talent. The session will also examine what is necessary to continue to drive change and to support development for women at different stages of their lives.

Deposits, Lending, and More: Winning the Battle for Banks

In some ways, FinovateSpring saves some of its most potent conversation for the final day of the conference. For all the promise of AI and the opportunities of financial inclusion, the financial services space remains a hotly contested arena in which more businesses are competing for the dollars – and the deposits – of what often feels like a shrinking number of business and retail customers.

What can banks and fintechs do to attract and engage customers at a time of unprecedented competition – from Big Tech, Big Retail, and their own rivals in the space?

Day 3 of FinovateSpring takes this question head on in a series of keynotes and power panels first thing in the morning. Cornerstone Advisors’ Managing Director Sam Kilmer will lead a keynote address on how banks can innovate to drive revenue in a challenging economic environment. The morning also features a power panel on deposit generation growth strategies for banks, and keynote on why the secret to digital growth may have less to do with technology and tactics and more to do with a “future mindset” that is shared throughout the organization.

As always we will also present our All Star Analyst panel and Investor’s Where the Smart Money is Investing Now sessions on Day Two of FinovateSpring. Another big feature of FinovateSpring is our Credit Union Spotlight. This session is designed to give credit unions a special opportunity to meet, network, and foster greater collaboration between credit unions and fintechs. We’ll share more information about the spotlight here on the Finovate blog in the days to come.

Photo by Scott Webb