Digitization and digital and contactless technologies affect and direct the advancement of the banking and financial industries. To maintain a competitive edge industry needs to innovate, which requires strategy, planning and execution. In this age of digitization and globalization, failing to adopt an innovation-based approach results in lower growth and reduced profitability.
Community Banks and Credit Unions face a myriad of challenges and competitors, including IT budgets, customer requirements, and strategic obstacles to the challenges presented by neo-banks, regional banks, fintechs and other financial service providers.
If there is one thing that the past year has taught us, it is that customers have adapted to change. Bank customers using online, and mobile has increased more than 50%. Many of these customers will never go back face to face, wet-signing, or checks.
Remaining relevant today, and more importantly tomorrow, can seem a daunting, expensive, and lengthy task. What are the key steps that Community Banks and Credit Unions can take to develop a strategy to embrace the opportunity presented by the move to digital banking?
1. Clearly define the target market for the services:
- Business or Consumer
- Young or Old
- Retail or Enterprise
2. Define what relevant digital products and services to launch:
- Digital wallet vs. Internet banking
- Integrated Business and Consumer Debit or Credit cards
- Electronic Onboarding, Lending, Deposits, Wealth Management, Payments, ACH Processing, Loyalty, Point of Sale, AML/CFT, etc
- Bank specific custom products to address Farmers, Merchants, Gen-Z, Underbanked and many more
3. Define the go to marketing strategy:
- Start small and grow.
- Business vs. Consumer
- Acquisition vs. Maintain
- Digital vs. Direct or Indirect marketing
4. Select the right partner
5. Understand the financial options available to deploy these services
- Own or lease
- Cloud vs. on-premises
- Pay as you grow
Innovation in Community Banks and Credit Unions doesn’t need to be linked to asset size. Cloud-based digital banking applications and services, delivered from standards-compliant data centers such as Azure and AWS, enable banks of all sizes to select from a suite of SaaS based products and services, branded to their corporate and go to market branding.
Digital banking continues to attract a growing number of consumer and business customers. To meet these demands, Youtap will manage your technology and provide you with white-label applications and services. You concentrate on what you know best: continuing to build long-lasting, successful partnerships with your customers.
