Madeline McDermott

Throughout history and across cultures, women have been forbidden from opening bank accounts, owning property, and taking out loans. Fortunately, most societies today don’t legally bar women from partaking in these tasks, but the ancient history of shutting doors on women seeking greater financial control has left an undeniable gender gap in the world of […]

Today’s banking customers are far more complex than they once were. The experiences made standard by revolutionary players like Amazon and Uber have contributed to a drastic shift in customer expectations, across all industries. Customers have grown accustomed to the convenience and visibility made possible using elevated technologies and data insights. In fact, the Future […]

2023 has commenced, and rates are climbing, inflation is bubbling, and banking customers are continuing to demand hyper-personalized products and experiences from their institutions. Here are five banking trends we’re forecasting for the new year. 1. Banks are focused on efficiency initiatives to optimize their operations and lower costs. Three prominent areas where there is […]

Across industries, so much of marketing effectively comes down to timing — appealing to the right person, at the right place, at the right time. Timing for marketing financial services and products as a financial advisor is especially crucial, as many financial needs follow the timeline of milestones in an individual’s life. But financial advisors […]

Inflation reached a forty-one-year high in June, and according to the Consumer Price Index, prices have remained elevated. Many are struggling to make their dollars stretch and are looking to their financial institutions for guidance on how to better manage spending and stay afloat financially. Financial firms cannot singlehandedly control inflation, of course, but they […]

Hurricane Ian slammed into Florida’s gulf coast and Georgetown, South Carolina, on September 28, leaving countless businesses and homes — if not wholly destroyed — drowned with flood water and without power. The Insurance Information Institute, an industry-funded research group, estimates that Ian has caused at least $30 billion in damage. Now that the storm […]

This blog marks Part 1 of our Embedded Finance Blog Series and will introduce the overarching concept of embedded finance, setting us up to discuss embedded payments, embedded lending, and embedded insurance (all of which fall under the embedded finance umbrella) in future blogs. Embedded finance is the “embedding” of payment or banking software into […]

Financial Advice Isn’t Just For The Wealthy. Oftentimes, when we think of financial advisors, the upper class and those planning for retirement are first to come to mind. In fact, in a survey conducted by MagnifyMoney, 42% of respondents (notably, 48% of women and 35% of men surveyed) indicated they believe financial advisors are “only […]

Paperwork is an integral part of most processes in the financial services industry. However, in addition to draining precious natural resources, it significantly contributes to wasted time and lagged productivity within institutions. Given these pitfalls, innovators of the digital age have worked for years to redefine the concept of paperwork and disconnected electronic documents, converting […]

The financial services industry has made major strides in amping up its overall customer experience game; however, there is still a deficit in the personalization and accessibility of products and services for many Americans. The financial services industry must consider its customer experience game while also grappling with a sense of distrust from many communities […]

Buy now, pay later (BNPL) is a type of point-of-sale installment loan that partners with retailers to allow consumers to pay for their purchases in multiple equal payments. One could consider it the “layaway of the digital age,” except unlike with layaway, the consumer does not have to pay in full before taking their purchase […]

Whether asking Siri to direct you to the nearest McDonald’s or inquiring about the weather to Alexa so you can decide whether to wear a jacket, many have grown accustomed to chatting with virtual assistants powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning to gather the information they seek. Given the convenience and intuition of such […]