Scott Albahary – Chief Strategist, Financial Services

For those of us closely looking over bank results for any signs of an economic recession, there is more evidence that we’ll be there soon if we’re not already here. Wells Fargo announced on July 15th that revenue and profits missed estimates. Of interest was CEO Charlie Scharf expects “credit losses to increase from these […]

Back in May, we wrote about how various factors were converging to put a world of hurt on auto lenders. Auto loan originations hit a record high during the pandemic, total outstanding debt grew, and constrained inventory and pent-up demand drove new and used car prices (and monthly payments) to record highs. We highlighted the […]

It really is a mixed up, muddled up, shook up world. It seems like everyone in 2021 took out a loan on a new car, even though we all knew supplies were low and demand was high. As the Financial Times pointed out: “Americans went shopping for cars in a big way during the pandemic. […]

Mask mandates are being lifted across the country. California, New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware, Oregon, Illinois, and Rhode Island have announced plans to lift their statewide mask mandates or school mask mandates, and more states have indicated they will revisit mask requirements in the near future. If you have been holding back on making investments to […]

We shouldn’t be that surprised. A couple of weeks ago, Crypto.com, one of the fastest-growing cryptocurrency platforms, was hacked on January 17, 2022. One area mentioned by the company as an issue was a gap in its multi-factor authentication (MFA) system. A statement issued by Crypto.com on January 20th said, “transactions were being approved without […]

Previously, I described the benefits of personalization and outlined the changes a company should make to successfully implement a personalization program. Today, I will outline what companies should be doing right now to prepare. While many financial institutions are conceptually “on board” and heavily investing in various facets of customer intelligence, the “Netflix” of banking […]

My previous blog analyzed customer intelligence and the benefits it provides. This blog will show the benefits of personalization and outline what’s required to implement a personalization program. Financial services companies that have implemented personalization report positive results, including: 60% increase in revenue per customer 81% increase in customer retention 87% increase in customer engagement […]

My last blog dove into the customer data management challenges financial companies might encounter when starting the personalization journey. Today, I’ll address customer intelligence and the benefits it provides. Personalization requires a solid data management and analysis foundation, and financial services companies are starting to leverage customer intelligence platforms to collect, analyze, and contextualize vast […]

Previously, I discussed personalization’s future in financial services. Today, I will dive into the customer data management challenges financial companies might encounter when starting their personalization journey. Data management in any financial services firm is complex. It needs to address integrating identifiers across available touchpoints and devices, customer preferences and interests, data sources that include […]

“The future of banking is going to be very personalized — one to one. Banks need to become more relevant in the moment for a consumer who has a particular problem. The power of data and artificial intelligence can help us do that.” Lisa Frazier, Head of the Wells Fargo Innovation Group Personalization is the […]

Banks should use Covid-19 as an opportunity to assess their end-to-end digital account-opening capabilities. Here are the top 10 questions they should ask themselves: How long does it take to open an account digitally? Seventy-five percent of banks report it takes longer than five minutes to open an account, with close to 30% taking longer […]

Nobody in the banking industry planned for a year like 2020. The list of Covid-19 repercussions is almost endless and includes supervisory and compliance functions that were never designed for remote work: closed branches; overwhelmed call centers and digital channels; near-zero interest rates; greater credit risk and default rates of corporate and retail customers; economic […]