The Buzz on Bank Automation News artwork

The Buzz on Bank Automation News

291 episodes - English - Latest episode: 20 days ago - ★★★★ - 3 ratings

The new podcast covering current trends and intriguing topics in automation and beyond courtesy of Bank Automation News, the definitive source for insights and news surrounding automation in financial services.

Formerly Bank Innovation, since 2009 Bank Automation News has been at the forefront of tracking the evolution of digital banking. With the future of innovation pointing to opportunities in automation, we have transitioned the focus of our coverage to continue to provide insights and information that guide industry professionals to better results.

Automation is the next frontier of financial services technology. It will improve or transform most banking processes from customer experience to compliance, lending solutions and investment. Automation technology will create the greatest transformation at financial institutions since the digitization of financial services in the wake of the Credit Crisis. Banks that are not already investing in automation technologies must begin shifting their focus to remain competitive. This transition requires investment in training and educational resources.

Bank Automation News is the first and only news and education source dedicated to fostering this emerging segment of financial services technology.

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Episodes

How FIs can address data management challenges

April 04, 2023 21:01 - 9 minutes - 5.66 MB

Proper data management is something all financial institutions strive for, but it is not easily achieved due to data siloes and drift.    While the process of organizing and gathering the right data can set banks apart from their competitors, using the right tools to accomplish this is critical, and something all FIs need to address, Jocelyn Houle, senior director of data governance at Securiti.Ai tells Bank Automation News in this episode of “The Buzz” podcast. 

ChatGPT and the power of AI tech for banks

March 28, 2023 19:21 - 25 minutes - 47.4 MB

Listen as Sanat Rao, chief executive and head of software-as-a-service provider Infosys Finacle, discusses the evolution of AI and implications of ChatGPT for the financial institutions. 

Citi Treasury and Trade Solutions improves CX, grows revenue 34%

March 24, 2023 21:07 - 18 minutes - 34.2 MB

Listen as Naveed Anwar, global head of TTS digital and data at Citi, discusses Citi’s use of data and customer feedback along with new advancements in data analytics via AI, machine learning and robotic process automation.  

The downfall of Silicon Valley Bank

March 21, 2023 21:25 - 11 minutes - 9.47 MB

The swift collapse of Silicon Valley Bank has shaken the banking industry during the past two weeks.  SVB engaged in risky lending practices and did not have the necessary safeguards in place, leading to a run on deposits that eventually sent the bank into receivership, Mike Sekits, co-founder and managing director of community bank partnership group BTech Consortium, tells Bank Automation News in this episode of “The Buzz” podcast. 

How embedded banking can reduce fraud

March 14, 2023 17:50 - 9 minutes - 6.59 MB

Adoption of embedded banking by both businesses and customers is on the rise, and it is helping to reduce the risk of payment fraud along the way.  For consumers, tokenizing user credentials for their protection is a benefit; meanwhile, businesses gain security by using integrated systems to accept payments safely, Bennie Pennington, vice president of embedded banking and integrated payments at $190 billion KeyBank, tells Bank Automation News in this episode of “The Buzz” podcast. ...

Building customer trust via embedded finance

March 07, 2023 22:17 - 10 minutes - 4.67 MB

Automation has grown at an exponential rate since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the decline of personal interface may leave some bank clients wanting more.  Embedded finance can assist by building trust between banks and their customers, Antonio Soares, co-founder and chief executive at Brazilian payments platform Dock, tells Bank Automation News in this episode of “The Buzz” podcast. 

Archway Software president, WaFd CTO offers preview of panel at Bank Automation Summit US 2023

February 21, 2023 23:49 - 5 minutes - 9.3 MB

 Listen as Dustin Hubbard discusses the launch of Archway Software and his plans for next week’s Bank Automation Summit U.S.

ChatGPT at work

February 16, 2023 23:19 - 1 minute - 3.25 MB

AI fintech Fairplay used ChatGPT to work through an internal software engineering problem. Listen as Fairplay’s Chief Executive Kareem Saleh explains the use case and potential opportunities for financial instututions.

U.S. regulations for open banking, digital wallets

February 14, 2023 22:24 - 9 minutes - 17.4 MB

Digital wallet providers are creating customer-centric experiences as more clients desire open banking with control over their finances.  Listen as Curve U.S. CEO Amanda Orson discusses the digital wallet and where regulations stand for open banking in the U.S. compared to Europe. 

Large banks partner to launch new digital wallet

February 07, 2023 21:35 - 13 minutes - 7.69 MB

Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo are among seven banks teaming to launch a digital wallet in the second half of the year to rival Apple Pay.  As the new digital wallet is rolled out in North America, customer experience should be at the forefront, as use of digital wallets is already high. Forty-three percent of North Americans are using digital wallets, Cecilia Tamez, chief strategy officer at cross-border payment platform Dandelion, tells Bank Automation News in thi...

Using data to drive customer loyalty

January 31, 2023 21:53 - 15 minutes - 28.8 MB

Listen as James White, industry principal for banking at fintech Total Expert, discusses today’s macroeconomy, the rising rate environment, and how banks can use consumer data and automation to enhance their financial health.

How banks can use ChatGPT to improve financial literacy

January 24, 2023 19:30 - 12 minutes - 8.1 MB

Banks are looking to use AI to improve their financial literacy following Microsoft's $10 billion investment in OpenAI and their ChatGPT technology. ChatGPT technology is “a forerunner and a new class of artificial intelligence that's basically composing written dialogues and could lead to endless possibilities for banks,” Joe Robinson, chief executive, and co-founder at customer relationship management platform Hummingbird, tells Bank Automation News in this episode of “The Buzz” po...

Direct deposits and the CFPB’s new open banking rule

January 18, 2023 23:21 - 26 minutes - 48.9 MB

The combination of today’s uncertain macroeconomic conditions and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s new open banking rule coming this year has consumers wanting quick access to cash from their banks under the watchful eye of regulators. Listen as Kurt Lin, Pinwheel chief executive, and Raj Date, advisor at Pinwheel and former deputy director of the CFPB, discuss today’s macroeconomy and the importance of secure direct deposit offerings ahead of the CFPB’s new open banking po...

How FIs can combat synthetic accounts

January 10, 2023 18:21 - 12 minutes - 7.36 MB

Synthetic identity fraud remains a constant challenge for banks, with a growing number of fraudsters attacking demand deposit accounts since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, one in three accounts within fintech and retail banking are synthetic, Mike Cook, vice president of commercialization – fraud solutions at identify verification fintech Socure, tells Bank Automation News in this episode of “The Buzz” podcast. 

Digital banking predictions for 2023

January 03, 2023 20:31 - 16 minutes - 9.3 MB

Banks are considering where to invest in 2023 to meet client needs, ranging from digital offerings to customer experience. Understanding the priorities of a vast client base can help large banks like $1.8 trillion Wells Fargo decide which products or services are needed, as well as strategy for the year ahead, Reetika Grewal, executive vice president and head of digital transformation, commercial and corporate and investment bank at Wells Fargo, tells Bank Automation News in this epi...

How a neobank keeps SMBs afloat

December 20, 2022 20:32 - 9 minutes - 4.64 MB

Small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) must navigate several challenges during their first years in business.  Understanding the needs of SMBs is critical, as more than 50% of small businesses fold within the first five years, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Listen as Eytan Bensoussan discusses the challenges faced by many SMBs and how they can use data to discover new business opportunities. 

Preparing for the CFPB’s new open banking rule

December 13, 2022 22:03 - 16 minutes - 30.6 MB

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) plans to propose a new open banking rule in 2023 requiring financial institutions to share consumer data upon consumers’ requests. Along with the new parameters come fresh opportunities for exploitation of data from bad actors — and financial institutions should remain aware of gaps in the rule that fraudsters could take advantage by implementing authentication processes to secure consumer data.

How treasurers, CFOs can de-risk idle cash through automation

December 06, 2022 22:18 - 12 minutes - 23.2 MB

Company treasurers and chief financial officers are worried about access to cash and the risks associated with keeping cash on hand amid drastic changes to the investment market during the past six months that have followed the pandemic, stimulus payments and rising inflation. Listen as Stephane Lintner discusses how corporate finance professionals can access and de-risk their idle cash through automation.

How banks can use data to optimize client relationships

November 29, 2022 21:41 - 13 minutes - 7.54 MB

Banks can onboard and meet the evolving needs of business customers when they integrate and use data analytics to tailor the customer experience. Listen as Dean Jenkins, vice president of product marketing at e-banking platform Q2, discusses how understanding what the data reveals about clients in this episode of “The Buzz” podcast.

How FIs can improve CX through site search personalization

November 22, 2022 22:53 - 16 minutes - 30.2 MB

Raleigh, N.C.-based First Citizens Bank is leveraging the services of a fintech to offer search personalization and improve the customer experience. The $108 billion bank has a search bar in the middle of their homepage which allows customers to get direct answers to exactly what they are looking for at the start of a transaction. Listen as Shane Closser, head of industry of financial services at digital experience software provider Yext, discusses how banks can enhance CX through se...

Deploying AI-based chatbots at community FIs

November 15, 2022 21:05 - 11 minutes - 5.16 MB

Community banks can contend with their larger counterparts by leveraging artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbots to improve both customer experience and internal efficiencies. Listen as Murali Mahalingam, senior vice president of AI business at Eltropy, discusses how community banks can implement and deploy virtual assistants using AI-based technologies in this episode of “The Buzz” podcast.

Driving SME business using payment cards

October 18, 2022 20:50 - 12 minutes - 7.78 MB

Fintech partnerships allow smaller financial institutions (FIs) to remain competitive in digital banking. Listen as Corserv Chief Executive Jerry Craft discusses how smaller community banks can leverage fintechs in this episode of “The Buzz.”

Bank and fintech partnerships drive innovation

October 11, 2022 18:16 - 20 minutes - 18.5 MB

Banks and fintechs are realizing in today’s volatile economic environment that they need each other to survive, which is spurring innovative partnerships. Listen as Vijay Sondhi, CEO of NMI, discusses the complexities of banks and fintechs partnerships in this episode of "The Buzz."

BaaS partnerships deliver the highest ROI

October 04, 2022 22:02 - 13 minutes - 25.4 MB

Banking-as-a-service (BaaS) provider Treasury Prime connects banks and fintechs to improve customer experience and build relationships. Listen as Jeff Nowicki, vice president of banking, at Treasury Prime discusses how the company’s technology is integrated, recent partnerships and why partnering with a BaaS provider delivers high ROI.

BankUnited’s Lehmbeck previews discussion points for next week’s Bank Automation Summit

September 12, 2022 20:16 - 1 minute - 3 MB

Michael Lehmbeck, chief technology officer at BankUnited, gives Bank Automation News a glimpse into what he will share with attendees of next week’s Bank Automation Summit panel discussion.

How AI improves the commercial loan process

September 01, 2022 20:36 - 25 minutes - 23.8 MB

Artificial intelligence (AI)-based software can streamline the commercial loan process and remove inconsistencies in the traditional approach many financial institutions use today. Listen as Hugh Shannon, head of sales and customer success, at OakNorth discusses how AI can improve the commercial loan process in this episode of “The Buzz.”

How banks can attract millennial, Gen Z customers

August 15, 2022 20:46 - 12 minutes - 23.7 MB

Millennials and Gen Z customers are opting for a frictionless banking experience through automation in digital payments, loan approvals and money transfers. Listen as Bryce Deeney discusses how banks and financial institutions can target younger generations by offering digital installment payments and other automated processes.

How automation, AI are changing the compliance officer role

August 08, 2022 20:53 - 22 minutes - 40.5 MB

The role of the chief compliance officer (CCO) at financial institutions has evolved as technology, automation and access to data present new opportunities and challenges for executives. Listen as StarCompliance Chief Executive Jennifer Sun and Chief Technology Officer David Rowland discuss the dynamic role of compliance officers as technology advances at financial institutions.

Banks lean on technology and talent to improve CX

July 25, 2022 19:53 - 13 minutes - 24.2 MB

After a financial institution has successfully digitized its loan origination and account opening system, improving the user experience is the next step. Listen as Kristiane Mandraki, director of business development and marketing at software developer fintech Praxent, details how financial institutions can leverage automation in their back-end processes to enhance their customer experience.

How AI-powered automation can streamline financial reporting

July 13, 2022 22:05 - 17 minutes - 32 MB

Businesses looking for quick credit-decisioning can benefit from financial reporting that gives banks a clear picture of data. Listen as Sid Saxena, chief executive of artificial intelligence (AI)-powered accounting automation platform Docyt discusses the technology, its integration and how lenders can benefit from automated accounting to streamline decision-making.

Cogent Bank launches TassatPay’s real time payment solution

July 07, 2022 19:51 - 10 minutes - 19.3 MB

The $1 billion Cogent Bank recently integrated blockchain-based, real-time payment platform TassatPay to provide its business-to-business (B2B) clients with 24/7 instant payment options.

RBC’s cybersecurity takes a full-court press approach 3

June 28, 2022 20:58 - 24 minutes - 17.9 MB

Cybersecurity measures are a priority at Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), from monitoring and mitigation to solution investment. Banks rarely consider cybersecurity a finished process; the nimbleness of fraudsters and quick development of new hacking technology spur perpetually evolving security measures for risk and anti-money laundering (AML) divisions at most large financial institutions. But keeping cybersecurity agile goes far beyond yearly tweaks and minor investments, Shekher Pur...

The rise of synthetic fraud in BNPL

June 21, 2022 13:30 - 13 minutes - 25.6 MB

Synthetic identities are increasingly used to attack buy now, pay later (BNPL) offerings, says Mike Cook, vice president of fraud solutions commercialization at identity verification firm Socure.   “Synthetic identities take a different bunch of different forms, but basically, they're just identities that don't really exist,” Cook tells Bank Automation News in this episode of “The Buzz” podcast. “Fraudsters will always attack a new vertical.”  Socure works with five of the six big...

Listen: Tech determines customer emotions, intentions by tone of voice

June 17, 2022 19:30 - 9 minutes - 8.35 MB

Customer service systems often automate call recording and processing analysis, but you can tell a lot by detecting just the tone of a conversation.    Los Angeles-based Behavioral Signals says its technology is more effective than humans at determining empathy and intention. Rather than attempting to detect the actual words being said and how they’re used, there is the “acoustic” content of a conversation, Chief Executive Rana Gujral tells Bank Automation News in this episode of ...

Best practices for banks using intelligent document processing

June 16, 2022 21:31 - 13 minutes - 24.9 MB

Use cases for intelligent document processing (IDP) include automating the know your customer (KYC) process.  The KYC process previously was performed by humans, which led to plenty of effort and errors, says Sateesh Seetharamiah, director at artificial intelligence and automation company EdgeVerve. Using IDP, one “very large U.S. financial bank” is now able to process 20 million documents through automation, he tells Bank Automation News, without naming the bank.  The bank “durin...

Green Dot sees opportunity in gig economy, SMB

June 14, 2022 22:06 - 24 minutes - 45.5 MB

Two trends emerging as opportunities for banking-as-a-service (BaaS) are the growth of the gig economy and small businesses, and Green Dot, the fintech and holding company that powers services for Uber, Walmart, Amazon Flex and Intuit, is getting in on the action.   Green Dot is currently focusing on those BaaS opportunities, Amit Parikh, executive vice president of BaaS at Green Dot, tells Bank Automation News in this episode of “The Buzz” podcast.    “It's projected that 50% of ...

Why commercial banks struggle to digitize account opening

June 10, 2022 18:18 - 15 minutes - 28.3 MB

Daylight Automation co-founder explains the challenges  Commercial banks are focusing on a human-centric approach to relationships that may be holding them back when it comes to digitizing such basic functions as account opening.  This more human approach is a challenge, Art Harrison, co-founder and chief growth officer for workflow automation vendor Daylight Automation, tells Bank Automation News in this episode of “The Buzz” podcast.   “A lot of the trust and the relationships ...

Core providers, not banks, should be ‘ready’ for FedNow

June 09, 2022 22:18 - 17 minutes - 12.2 MB

The years of anticipation surrounding the development and adoption of Federal Reserve instant payment service FedNow is a case of much ado about nothing at the bank level.   Although industry experts have wondered what the upcoming adoption of FedNow will look like at financial institutions — especially community banks and credit unions —the onus will be on core providers to adapt and provide, Vinay Prabhakar, vice president of global marketing at Volante, tells Bank Automation New...

Microsoft to expand cloud-based financial services offering

June 07, 2022 20:58 - 31 minutes - 56.8 MB

Microsoft plans to expand its Cloud for Financial Services offering beyond the U.S. and Canada to Australia, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Switzerland.  Beyond geography, the expansion also includes updated language and functionality, Bill Borden, corporate vice president of worldwide financial services at Microsoft, says in today’s episode of “The Buzz” podcast. The cloud-based offering launched in November 2021.   “We'll have plans to ...

Banks should forget crypto payments, identify use cases

May 23, 2022 21:26 - 17 minutes - 13.6 MB

As crypto continues to gain traction with banks and financial institutions, experts are cautioning against moving away from its traditional use cases. Banks as diverse as $1.6 trillion Goldman Sachs and $122 billion Signature Bank have dipped their toes into the cryptocurrency pool, with Goldman Sachs originating its first Bitcoin-backed loan in April and Signature Bank holding $29 billion in cryptocurrency deposits within its blockchain-based Signet platform, according to its fir...

Akoya’s head of solutions speaks on ‘de-risking’ open finance

May 20, 2022 20:44 - 14 minutes - 9.44 MB

Before inking deals with the nation’s biggest banks and financial institutions, fintech Akoya was focused on secure open finance.   The Boston-based fintech, which originated as an application programming interface (API) division under Fidelity Investments, is now owned by several banks, including the $3.24 trillion Bank of America, $2.3 trillion Citi and $1.95 trillion Wells Fargo. The fintech tackled rampant screen scraping to shore up security at Fidelity before becoming an inde...

Upstart SVP Jeff Keltner discusses the pitfalls of digitalization-first approach

May 16, 2022 21:30 - 20 minutes - 37.4 MB

When a doctor’s office switched to virtual office visits during the COVID-19 pandemic, nurses were given iPads and sent into private rooms to connect with patients over Zoom, then waited for the doctor to make his rounds to each iPad.  While this example of an effort at digitization appears quaint, it exemplifies the perils of digitizing manual processes, says Jeff Keltner, senior vice president of business development at automation lending company Upstart. In this episode of “The ...

What quantum computing may mean for the finance industry

May 12, 2022 20:29 - 22 minutes - 42 MB

Quantum computing has implications for high-value challenges in finance, according to an industry expert.  Quantum computing can be used to measure credit decay, increase training speed for machine learning algorithms, including accelerating Monte Carlo calculations, and to optimize portfolios, explains Sam Mugel, who holds a Ph.D. in quantum computing, in this episode of Bank Automation News’ podcast, the Buzz.  "We'll use classical for some things and quantum for some things,” M...

Listen: How automation is boosting PenFed’s annual origination assets to $15B

May 10, 2022 21:40 - 13 minutes - 11 MB

PenFed owes its multibillion-dollar growth in total and origination assets to a sweeping automation overhaul.   The McLean, Va.-based credit union has automated much of its front- and back-end business processes, including origination platforms, decisioning and modelling capabilities, and credit-processing functions. And these technology overhauls were not just for show.   Automation helped the credit union grow origination annual assets to $15 billion and total assets to more tha...

BetaBank will leverage AI to level playing field for SMB lending

May 09, 2022 21:33 - 15 minutes - 13.8 MB

In this episode of "The Buzz" podcast, Bank Automation News hears from Seke Ballard, founder and CEO of Beta Financial Services, a Chicago-based holding company that has applied for a bank charter with FDIC and the state of Illinois. The resulting branchless digital bank, BetaBank, will offer basic products and services such as checking and savings accounts with a focus on automating its commercial lending process.    Part of the goal is to address the costs of lending due diligen...

How voice data can reduce fraud and ease customer friction

May 06, 2022 21:58 - 22 minutes - 41.5 MB

Sixty-three percent of respondents to a recent survey think resetting their password is a huge inconvenience and 14% would rather be stuck in rush-hour traffic than reset their password.   And ironically, at one institution, fraudsters were able to pass knowledge-based question barriers 92% of the time, while actual customers correctly answered the questions only about 48% of the time, according to a survey by voice-based security, identity and intelligence platform provider Pindro...

Banks facing ‘inevitable’ journey toward the cloud

May 02, 2022 22:38 - 10 minutes - 10.1 MB

The level of security and service that cloud infrastructures provide makes it an inevitable technology for banks and financial institutions.   Questions around operational control and security capacity dominated the cloud conversation prior to the pandemic, but the ensuing upheaval caused many banks to reexamine their processes, Narendra Mistry, chief product officer, international digital banking at core provider Finastra, tells Bank Automation News in today’s episode of “The Buzz...

Prelim CEO on low-code development and core integration

April 29, 2022 20:30 - 23 minutes - 42.8 MB

Heang Chan, co-founder and CEO of low-code solutions provider Prelim, knows firsthand how manual and cumbersome customer-facing processes can be. It’s one reason he left banking seven years ago to work in fintechs.   “I spent a considerable amount of time as a banker and realized that there were a lot of, I would say, places where we can improve the customer experience,” Chan tells Bank Automation News. “You would have customers at the bank have a certain level of expectation, even...

Automation, fraud farms aid cybercriminals

April 26, 2022 21:47 - 20 minutes - 14.3 MB

Skyrocketing scams and card-not-present (CNP) fraud losses can be blamed on bad actors leveraging automation, experts say. Consumer scams reported by bank executives have risen by double-digit percentages since the start of the pandemic, while CNP fraud losses look poised to reach $9.2 billion in 2023, a 15% year-over-year increase, according to research firm Aite-Novarica. While the scale of these attacks is unprecedented, automation plays a surprising role, David Mattei, strateg...

Potential pitfalls of cloud migration, and how to overcome them

April 21, 2022 22:53 - 16 minutes - 30.5 MB

Migrating legacy apps to the cloud is as complex as ‘a heart transplant’  Banks undoubtedly face challenges when transitioning to the cloud, including monolithic applications, a lack of resources, and legacy processes and workflows.  Many also lack a clearly defined strategy shaped by business objectives, says Chinmoy Banerjee, corporate vice president and global head of banking at consulting firm Hexaware Technologies, on this episode of “The Buzz” podcast. That can lead to probl...