tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33643516101202453572024-03-05T06:18:38.488-08:00Trent's CommentsAs the on-line complement to my very popular "Trent's Comments" newsletter, this blog will serve as a way to access the article from each newsletter, as well as timely matters of interest in between newsletter offerings.Trent Fleminghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14241748019290243041noreply@blogger.comBlogger61125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3364351610120245357.post-67483008300632815562023-06-12T10:29:00.000-07:002023-06-12T10:29:16.970-07:00Toward Smarter Growth<p> <b>Toward Smarter Growth: <i>Doing More with Existing Customers</i></b></p><div>If you've heard me speak in recent years, one of the things I consistently point out is the value of organic growth, specifically from existing customers. Doing more business with existing customers is a low cost, high value way of growing your bank. From such an effort, we see growth in several areas. First, an increase in account balances through deposit growth. Next, an expansion of services provided when existing customers take advantage of products and services they haven't used before. </div><div><br /></div><div>Another important gain here is customers concentrating more business with you. One of the assumptions I want you to operate from is that you never have all of a customer's business. Today's financial services environment practically bombards consumers (and businesses) with offers of all types of services, from many different places. I daresay that other financial entities are doing more marketing to your customers than you are. Unless you are constantly reminding customers about the products and services you offer, they may be tempted to select financial products and services from other sources. Each time this happens, your relationship is weakened. </div><div><br /></div><div>A key reason you are in such a situation is a failure to look at the whole picture of a customer. Instead, banks tend to focus on the task at hand (I call this being transactionally focused.) The preferred approach is that each time a new or prospective customer walks in the bank, or accesses one of your on-line channels, you should begin profiling them for future services. That young couple opening their first checking account? Think mortgage, car loan, home equity, credit card, and ultimately wealth management. Training your staff to think and act in this manner will greatly increase your chances for broader, stronger relationships with new and existing customers.</div><div><br /></div><div>The more products and services a customer has with you, the stronger their loyalty should be. This is true even for remote delivery channels like mobile banking, debit cards, and remote deposit capture. I coined the phrase "invisible loyalty" to emphasize that you can still create and nurture loyalty <u>and</u> profitability among customers that mainly use remote delivery channels.</div><div><br /></div><div>Here are three ideas to help you change staff approaches to customer interactions:</div><div><br /></div><div>Listening: remind your staff that customer contact is always an opportunity to learn more about that customer's needs, interests, and opportunities. Make sure your employees know the right channels to hand that information off to.</div><div><br /></div><div>Create a Theme: for a given month, emphasize one aspect of customer contact, such as listening for customer plans or upcoming events that might require a lending situation OR gathering email addresses or cell phone numbers. When you call a local utility, they will often ask for this information as a way of "updating their records" but it's really a ploy to make sure they have current contact information. Customers won't object to your doing the same.</div><div><br /></div><div>Third, don't forget about your remote channels: While you can't directly engage those customers in conversation, you can analyze their activity and look for patterns that will give you clues to their current financial situation and their needs. Lots of attention these days to data analytics. Here's your chance to leverage data you collect to improve customer service and internal efficiency. When you make a call or send an email to a primarily remote customer suggesting banking products or services they may need, it will come as a welcome surprise to them.</div><div><br /></div><div>One conflict we always have in the banking world is around "cross selling." Seldom has a term been more misused. Bank employees, because of bad experiences in the retail world, tend to think that customers don't want to be cross sold. But bank customers consistently tell us in surveys that they <u>expect</u> bank employees to tell them about new products and services. Help your employees to understand the difference. Suggesting a bank product or service is not like a certain national pharmacy brand trying to sell you a new credit card or a red foam nose.</div><div><br /></div><div><i>As always, I stand ready to assist you in these or other matters. Please write, text, message, call, or send a telegram and I'll be glad to have a discussion with you.</i></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Trent Fleming</div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="mailto:trent@trentfleming.com">trent@trentfleming.com</a></div><div style="text-align: center;">901-896-4007</div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.trentfleming.com/">www.trentfleming.com</a></div><div><br /></div><h3>Recent and Upcoming Speaking Engagements</h3><div><b> </b></div><div><b>May 2023:</b></div><ul><li><b>5:</b> Tennessee Bankers Association: Tech Conference, Murfreesboro</li></ul><div><b>July 2023:</b></div><ul><li><b>26:</b> Pennsylvania Bankers: Advanced Banking School, Penn State University</li></ul><div><b>August 2023:</b></div><ul><li><b>11:</b> Florida Bankers: Banking School, University of Florida</li><li><b>16:</b> Missouri Bankers Association: Directors Symposium, Columbia</li></ul>Trent Fleminghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14241748019290243041noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3364351610120245357.post-47274603178049358082023-03-03T11:29:00.000-08:002023-03-03T11:29:00.175-08:00Considering Your Next Core Banking Solution<p><b style="font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;">Core Banking: </span></b></p><p><b style="font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;">Considering How Your Next Core Solution Should Look</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Banking, especially customer facing components, has changed dramatically since the mid 1970s when ATMs were widely introduced. Prior to that time, for centuries, customers actually went to their bank to access their accounts (yes, it is true!). In the decades following the introduction of ATMs, technology has progressed steadily to provide additional methods of remote access. In turn, customers have embraced this technology and used it extensively.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">What remains largely unchanged, however, is the "back-end" piece of banking technology. The so-called "core" systems that process and store transactions and provide reporting ranging from statements to remote customer inquiries. One of the reasons these systems have not changed is that they work. Reliably and consistently. Much of the focus has been on the customer facing solutions, including Internet Banking, Mobile Banking, and debit/credit card solutions. As these transaction types have exploded, the pressure to process and reflect those transactions in real time has increased, moving many vendors to develop their own digital and payment solutions, or to tightly integrate their systems with third parties.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Beginning in the late 1990s, we have seen a wave of consolidation in the bank software industry, which mirrored the consolidation we saw among banks. Today, a handful of vendors control virtually all the core processing systems that are available. Technically, we call this an oligopoly - a market whereby a handful of firms control a majority of the business. In recent years (and see my article from 2015 for more background) there has been a lot of discussion about “new core” solutions. I continue to believe that the existing core providers can and will be the core providers of the future. That doesn’t mean they shouldn’t change – and they will. But in a shrinking industry, where existing software meets much of our functional needs, the opportunity for new entries into the market remains low. In economics we call this a high barrier to entry.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Summary<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Vendors who operate in the community bank space are not typically building software for specific segments. Instead, they are focused on scalability, allowing institutions to use more features and functions as they grow and need them, along with a hardware platform that is not restrained by growth.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Banking at the core level continues to be about accurately posting and reporting transactions. Each of the products manages to do that well, and for this reason, it is difficult to consider a core vendor change, due to the tremendous impact on both employees and customers. Change is difficult and there are many moving parts in today's environment that require attention during a core conversion. Interestingly, many banks that make such a change do so for service and support issues, rather than software functionality.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-size: 14pt;">The Future of Core<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Rather than re-inventing or changing core, banks to be successful must provide an improved customer experience across all delivery channels. Digital banking (nee Internet) leads the way here, with EFT (debit cards and digital wallets) a close second. Finding superior solutions that interface well to your core solution is critical. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">However, it is appropriate to consider what your next core system will look like. Ideally, your current core provider's development efforts will provide this for you, allowing you to migrate along the way rather than convert to a completely different system. Here are key factors that I believe you should consider for your "next" core system:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><u><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Architecture</span></u><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Providing a secure environment that provides stable and scalable processing. This will likely be "outsourced" so that your primary core solutions are hosted by your vendor. Potentially a "cloud based" solution but more on that in a bit.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><u><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Infrastructure</span></u><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">An environment that provides secure, but easy access to your systems for both employees and customers is also needed. Leveraging new remote access technologies, your core solution should provide full access to the bank's systems so that business can be done at the most convenient time and place.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><u><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Data Driven</span></u><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Your next core should be built with an eye toward aggregating, managing, and providing dashboard-like access to real time information as well as historical reporting. The ability to access bank and customer information in a useable context will be increasingly important to all banks.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><u><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Real Time / Straight Thru Processing</span></u><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> - individual transactions are evaluated, posted, or rejected in real time across all channels. Beyond memo-posting, this is a process that provides for final posting of accurate transactions as soon as they are presented. Inaccurate transactions will continue to flow through exception channels. Such an environment will greatly improve customer service and internal efficiency.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><u><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Seamless Integration </span></u><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Interacting with customer facing applications (digital, debit, platform) and continuing evolution (for example, begin using the same platform for on-line applications and branch applications) are examples of matters you should look to your vendor to provide. Expect robust interaction with third parties through secure, standardized channels.<br /><br /><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Finally, a word about cloud computing. Most outsourcing providers have already moved to a cloud environment, often called a private cloud, meaning they reserve their systems only for their customers. Technically, they moved from hosted to cloud environments when they began to consolidate both program and customer data across their hardware environment. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Individual banks were not processed on components reserved just for them, but rather processed together. Public cloud means sharing resources in a similar way, but with a variety of non-related entities, requiring more attention to security and control. However, the larger the cloud environment, the lower the costs. The concept of shared cloud resources to improve per unit cost, and improve backup/recovery capabilities is extremely important, whether public or private. All that to say, the next iteration of your core will very likely be outsourced to a cloud environment.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><i><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><i><span style="font-size: 14pt;">My work around core vendors includes reviewing and renegotiating existing relationships, as well as assisting banks in evaluating other core systems. Please text, call, or email to discuss how I can assist you.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><i><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><i><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Trent Fleming</span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><i><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Trent Fleming Consulting</span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><i><span style="font-size: 14pt;">trent@trentfleming.com</span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><i><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><i><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></i></p>Trent Fleminghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14241748019290243041noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3364351610120245357.post-87161895926708554512021-01-25T15:03:00.005-08:002021-01-25T15:03:56.076-08:00First 2021 Newsletter - Four Things to Help You Prepare for the Coming Year<p>Here's my January 2021 Newsletter</p><p><br /></p><p> <a href="https://t.co/PaLQD4hYhz?amp=1">https://getrevue.co/profile/trent-fleming/archive/268935…</a></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Trent Fleminghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14241748019290243041noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3364351610120245357.post-28694577481722602782020-08-05T08:08:00.000-07:002020-08-05T08:08:09.044-07:00Managing Commercial Loan Risk in a Pandemic<div>
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Addressing Commercial Real Estate Exposure</span></div>
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Last issue, I talked about the importance of fully engaging in a digital delivery channel strategy for your bank. Identifying gaps, making additional investments, and training employees to assist customers as they make the move to more digital services. Here’s a link to that article if you missed it: <a href="http://bankinginsights.blogspot.com/2020/06/back-to-normal-thoughts-on-digital.html">http://bankinginsights.blogspot.com/2020/06/back-to-normal-thoughts-on-digital.html</a> </div>
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This time, I’m going to deviate from my normal focus on the strategic application of technology, and talk to you about potential asset quality issues related to the COVID-19 situation.</div>
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Last August, Barron’s commented on the trend toward smaller banks holding more and more of the commercial real estate (CRE) loans in our country. By their account, banks under 20 billion in assets held over half of the CRE loans in this country. In 2008 through 2010, as the economy began to cool, we saw regulators encourage banks to reserve against loans that were currently performing, because they feared changes in performance as things got worse. So that we learn from history, I want to point out the potential for similar treatment in coming months and years, based on the impacts on various segments.</div>
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The fallout from our country’s reaction to the pandemic have been felt in many sectors. Some of these sectors may return to “normal” once the virus threat is neutralized, but I suspect that many will not. Two or three segments come to mind: </div>
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First, office space. Working from home has been a thing for many years, in selected cases. Still, many companies held back on full implementation of work from home, for a number of reasons, ranging from technology to management styles. The COVID quarantine has forced the hand of many businesses, and investment in the necessary technologies has created an efficient, workable remote employee situation. No doubt many companies are rethinking their need for office space. Those who have invested in buildings will have a longer path to reducing these overhead costs, but those who are leasing space will no doubt begin to investigate ways to shrink their requirements. In addition, remaining spaces will likely change radically, as they morph into shared offices and areas designed to facilitate in-person meetings or other small group gatherings. The office of the future will be smaller, both individually and corporately.</div>
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Walk-in retail is also a concern. Ordering on line for home delivery, buying online and picking up curbside at the store, and even local delivery options have impacted businesses from hardware stores to grocery to department stores.</div>
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We’ve seen a wide variety of responses from the restaurant sector. Some are thriving, others struggling, a few have closed, probably permanently. In talking to these customers, you will want to see that they have made efforts to improve and modernize their order taking and delivery infrastructure while striving to maintain an adequate volume of business. </div>
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<span style="font-style: italic;">What Can You Do Now?</span></div>
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<b><i>Identify</i></b> current commercial real estate credits with exposure to potentially challenging business types. Discuss these in detail and try to get a feel for the ones you are concerned about, prioritizing by size of credit, and of course by any that may already be struggling to perform. </div>
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<b><i>Meet </i></b>with loan customers to discuss their perception of the exposure, understand lease/rental terms and timing, and generally open a line of discussion to help you evaluate latent exposure. For retailers and restaurants, you will also want to ask about occupancy, but also about their efforts to make it easier for customers to choose curbside or home delivery, order online, and generally do business in a more convenient, low contact environment. This may include deals with third party personal shopper and delivery services. Bottom line is that you need to know they have a plan for the future.</div>
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<i><b>Document</b></i> your work as evidence to regulators, your board and your auditors that you are attempting to stay ahead of any potential issues. In some cases, based on the results of your work, consider adjustments to loan loss reserves in anticipation of significant changes in currently performing loans.</div>
Trent Fleminghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14241748019290243041noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3364351610120245357.post-91791086554962381542020-08-04T12:20:00.001-07:002020-08-04T12:20:37.047-07:00Director Education in a Quarantine<br />
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;">During the stay at home phase of the quarantine, many of you have successfully introduced video conferencing or conference calls for your board meetings. I want to leverage your success in that area by offering timely, quick-hitting director education programs that give your directors updated information in a format that can be customized to your needs. Rather than recording a generic session, I want to offer some key topics with a twist: customization to your needs via a conversation with you prior to the meeting, allowing me to incorporate elements of your strategic goals into my presentation. </span><u></u><u></u></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;">Attending live during your board meeting also allows me to answer questions and otherwise follow up my comments with key insights. </span><u></u><u></u></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;">Such a presentation can be done in 30-45 minutes, providing timely, fast paced information to your directors as they seek to lead your bank forward.</span><u></u><u></u></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;">Here are some topics that you will want to take advantage of:</span><u></u><u></u></div>
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<span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 12pt;">Ø</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 7pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Integrating Technology with Your Enterprise Strategy</span><u></u><u></u></div>
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<span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 12pt;">Ø</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 7pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Managing a Remote Work Force for the Long Term</span><u></u><u></u></div>
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<span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 12pt;">Ø</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 7pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">CyberSecurity Takes a Seat in the Boardroom</span><u></u><u></u></div>
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<span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 12pt;">Ø</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 7pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Leveraging your Digital Platform: Embracing your Virtual Bank</span><u></u><u></u></div>
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<span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 12pt;">Ø</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 7pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Preparing for the Branch of the Future</span><u></u><u></u></div>
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<span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 12pt;">Ø</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 7pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">A Vision for Your Bank: Key Components of your Next Strategic Plan</span><u></u><u></u></div>
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<span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 12pt;">Ø</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 7pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Managing Your Core Vendor Relationship: What the Board Needs to Know</span><u></u><u></u></div>
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<span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 12pt;">Ø</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 7pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Custom Topics on Demand</span><u></u><u></u></div>
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<i><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;">Finally, I remain available to meet with your board face to face for such presentations, and of course to conduct full scope enterprise strategic planning when you are ready. </span></i><u></u><u></u></div>
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<i><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;">Contact me to discuss your needs. I look forward to the opportunity to be of service.</span></i><u></u><u></u></div>
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<i><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;">Trent Fleming</span></i><u></u><u></u></div>
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<i><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;">901-896-4007</span></i><u></u><u></u></div>
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<i><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"><a href="mailto:trent@trentfleming.com" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">trent@trentfleming.com</a></span></i><u></u><u></u></div>
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My blog on banking topics:<br /><br /><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.bankinginsights.blogspot.com&source=gmail&ust=1596655086441000&usg=AFQjCNH45Q6FCzE-AbnQK_i_CSAprvnewg" href="http://www.bankinginsights.blogspot.com/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">www.bankinginsights.blogspot.<wbr></wbr>com</a><br /><br />My website<br /><br /> <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.trentfleming.com&source=gmail&ust=1596655086441000&usg=AFQjCNHjGNZkFryMkz5EexcSSepTJfxkUQ" href="http://www.trentfleming.com/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">www.trentfleming.com</a><br /><br />Follow me on FaceBook<br /> <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.facebook.com/thetechnologyadvisor&source=gmail&ust=1596655086441000&usg=AFQjCNHYP-FuwgW0E1TcLYqCQ3vKBkpbmw" href="http://www.facebook.com/thetechnologyadvisor" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">www.facebook.com/<wbr></wbr>thetechnologyadvisor</a><br /><br />Follow me on Twitter<br /> <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.twitter.com/techadvisor&source=gmail&ust=1596655086441000&usg=AFQjCNHd1E31b51hTqJWy9nerxAw0r3KuA" href="http://www.twitter.com/techadvisor" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">www.twitter.com/techadvisor</a><u></u><u></u></div>
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Trent Fleminghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14241748019290243041noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3364351610120245357.post-72874372114543505332020-07-20T09:49:00.003-07:002020-07-20T09:49:35.136-07:00Trent Fleming Quoted in Core Conversion Article from American Banker /CUJ<div class="page" title="Page 1">
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<span style="font-family: ArialMT; font-size: 8pt;">Core conversions go virtual amid pandemic | Credit Union Journal</span></div>
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<span style="color: #272727; font-family: Averta; font-size: 26pt; font-weight: 700;">Core conversions go virtual amid pandemic</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: SegoeUI; font-size: 8pt; font-weight: 600;">By </span><span style="color: #666666; font-family: Averta; font-size: 8pt; font-weight: 700;">Jackie Stewart</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Averta; font-size: 8pt; font-weight: 700;">July 14, 2020, 5:00 a.m. EDT</span></div>
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<span style="color: #272727; font-family: Averta; font-size: 10pt;">The coronavirus has accelerated the transition to virtual core conversions at credit unions and banks, moving a process that has long been done in-person to an online platform.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #272727; font-family: Averta; font-size: 10pt;">A number of credit unions forged ahead with plans to switch technology vendors even after the coronavirus became widespread earlier this year. Now that financial firms and their technology providers have seen this work can be done remotely, it could be the start of changes that continue long after the outbreak has subsided.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: yellow; color: #272727; font-family: Averta; font-size: 10pt;">The pandemic “certainly provided a strong impetus” for the move to virtual core conversions, said Trent Fleming of Trent Fleming Consulting. “Prior to this year, it was largely a matter of vendor philosophy, with some preferring remote work and others preferring in person training. I believe COVID will permanently shift the focus to remote work.”</span><br />
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<span style="color: #272727; font-family: Averta; font-size: 10pt;">In an attempt to keep employees safe and slow the spread of the virus, the majority of financial services firms moved to employees working virtually once the coronavirus hit. Forty percent of financial services companies implemented an optional work-from-home policy while 58% made this mandatory, </span><span style="color: #25508e; font-family: Averta; font-size: 10pt;">according to a recent study from Arizent.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #272727; font-family: Averta; font-size: 10pt;">Along with that, much business travel has been canceled due to the pandemic. The Global Business Travel Association, a business travel trade organization, surveyed its members earlier this year, and found that half of the respondents said that all domestic trips had been canceled. Forty-two percent said most had been called off, according to a survey, which was released in April.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #272727; font-family: Averta; font-size: 10pt;">The pandemic has also </span><span style="color: #25508e; font-family: Averta; font-size: 10pt;">shut down nearly the entire credit union conference circuit </span><span style="color: #272727; font-family: Averta; font-size: 10pt;">for the year, which doubles as a high-profile showcase for a variety of vendors in the industry.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #272727; font-family: Averta; font-size: 10pt;">Technology vendors normally send personnel to a credit union for different on-site activities, including training for staff members prior to a conversion and then again when the actual switch happens. Having someone physically on site can be comforting for the institution changing to a new system, sources said. The vendor’s employees can quickly answer a question or review a report if they are there in person and a problem arises.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #272727; font-family: Averta; font-size: 10pt;">But the coronavirus upended normal procedures, and now credit unions and their vendors have moved to completing these transitions virtually.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ArialMT; font-size: 8pt;">https://www.cujournal.com/news/core-conversions-go-virtual-amid-pandemic 2/13</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ArialMT; font-size: 8pt;">7/14/2020 Core conversions go virtual amid pandemic | Credit Union Journal</span><br />
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<span style="color: #272727; font-family: Averta; font-size: 10pt;">Symitar, a unit of Jack Henry that provides technology solutions to credit unions, usually sends between six to 12 employees to assist a credit union with a conversion, said Shanon McLachlan, president of Symitar.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #272727; font-family: Averta; font-size: 10pt;">The company has done roughly 60 “conversion-related events” — there are multiple steps in switching to a new system — since the beginning of March, McLachlan said. All of these were done virtually since Jack Henry began restricting travel to only essential trips in mid-March. Additionally, about 96% of its employees are working remotely right now, up from its normal 30%.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #272727; font-family: Averta; font-size: 10pt;">Prior to the pandemic, Symitar was working to allow credit unions to convert systems virtually but there wasn’t much demand for that, McLachlan said. Still, vendors are now better able to do this work and related training remotely than even a decade ago because of teleconferencing capabilities so credit union employees have the benefit of interacting with Symitar’s staff over video.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #272727; font-family: Averta; font-size: 10pt;">“You get that face-to-face via these tools and you can start building those relationships,” McLachlan said.</span><br />
<span style="color: #272727; font-family: Averta; font-size: 10pt;">SAFE Federal Credit Union in Sumter, S.C., initially started contemplating switching core vendors in 2012 and after a search ended up signing a contract for another six years with Fiserv in 2014.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #272727; font-family: Averta; font-size: 10pt;">Knowing that the contract expired in May and that changing vendors can be a long process, the $1.2 billion-asset SAFE began its due diligence to find a new vendor in April 2018. This included on-site demonstrations and sending a team of employees to visit other credit unions in Texas, Michigan and Pennsylvania.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #272727; font-family: Averta; font-size: 10pt;">The management team made a recommendation to the board in February 2019 to switch to Symitar and then went through four months of contract negotiations. During that time, SAFE and Jack Henry were already discussing the conversion.</span><br />
<span style="color: #272727; font-family: Averta; font-size: 10pt;">Given how long the process took, SAFE’s management team was reluctant to delay the conversion once the pandemic hit. It could be months before the credit union would be able to settle on another date so the management team decided to forge ahead, even if the conversion happened with only virtual help.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #272727; font-family: Averta; font-size: 10pt;">“Once you set a date with all of these vendors, changing that date is very difficult,” said Michael Baker, president and CEO of SAFE, who noted that the last time the credit union went through a core conversion was in 1989 and a hurricane struck that weekend.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #272727; font-family: Averta; font-size: 10pt;">However, SAFE did make some changes in the wake of the pandemic. For instance, it held nearly twice as many internal training sessions for the new system to ensure employees could appropriately socially distance during the process.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #272727; font-family: Averta; font-size: 10pt;">SAFE went live with Symitar in mid-May after converting its mobile and online platforms with a different vendor in January. To help with the process, SAFE had a “virtual war room” set up with a conference call bridge open the entire time so employees could quickly get questions answered by Symitar.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #272727; font-family: Averta; font-size: 10pt;">“Instead of walking into a board room, you were picking up a phone and dialing into the virtual conference room and talking to whatever resource you needed,” said Kevin Thomas, chief information officer at SAFE."</span></div>
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<span style="color: #272727; font-family: Averta; font-size: 10pt;">Going forward, Jack Henry is likely to give its clients a choice regarding getting help in-person versus virtually, McLachlan said. He expects many may choose a hybrid option where some aspects of the core conversion remain virtual, such as training for employees, while personnel would be on site when the actual switch happens.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Averta; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="background-color: yellow;">“A lot of the steps can be done over the phone or email,” Fleming said. “In most cases, they are sending personnel on site to hold hands and it probably lengthens the process. If I’m going to be in your institution for a week, there is a level of camaraderie involved. I will go to lunch with you. ... I think we will see more virtual conversion activity, even when things get back to normal.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: yellow;">"</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #272727; font-family: Averta; font-size: 8pt; font-weight: 700;">Jackie Stewart </span><span style="color: #666666; font-family: Averta; font-size: 8pt;">Managing Editor, Credit Union Journal</span></div>
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Trent Fleminghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14241748019290243041noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3364351610120245357.post-86094282315095354332020-06-02T06:34:00.005-07:002020-06-02T06:34:40.943-07:00Back to Normal? Thoughts on Digital Platforms<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;">During the spring, I’ve been publishing my newsletter much more frequently than normal, in order to provide you with some ideas and guidance during the quarantine period. Depending on the situation in your region of the company, you are likely in various stages of reopening, and I think we’ve covered that in good detail so far. </span><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #222222;"> I’m available if you want to talk about specific situations.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;">This issue, however, will be a bit more “normal” to help you begin addressing your digital strategy in more detail. I’m focused on two things: </span></i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><br />1) embrace and reinforce customer behavior that has changed. Because your lobbies have been closed, at least some of your customers have begun using your digital channels more consistently. We want to preserve that behavior, and benefit from it. Remember, anytime a customer uses self-service, they are happier, and you save money versus an in-person visit or a phone call. <br /><br />2) Apply lessons learned to be better prepared for future events that might also result in temporary reductions of service and identify gaps in the services you offer now in order to provide a more attractive and complete digital offering.</span><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;">Here are the key digital platform tools that I feel you must have:</span></i><i><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;">Online account opening</span></b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"> - a lot of the reaction I get here is either driven by compliance concerns (we can’t legally do this) or by misconceptions about control over applications. My main focus with on-line account opening is to allow your existing customers to easily do more business with you. If you choose to open it up to new customers, you will find that most vendors can easily help you limit the area (zip codes, counties, states) that you will even accept applications from. As to compliance, there are plenty of good ways to address KYC, Patriot Act, and funding questions to ensure that you are legal. Hundreds of thousands of new bank and brokerage accounts are opened on-line each year. You can do it too.</span><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;">Online loan applications</span></b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"> (as a start, later you should consider approvals and funding for certain simple loans) Customer expectations are high in this area, fueled by offers of “30 second decisions” on credit cards. In order to remain competitive with both consumer and small business lending opportunities, some level of automation is needed.</span><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;">Esign technology for any and all customer documents</span></b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;">. Here again, the industry may have passed you by. Customers are used to such technology on insurance documents, mortgages, and many other financially focused matters. Time to catch up.</span><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;">Remote deposit</span></b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;">, both mobile and desktop</span><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;">Contactless Payments</span></b><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"> b. Smart Wallets</span><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;">Once a customer has successfully used a technology for the first time, you are well on your way to converting them to a primarily digital user.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;">A key to success in driving customer use of your digital platform is employee use of those same platforms. Employees should be “endorsing users” of the technology: confident and enthusiastic. For example, if a customer approaches a teller to make a check deposit with a smart phone in their hand, we would expect that teller to engage the customer in a discussion of how quick and easy mobile deposit is - along with a personal story. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;">You also need your employees to use all available payment services in your community, as a way of identifying and improving the merchant experience. Offering Apple Pay, Google Pay, or contactless debit card technology is meaningless if local merchants aren’t set up for it - or clerks aren’t trained in how to use it. You’ve no doubt experienced a situation where you’ve tried to use Apple Pay, and have been told by a clerk “oh, that never works” or “I don’t know how you do that.” Contactless payments are especially important with all the fears for contact transmission of disease - and I really had a disappointing experience of trying to use such a method and finding it didn’t work at that particular register, complete with the clerk announcing that my card was declined! I put away my smart phone, inserted my chip card, (the same card tied to Apple Pay) and completed the transaction. As a consumer, what is my incentive to keep trying in these situations?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;">Sending your employees into the community with the mission of using new bank payment capabilities will help pave the way for your customers to use them without incident. While the above described scenario was not embarrassing to me, it understandably would be to your average consumer.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;">Basically, you have two tasks here. First, get to work to ensure that you have no gaps in your digital offerings, and second, take this opportunity to capitalize on the increased use by customers and solidify their use of digital channels. Your costs will go down, and customer satisfaction will go up!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;">As always, let me know how I can help you achieve these goals.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;">About Trent Fleming</span></b><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;">I’ve had a number of new subscribers in recent weeks as a result of my regular COVID-19 updates, so I thought I’d take a minute to let you know more about me. For more than 35 years, I have helped community banks make good decisions about technology, strategy, and management. I speak extensively at state banking association events and teach at graduate banking schools at Penn State and Wisconsin. My consulting work includes significant experience with core vendor evaluation, selection, and negotiations, as well as strategic planning and director education, and of course, “other duties as assigned.” More information at <a href="http://www.trentfleming.com/"><span style="color: blue;">www.trentfleming.com</span></a> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;">Upcoming Speaking Engagements</span></b><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;">June 2 - Mississippi Bankers Web Conference “Integrating Technology into your Enterprise Strategy”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;">June 3 - Mississippi Bankers Web Conference “Managing a Distributed Workforce”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;">June 11 - Western Bankers Web Conference <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"> > Integrating Technology into your Enterprise Strategy<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"> > Managing your Core Vendor Relationship<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;">Please call, text, or email if I can help you in any way.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;">Trent Fleming<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;">901-896-4007<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;">trent@trentfleming.com<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Trent Fleminghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14241748019290243041noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3364351610120245357.post-23196356500741964372020-04-29T10:31:00.005-07:002020-04-29T10:32:37.082-07:00Thoughts on Reopening and Lessons Learned<div>
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Here’s my latest thinking on the COVID-19 situation. I’ve been considering two particular issues and wanted to share some thoughts with you on each.</div>
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First - what will it look like to “reopen”? Most of you have closed your branches for walk in traffic, sending all teller activity to the drive-thru, and meeting in person only with those customers who need that level of attention during this time. Some of you have also entirely closed selected branches. </div>
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I applaud those of you who offered innovative solutions like curbside pickup and drop off of documents and transactions. Depending on the exact situation in your part of the world, you may stay in this operating environment for several more weeks, or you may be considering following your state’s guidelines to begin re-opening your lobbies sooner.</div>
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So let’s talk about what re-opening looks like. Before you announce that your lobbies are again open, consider what you can do to ensure employee and customer safety. Certainly, limiting lobby traffic will be a part of that. While there are varied levels of what “open” means, virtually all of them include maintaining “social distancing” and limiting crowds to 10 people or less. You will need some employee training on how to man the door and effectively control crowds. </div>
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You’ll also want to consider what measures you can and should take to keep everyone safe. As a PR move, you may want to take the temperature of each employee when they arrive to work. Make that widely known, and ask anyone who registers a temperature, or otherwise doesn’t feel well, to stay at home. That’s just good advice, any time. But let’s make a practice out of it. Now, the issue of masks. I’m pretty firm about this: either every employee wears a mask or no one does. The risk of having selected employees with masks is that someone interprets that they are sick. </div>
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Can you take the temperature of customers before you let them in a facility? This is more difficult. Disney says they plan to do that when they reopen their parks. Our children’s summer camp has been doing this for several years. Again, kind of a common sense thing but not everyone will see it that way. You’ll have to consider the number of cases in your area, and overall public sentiment, to decide what to do.</div>
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Regardless of these measures, continue maintaining a clean environment. Access to cleaning wipes, hand sanitizer, and gloves will continue to be important for the foreseeable future. Ask your janitorial company about enhanced cleaning measures, including fogging, that they provide, and make sure you publicize these measures to let customers and employees know how serious you are about their safety. </div>
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Finally, a word about branch opening. If you closed selected branches, what were the key decision factors? Are those long term issues and if so, can you get along without that branch going forward? Such events are a good time to consider those matters.</div>
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Second, I want to talk about what we are learning from distributed work. There are important lessons here that can make you a more productive and profitable organization over the long run. Put together a small team to start capturing pros and cons of the current environment. Think about what has worked well, and what has not. There are certainly challenges to address, ranging from the quality of Internet access employees have, to the strength and resiliency of your network in supporting remote workers. Some tasks can easily be done at home, while others require office presence, and those have to be clearly identified.</div>
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Many banks find themselves outgrowing office space. If you find that selected employees work as well - or better - from home, this is one way to address that problem. You employee a wide range of individuals. Some require close supervision, others do not. Effective management will assess employee skills and abilities, and assign duties accordingly. In addition, it must be said that you should be evaluating your overall work force requirements. It may be that you simply have too many employees. Situations like the one we are in will often make that more visible to you. Your ability to grow without a corresponding increase in head count is critical to your long term success.</div>
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<span style="color: #3b424b; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , "times" , serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">What are you learning about effective meetings? Have your virtual meetings been shorter or longer than normal, and more or less decisive? Has the use of video enhanced or hindered your meetings? Again, don’t make this just about crisis situations - consider what you have learned that may be applied to the long term.</span></div>
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Just a few thoughts. Remember to keep an eye out for fraud, work to ensure that employees are properly trained and educated for any operational changes you implement, and remember to communicate well to employees, customers, and the media.</div>
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Call, email, or text if I can help in any way.</div>
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Trent Fleming</div>
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Trent Fleminghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14241748019290243041noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3364351610120245357.post-35181698781693809862020-04-09T13:22:00.001-07:002020-04-09T13:22:37.500-07:00Preparing for Cash Hoarding<div>
I’ve purposely waited an extra week to send an update. I know that many of you are involved with SBA lending and other matters. But I thought it was time to revisit and expand on my comments about about cash and the possibility for a run on an institution or across the industry. </div>
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First, it is important to note that there is not a shortage of cash. However, we’ve already seen irrational hoarding of other things, which seems to be continuing. In particular, consider how fast via social media both right and wrong information can travel. So let’s start with the basics: </div>
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First, as I said recently to you, don’t let your ATMs run out of cash. It may see like only an operational issue, but I guarantee you it will create a PR problem for you and perhaps your competitors.</div>
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Second, take time to do some employee training and education about the matter. Employees need to realize that offhanded or joking remarks about running out of cash are never appropriate. Especially now. For example, a teller who says “I’m out of 20s” means that he or she needs to buy some from the vault, not that the bank physically doesn’t have any 20s. But customers don’t know this. Further, while the public doesn’t understand our fractional reserve system, your employees should understand and appreciate it, and know that we do not have 1 to 1 cash on hand for all demand deposit accounts. As with ALL PR situations, employees should be reminded that (unless they are the corporate spokesperson) that they should not casually or officially attempt to speak on behalf of the bank. This includes their own social media accounts. There’s just too much room for interpretation.</div>
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Third, especially now, be alert to fraud being perpetrated on your customers. Any requests for large withdrawals that seem unusual should be gently investigated. This will be a bit more challenging as it may be through the drive up, but you still need to be alert to unusual activity. Perhaps you will intervene in a fraud situation, or if the person feels the need to hoard cash, you can engage with them to alleviate their fears. For most people, the additional risk of large sums of cash on their person or in their homes is more of a liability than a benefit - risk of loss, theft, or destruction in the case of fire or storm damage. You know the drill, but don’t assume that customers do.</div>
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Fourth, talk openly with your staff about what a run looks like, and how to respond. You will know something is wrong through customer activity (the drive in lanes are full, and around the building) or you are seeing posts on social media encouraging hoarding, etc. Again, gently inquire about the requests for large sums. SLOW DOWN. Count and recount, slowly and purposefully. Immediately begin limiting the dollar amount of cash withdrawals to ensure that all customers have access to reasonable sums. Have a plan now for acquiring more cash if you see that you will need it. Be prepared to support other local institutions if you can. In today’s environment, again because of social media and rumors, this is likely to be a widespread event, not limited to a particular institution.</div>
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Finally, try to extrapolate short term and long term education points from this particular component of today’s environment. Nothing you do here will be wasted when the current situation is resolved, so take the time to document your efforts, and update your policies, procedures, training and employee manuals to reflect best practices.</div>
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<i>My best to you and your staff as you work to serve customers and maintain your business.</i></div>
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<i>I’m here to help. Call, text or email, day or night. </i></div>
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<a href="mailto:trent@trentfleming.com">trent@trentfleming.com</a></div>
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Trent Fleminghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14241748019290243041noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3364351610120245357.post-68697538286344764972020-03-26T07:12:00.001-07:002020-03-26T07:12:41.634-07:00I've Closed My Lobbies: Now What?<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif;">This is my third weekly update to you during the COVID-19 situation. I’m simply trying to help by keeping you focused on managing your bank as well as you can. Your employees, your customers, and your communities need you.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif;">First, as I’ve said before, keep doing what community banks do – meeting the unique needs of customers. In today’s environment, it means closing lobbies to protect the health of employees and customers, while making yourself available via phone, email, and even in-person meetings to be sure your customers’ needs are met.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif;">Maybe I should have said “first, communicate well” but I’ll address that now. Even if you are doing the right things, all around, it won’t matter much if customers don’t know. Make sure you are communicating information about hours and methods of operation, how to contact you if in-person appointments are necessary (ranging from business discussions to safe deposit access), using the optimum communications methods in your markets. Remind them that the authorities consider banking an “essential” service and that you will remain open. This starts with good signage (hopefully your communities are relaxing any signage rules during this time) at your locations, updating your web site (a stale web site communicates the wrong message, so update it often) traditional media outlets, and various social media channels including Facebook and Twitter. Messages need to be simple and concise. Make sure you are answering the phones promptly, in a positive, reassuring manner.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif;">I’m operating on the assumption (based on a lot of discussions) that most of you are not as busy as normal. Make sure you take advantage of these slow periods to address important projects.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif;">Here are three areas that you may want to consider.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "wingdings"; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">Ø<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif;">Lending: make sure you have a plan to renew and extend operating loans, including (for many of you) ag loans to help farmers prepare for planting. Stay in touch with your farmers, as many areas are also dealing with way too much rain, which may delay planting and impact crop choices, or require farmers to file insurance claims.<br /><br /><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "wingdings"; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">Ø<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif;">Source of funds: we love small businesses, because they are a good source of low-cost funds. Make sure you stay in touch with your most reliable depositors, and find ways to help them. If they are burning through cash, struggling to make payroll, etc., look for creative ways to keep them afloat. They need you, and you need them. Of course, if you see that commonly available deposits are dwindling, you’ll also need to consider alternate funding sources, so now is the time to assess your current borrowing capabilities, as well as considering CD promotions to gather additional funds.<br /><br /><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "wingdings"; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">Ø<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif;">Projects: Let’s get a handle on projects that you have underway: acquisitions, developing new products and services, renewing or renegotiating vendor agreements, or opening new facilities. While some of these efforts may slow down a bit, there may be deadlines for deals to get done that you want to honor. Don’t let a temporary situation prevent you from making good long-term decisions. Dust off that strategy and let’s talk about how to keep you focused on the future while you manage the present.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif;">Odds and Ends<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "wingdings"; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">Ø<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif;">Remind your employees to look for fraud. If it doesn’t “feel” right, ask for help before you cash that check, or wire those funds. Sadly, there are many looking to exploit the difficult times we are operating in.<br /><br /><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "wingdings"; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">Ø<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif;">Keep your ATMs full. There’s plenty of cash. But the last thing you need is for an ATM to run out of money and someone post that on Facebook! Look at how irrationally people are shopping. They will fall for a “cash shortage” situation without fact checking, and you may have a run on your hands. Keeping that ATM full is a good way to protect yourself . . . but you also want to review with your employees your plans for responding to a run on cash. (thanks to alert reader DF for the ATM tip)<br /><br /><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "wingdings"; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">Ø<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif;">Finally – feel free to share any tips with me about what’s working for you – I will include them in my next letter.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif;">As always, I’m here if you need me. Call, email, or whatever works. Day or night.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif;">Trent Fleming<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<a href="mailto:trent@trentfleming.com" style="color: #954f72; text-decoration: underline;"><b><span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif;">trent@trentfleming.com</span></b></a><b><span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif;">(901)896-4007<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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Trent Fleminghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14241748019290243041noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3364351610120245357.post-33373992324059349942020-03-19T06:00:00.000-07:002020-03-19T06:00:01.222-07:00Controlling the Message<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
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Since my last update a week ago, I’ve had the privilege of speaking with several of you as you consider how to respond to the COVID-19 situation. There’s of course the need to assess CDC recommendations and local government issuances, in order to determine what your operations should look like. There’s the possibility of closing lobbies, closing branches, changing working hours, or reducing staff. Among other things.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b><i>Here’s my key advice – focus on communication. </i></b> You can either tell your own story, or let rumors tell it for you. Guess which is better?<o:p></o:p></div>
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A part of your response plan has to be keeping employees and customers up to date on your efforts, and how you will provide service. We talked last week about evaluating current activity, leaning toward drive-thru service and promoting remote delivery channels that you already offer. These are the basics.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Please also consider offering home/office pickup for deposits or the return of signed documents, if customers are concerned about coming into the bank. Even curb side pickup of documents and deposits (park outside and let us know you are here) may be needed to alleviate customer fears. The bottom line is this: make sure you are doing what community banks <u>always</u> do well – meeting the needs of your customers, however unique. Of course, make sure you can do this efficiently and safely.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Internally, extra precautions to keep exposed surfaces clean are certainly important, and you want to advertise that you are doing this, as well as instructing employees who don’t feel well to stay at home. Remember too that money is always dirty. Extra treatment with disinfectant is probably a good idea (all the time), and make sure to emphasize handwashing after handling cash.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Closing the lobby will be seen as a big deal, so do this thoughtfully and with plenty of notice. Limiting lobby traffic (some of you already have experience with this in high crime areas) is another consideration, but some combination of reduced lobby hours, and limiting the number of customers in the bank at one time, may be the right course of action, depending on the situation in your area.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b><i>Again – communicate.</i></b> Use customer email addresses if you have them, leverage your Facebook or Twitter presence for one to many communications, and issue press releases to local media so that you are controlling the message.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Finally, a word about your ongoing projects, whether you are considering acquisitions, adding new products or services, or replacing existing systems. Now is not the time to shelve those projects. When business returns to a normal pace, you will be behind if you haven’t kept abreast of new things. So let’s leverage technology to keep these projects moving forward, so that you don’t fall behind. Consider devoting employees who are working remotely to the task of addressing data quality and integrity in your files, working to improve the overall value of your customer data. Employees in the bank might have enough free time to help you catch up with the scanning and indexing of documents. I’m sure you can find other examples. A proper response to the current situation will not consume all your time unless you allow it to.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I remain ready and able to advise you in these matters.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Trent Fleming<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="mailto:trent@trentfleming.com" style="color: #954f72;">trent@trentfleming.com</a><o:p></o:p></div>
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Trent Fleminghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14241748019290243041noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3364351610120245357.post-47066945725643781962020-03-12T16:17:00.002-07:002020-03-12T16:19:40.756-07:00Are You Prepared?<div style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(59, 66, 75); color: #3b424b; cursor: text; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
I am sure you are hearing from many fronts about concerns and preparations over the Corona virus issue. My favorite hardware store even sent me a note about how concerned they are. It is important to heed advice from your governmental and health care authorities. I will not speak to the medical side of the issue, primarily because - in spite of being a regular at the Holiday Inn Express - I am in fact not a doctor. I <u style="box-sizing: border-box;">am </u>someone with extensive experience in disaster recovery, contingency planning, crisis management and PR. So I’ll take that approach.</div>
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What I want to provide are some common-sense steps you should consider relative to your bank and branch operations. Let’s remember that the goal is to maintain an adequate level of service for your customers, while ensuring a safe working environment for your staff. Most of the suggested measures below will serve to improve your overall readiness for any kind of business disruption, so there’s a silver lining in the current cloud for you.</div>
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Take some time now to understand actual traffic counts in your lobbies. I suggest you attempt to identify the volume of traffic, and the type of encounter or transaction being conducted on each visit. This will give you an important picture of actual activity. Simply put: transactions of any sort (financial, address change, new accounts, loan applications, etc.) by hour by day in each location.</div>
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It is important to segregate drive-up teller activity from walk-in activity, as one consideration would be to move to drive-in only traffic for all teller activity. </div>
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As a way of assessing overall activity, go ahead and bring remote delivery channel transactions into your reporting, so that you have a complete picture. This would include balance inquiry, funds transfer, bill payment, on-line applications, and mobile or remote deposit. The purpose of gathering this data in the short term is to help you assess just how much activity you have, and plan for ways of accommodating these transactions if you have to reduce services. In the long run, measuring in-person vs virtual activity is a solid management tool.</div>
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Prepare for one or more of your locations to be in a quarantined area, and make sure you are prepared to communicate to customers that a particular location is closed, and where they can find the next closest location that is open for business. Note that this is good advice for any number of scenarios that might impact branch operations, ranging from severe weather to robbery aftermath, so think broadly when developing these communication plans.</div>
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Aggressively remind customers about your remote delivery channel options, including Internet, mobile, remote deposit, and on-line account opening or applications. You may want to loosen current deposit restrictions (only for existing customers) to ensure that they can use those channels for all of their standard deposit activity. Of course, you must consider the risks involved with any changes in these parameters, but in general terms, (as I’ve told you for years) allowing existing customers to make their normal deposits through an alternate channel does not really introduce additional risk. </div>
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What’s the best way to communicate with your customers? Ideally, you have good email addresses for all those who use your remote delivery channels. You will also find that social media like FaceBook or Twitter can provide excellent “one to many” communications for notifying customers and the public in general about your operations.</div>
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Let’s talk about your staffing needs. We often see references to “non-essential” employees when operations are limited during severe weather, or other situations. No one wants to be considered non-essential, so let’s avoid using that term. Let’s do however determine what a minimal staffing scenario looks like, so that you can reduce person to person contact, account for those who are ill and may need to be out for an extended time, etc. Take a close look at your overall operations across all applications: loan, deposits, accounting, etc., and make sure you have good coverage if staff has to be reduced. </div>
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Evaluate work at home scenarios, realizing that some of the steps we’ve discussed above may reduce branch traffic and allow you to handle daily work with a limited staff. One key best practice is to encourage employees who are sick to stay at home. The old work ethic of “come to work at any cost” has to be replaced by common sense, and managerial understanding, especially during flu season, and in light of any situation like the current virus outbreak.</div>
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It is wise to communicate with your primary regulator about any significant changes in your operations – reducing hours, staff, or changing service levels (such as moving to drive-in only for teller transactions). They may provide additional guidance for you, but I think mainly they will want to be sure you have a plan in place are are managing to this plan.</div>
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Finally, as in any crisis management situation, employees need to understand that ONLY a designated spokesman is allowed to speak for the bank. Employees should not provide any information on behalf of the bank to anyone, including friends, family, strangers or news media but should instead refer any questions to the bank’s designated spokesperson. Here again, this applies broadly to any situation, not just the current virus outbreak concerns.</div>
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I hope I’ve given you some constructive ideas for dealing with the present environment, while making sure your existing plans are updated to provide the best chance of success. Working on these matters is a far better exercise than watching endless news coverage or fretting over possible outcomes. In addition, if you do not have some of the tools mentioned above, like on-line account opening, or remote access for traveling employees, it might be time to add those to your technology planning wish list so that you are better prepared in the future.</div>
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<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">As always, I stand ready to help. Email, text, or call me anytime if you would like to discuss these or other matters. I remain hopeful, and intend to do everything I can to help community banks thrive.</em></div>
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<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Trent Fleming</em></div>
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<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">trent@trentfleming.com</em></div>
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<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">901-896-4007</em> </div>
Trent Fleminghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14241748019290243041noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3364351610120245357.post-90685727935658875022019-10-08T06:43:00.001-07:002019-10-08T06:43:39.138-07:00Managing your Image Archive - Fall 2019 Newsletter Text<div>
When’s the last time you thought about your image archive? Since the advent of COLD storage in the 1980s, (Computer Output to Laser Disc) banks have held some information as electronic images. Over time, standard documents ranging from loans to photo ID's to general correspondence were added to these systems. Later, with the advent of check imaging there were then check images available.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6ksITFSqvB6RyZpzUpAGyBrNi_xta1FyA6GT0y4UNps0w6NxTzaj_k_kPBLFkfVeSPuUql1VVlHMpHrK_QPe_k2ZDg31SuPY9AYcop7Wvx4_7tY69-Ad_1vKiyD_UTX8j0RvoWaSrK30/s1600/Image+Archive+Photo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6ksITFSqvB6RyZpzUpAGyBrNi_xta1FyA6GT0y4UNps0w6NxTzaj_k_kPBLFkfVeSPuUql1VVlHMpHrK_QPe_k2ZDg31SuPY9AYcop7Wvx4_7tY69-Ad_1vKiyD_UTX8j0RvoWaSrK30/s320/Image+Archive+Photo.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Your image archive has grown in both stature and importance, and needs to be better managed so that your organization benefits from it, manages the risks associated with it, and prepares for migration from one solution to another.</div>
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<span style="font-style: italic;">Let’s address each of these areas:</span></div>
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The basic benefits of an image archive include reduced physical storage space, easier access to documents, and superior backup and archiving based on proven electronic archiving and redundant storage. Additional benefits include enhanced workflows by incorporating imaging into your day to day activities, and improved compliance by allowing the system to manage your regulatory retention efforts, ensuring compliance and avoiding unnecessary liabilities from having too much retention.</div>
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Too often, document retention is an afterthought. Your image archive solution allows you to develop and codify rules for document usage, retention, and disposal. There are often state and federal regulations that impact the retention requirements for a particular document. A properly implemented image archive solution will allow you to plan for, and manage to those regulations. </div>
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Finally, if you are to change your core solution, or just your image archive solution, careful thought must be given to moving your image archive from one system to another. While technically your image archive is just another set of data that must be converted, there is often complexity associated with it. </div>
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Here are some key steps in successfully managing your image archive:</div>
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Clearly identify whom is in charge of the archive. Your CIO is my suggestion, and absent a CIO, your COO. This is an important application, with critical data, and deserves to be intentionally managed, and managed well.</div>
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Prepare for regulatory and audit requests for real time access to image data. Increasingly, internal and external auditors, as well as your regulators, are implementing more remote audit efforts. Access to your image archive will greatly enhance their efforts, and reduce the impact on your staff.</div>
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Focus on regulatory requirements for retention, and don’t exceed those guidelines. You will save valuable space, as well as limit your liability and exposure for maintaining information that neither you or your customers really need.</div>
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<i>As always, I’m available to assist you in developing strategy and the appropriate polices and procedures to oversee this important application, including migration to another system if needed. Message me trent@trentfleming.com</i></div>
Trent Fleminghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14241748019290243041noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3364351610120245357.post-31486396656404259352019-10-02T13:45:00.001-07:002019-10-02T13:45:12.445-07:00<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">The Distraction of Innovation for Community Banks</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The word innovation has become popular in banking circles today. Larger banks claim to have a </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">lock on it, smaller banks seem to think they need it, but what is the real issue here? Larger </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">institutions have development staff that focus on new products and services, trying to be the first </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">to bring out the next big thing. Any such advantage from being first in market is going to be </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">short lived. Often, much of the so-called innovation is merely a variation on an existing </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">capability. Like using your finger to slide a bar in one direction or the other to transfer funds, </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">instead of typing in an amount. A good example of true innovation is the extension of so-called </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">“warm carding” capability out to the customer. Lost your card? Need some time to look in all </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">the usual places? Just temporarily freeze it, using your mobile banking app, and have a look </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">around. If you find it, great! Turn the card back on and keep spending. But if it’s really lost, go </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">ahead and report it and get a new one. This has been a popular feature, rightfully so, and after </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">some initial promotion by those who were early to market, it is largely available to everyone.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">As I lead strategic planning sessions for community bankers, I hear a lot of discussion and</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">frustration about the need for innovation, how vendors are holding them back, and that large </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">banks have an advantage. I also see a lot of industry publications promoting an innovation </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">mentality. As a community financial institution, it will be very difficult for you to pioneer new </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">banking products and services. There, I’ve said it - you should be breathing a sigh of relief! It </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">should be very easy, however, for you to rapidly deploy new technologies as they become </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">available. This is where your focus should be.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In my experience, it is not a lack of availability that causes community banks a problem, it is </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">delays in deploying products that customers want and need. Today, many smaller banks are </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">woefully behind with technologies like on-line account opening, mobile deposit, and on-line loan </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">applications. Internally, failing to make email and the bank’s core application available on </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">remote devices hinders lenders and other calling officers when they attempt to be responsive and </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">work in the field with customers and prospects. At a recent EFT conference, a panelist asked for </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">a show of hands of those who had deployed biometric technology for digital account access. Not </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">only were there no banks among the 100 or so in attendance who had it, NONE of them reported </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">they were even considering it. In a day where security is an important concern, this is troubling, </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">since such technology is readily available.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">My recommendation is that you focus on your deployment cycles, so that your bank is as</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">competitive as it can be in the markets that you serve. When combined with the personalized </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">service that community banks are famous for, this creates a scenario for success.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i>Here are four steps to success</i>:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">> Ensure that your strategic plan is designed to identify your desired direction, and the products </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">and services needed to support your goals.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">> Evaluate your current situation and enumerate the gaps in products and services, relative to the </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">first point, above.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">> Engage with all key constituencies simultaneously to plan the acquisition, implementation, </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">training, and deployment of these resources. Include marketing, operations, finance, compliance, </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">retail banking, and commercial business lines. Often, I see compliance concerns overriding </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">operations needs, or operational practices that ignore compliance issues. Building a team that </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">works together can help you overcome such typical obstacles.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">> Ensure that your effort to roll out these new technologies starts with knowledgeable,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">enthusiastic employees, and carries through to customer education and marketing efforts. This is </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">always a formula for success with new products and services.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">As always, I am available to assist you in addressing these or other matters. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">trent@trentfleming.com</span>Trent Fleminghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14241748019290243041noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3364351610120245357.post-21213723748207838692017-08-04T12:43:00.001-07:002017-08-04T12:44:38.908-07:00Trent Fleming Quoted in Recent American Banker Article<br />
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<span style="color: rgb(15.300000% , 15.300000% , 15.300000%); font-family: "averta"; font-size: 20.000000pt;">This bank learned the hard way to ramp up M&A-related
retention efforts
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<span style="color: rgb(13.300000% , 13.300000% , 13.300000%); font-family: "averta"; font-size: 9.000000pt;">By </span><span style="font-family: "averta"; font-size: 9.000000pt;">Jackie Stewart<br />
</span><span style="color: rgb(13.300000% , 13.300000% , 13.300000%); font-family: "averta"; font-size: 9.000000pt;">Published </span><span style="color: rgb(15.300000% , 15.300000% , 15.300000%); font-family: "averta"; font-size: 9.000000pt;">July 25 2017, 3∶37pm EDT
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<span style="color: rgb(13.300000% , 13.300000% , 13.300000%); font-family: "averta"; font-size: 9.000000pt;">More in </span><span style="font-family: "averta"; font-size: 9.000000pt;">Community banking</span><span style="color: rgb(15.300000% , 15.300000% , 15.300000%); font-family: "averta"; font-size: 9.000000pt;">, </span><span style="font-family: "averta"; font-size: 9.000000pt;">Recruiting</span><span style="color: rgb(15.300000% , 15.300000% , 15.300000%); font-family: "averta"; font-size: 9.000000pt;">, </span><span style="font-family: "averta"; font-size: 9.000000pt;">M&A</span><span style="color: rgb(15.300000% , 15.300000% , 15.300000%); font-family: "averta"; font-size: 9.000000pt;">, </span><span style="font-family: "averta"; font-size: 9.000000pt;">Employee retention</span><span style="color: rgb(15.300000% , 15.300000% , 15.300000%); font-family: "averta"; font-size: 9.000000pt;">, </span><span style="font-family: "averta"; font-size: 9.000000pt;">Client retention</span><span style="color: rgb(15.300000% , 15.300000% , 15.300000%); font-family: "averta"; font-size: 9.000000pt;">, </span><span style="font-family: "averta"; font-size: 9.000000pt;">Virginia<br />
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<span style="color: rgb(15.300000% , 15.300000% , 15.300000%); font-family: "averta"; font-size: 12.000000pt;">Union Bankshares doesn’t want to repeat the mistakes of the past.
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<span style="color: rgb(15.300000% , 15.300000% , 15.300000%); font-family: "averta"; font-size: 12.000000pt;">The $8.6 billion-asset parent of Union Bank & Trust, which endured employee attrition after its
</span><span style="color: rgb(9.800000% , 41.200000% , 62.700000%); font-family: "averta"; font-size: 12.000000pt;">2014 purchase of StellarOne Financial</span><span style="color: rgb(15.300000% , 15.300000% , 15.300000%); font-family: "averta"; font-size: 12.000000pt;">, has taken steps to improve the odds of keeping more
people after its </span><span style="color: rgb(9.800000% , 41.200000% , 62.700000%); font-family: "averta"; font-size: 12.000000pt;">pending acquisition of Xenith Bankshares</span><span style="color: rgb(15.300000% , 15.300000% , 15.300000%); font-family: "averta"; font-size: 12.000000pt;">.</span><span style="color: rgb(15.300000% , 15.300000% , 15.300000%); font-family: "averta"; font-size: 12.000000pt;"> Executives, since announcing the deal in May, have spent time on the road visiting employees.
A video featuring the CEOs of both companies has also made the rounds in an effort to allay
fears while promoting the merger’s long-term value.
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<span style="color: rgb(15.300000% , 15.300000% , 15.300000%); font-family: "averta"; font-size: 12.000000pt;">The realization is that other banks will aggressively court nervous lenders and support staff,
while the hope is that better communication will persuade anxious performers to stay at
Union.
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<span style="color: rgb(15.300000% , 15.300000% , 15.300000%); font-family: "averta"; font-size: 12.000000pt;">“Competitors immediately assume that there will be disruption and angst so they decide to
approach your customers and your employees,” said John Asbury, Union’s president and CEO.
“We knew that was going to happen. It’s important that we control the message immediately.”
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<span style="color: rgb(15.300000% , 15.300000% , 15.300000%); font-family: "averta"; font-size: 12.000000pt;">StellarOne, an acquisition completed by Asbury’s predecessor, taught the current
management team a harsh lesson about retention. More than 10 StellarOne commercial
lenders left after the deal closed, which factored heavily into flat loan growth in the first year.
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<span style="color: rgb(15.300000% , 15.300000% , 15.300000%); font-family: "averta"; font-size: 12.000000pt;">The experience isn’t unique to Union, but it does underscore how critical it is to be proactive
with employees. Staying out in front of people with the right message can be challenging,
industry experts said.
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<span style="color: rgb(15.300000% , 15.300000% , 15.300000%); font-family: "averta"; font-size: 12.000000pt;">“It’s one of those things you can go crazy trying to deal with,” said Tim Chrisman, founder and
principal of the executive search firm Chrisman & Co. “It’s become a bigger issue because of
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<span style="color: rgb(15.300000% , 15.300000% , 15.300000%); font-family: "averta"; font-size: 12.000000pt;">the availability of talent. Lenders are the franchise.”
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<span style="color: rgb(15.300000% , 15.300000% , 15.300000%); font-family: "averta"; font-size: 12.000000pt;">Before they announced the Xenith deal, Union’s executives reviewed missteps tied to
StellarOne, Asbury said. Management, which largely focused on the communication strategy,
determined that it would quickly get as much information out to employees as possible.
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<span style="color: rgb(15.300000% , 15.300000% , 15.300000%); font-family: "averta"; font-size: 12.000000pt;">Accurate and timely disclosure is critical, particularly when addressing the company’s strategy
and an employee’s future, industry experts said. Failure to do so can spur employees to look for
opportunities elsewhere.
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<span style="color: rgb(15.300000% , 15.300000% , 15.300000%); font-family: "averta"; font-size: 12.000000pt;">“Role clarity and honest and clear communication of the ... vision are the two things that must
occur,” said Robert Voth, who leads Russell Reynolds’ consumer and commercial financial
services practice. “If you don’t have a clear and transparent message ... you can’t have the
merging of two cultures into one working toward one unified goal.”
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<span style="color: rgb(15.300000% , 15.300000% , 15.300000%); font-family: "averta"; font-size: 12.000000pt;">Discussing layoffs can be an uncomfortable process, which is why some executives avoid the
subject. Avoiding such a conversation can often lead to uncertainty and attrition that may
have otherwise been avoided.
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<span style="color: rgb(15.300000% , 15.300000% , 15.300000%); font-family: "averta"; font-size: 12.000000pt;">“There is great fear in a merger,” said Tim Scholten, president of Visible Progress, a consulting
firm. “There’s a culture change, a system change, technology change, leadership change. ...
There’s never a more fearful time than that.”
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<span style="color: rgb(15.300000% , 15.300000% , 15.300000%); font-family: "averta"; font-size: 12.000000pt;">Union and Xenith, both based in Richmond, Va., filmed a 15-minute video of Union’s director of
corporate communications interviewing Asbury and T. Gaylon Layfield III, Xenith’s CEO. The
executives discussed </span><span style="color: rgb(9.800000% , 41.200000% , 62.700000%); font-family: "averta"; font-size: 12.000000pt;">the merger’s timing</span><span style="color: rgb(15.300000% , 15.300000% , 15.300000%); font-family: "averta"; font-size: 12.000000pt;">, post-closing priorities and how the deal would
benefit clients. The video, which also had a </span><span style="color: rgb(9.800000% , 41.200000% , 62.700000%); font-family: "averta"; font-size: 12.000000pt;">transcript</span><span style="color: rgb(15.300000% , 15.300000% , 15.300000%); font-family: "averta"; font-size: 12.000000pt;">, was distributed to employees after the
deal was announced.
</span><br />
<span style="background-color: yellow;"><span style="color: rgb(15.300000% , 15.300000% , 15.300000%); font-family: "averta"; font-size: 12.000000pt;">Videos can provide additional insight that employees may not get from written
correspondence, while allowing well-prepared CEOs to let their personalities sell the deal, said
Trent Fl</span><span style="font-family: "averta"; font-size: 12.000000pt;">em</span><span style="color: rgb(15.300000% , 15.300000% , 15.300000%); font-family: "averta"; font-size: 12.000000pt;">ing</span><span style="font-family: "averta"; font-size: 12.000000pt;"> </span><span style="color: rgb(15.300000% , 15.300000% , 15.300000%); font-family: "averta"; font-size: 12.000000pt;">of Trent Fleming</span><span style="font-family: "averta"; font-size: 12.000000pt;"> </span><span style="color: rgb(15.300000% , 15.300000% , 15.300000%); font-family: "averta"; font-size: 12.000000pt;">Consulting. People may be more apt to watch a video than
wade through a lengthy memo, he said.</span></span></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="section">
</div>
<div class="section" style="background-color: rgb(100.000000%, 100.000000%, 100.000000%);">
<span style="background-color: yellow;"><span style="color: rgb(15.300000% , 15.300000% , 15.300000%); font-family: "averta"; font-size: 12.000000pt;">“Video is where communication is going,” Fleming</span><span style="font-family: "averta"; font-size: 12.000000pt;"> </span><span style="color: rgb(15.300000% , 15.300000% , 15.300000%); font-family: "averta"; font-size: 12.000000pt;">said. “People turn to YouTube and other
media for everything. If you use video, then people can see" a CEO’s likability or honesty. "No
other medium other than an in-person meeting gives you that.”</span></span><span style="color: rgb(15.300000% , 15.300000% , 15.300000%); font-family: "averta"; font-size: 12.000000pt;"> Sellers also run a risk of losing key staff, which can be particularly damaging in rare instances
where a deal is called off, industry experts said.
</span><span style="color: rgb(15.300000% , 15.300000% , 15.300000%); font-family: "averta"; font-size: 12.000000pt;"></span><br />
<div class="layoutArea">
<div class="column">
<span style="color: rgb(15.300000% , 15.300000% , 15.300000%); font-family: "averta"; font-size: 12.000000pt;">“As the seller, you’re concerned about being able to hold together the kind of team you need to
operate until the deal occurs,” Layfield said. “You never know with 100% certainty that any
deal will occur, so you have to plan for that very remote possibility.” </span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: rgb(15.300000% , 15.300000% , 15.300000%); font-family: "averta"; font-size: 12.000000pt;">Union and Xenith made an attempt at “harmonized” communication, where each CEO sent a
</span><span style="color: rgb(9.800000% , 41.200000% , 62.700000%); font-family: "averta"; font-size: 12.000000pt;">message to employees </span><span style="color: rgb(15.300000% , 15.300000% , 15.300000%); font-family: "averta"; font-size: 12.000000pt;">the deal the deal was announced, along with a customized list of
frequently asked questions for staff at </span><span style="color: rgb(9.800000% , 41.200000% , 62.700000%); font-family: "averta"; font-size: 12.000000pt;">Xenith </span><span style="color: rgb(15.300000% , 15.300000% , 15.300000%); font-family: "averta"; font-size: 12.000000pt;">and </span><span style="color: rgb(9.800000% , 41.200000% , 62.700000%); font-family: "averta"; font-size: 12.000000pt;">Union</span><span style="color: rgb(15.300000% , 15.300000% , 15.300000%); font-family: "averta"; font-size: 12.000000pt;">. </span><br />
<br /></div>
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<span style="color: rgb(15.300000% , 15.300000% , 15.300000%); font-family: "averta"; font-size: 12.000000pt;">After completing conference calls with media and analysts, Asbury and other Union and
Xenith executives visited Xenith’s headquarters, along with offices in Virginia Beach and
northern Virginia, to meet with employees.</span><span style="color: rgb(15.300000% , 15.300000% , 15.300000%); font-family: "averta"; font-size: 12.000000pt;"> Outreach continues. Both banks have mechanisms in place for employees to let the
integration teams know if something is working well or if any improvements are needed.
Asbury has also continued to meet with Xenith’s employees.</span></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="section" style="background-color: rgb(100.000000%, 100.000000%, 100.000000%);">
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<span style="color: rgb(15.300000% , 15.300000% , 15.300000%); font-family: "averta"; font-size: 12.000000pt;">“Communication is critically important,” Layfield said. “We both ascribe to that point of view.
It’s a lot better for the organization as we go through the changes that inevitably happen from
a merger with the two of us working in tandem. That’s the appropriate tone that two CEOs
should take.”
</span>
<br />
<span style="color: rgb(20.000000% , 20.000000% , 20.000000%); font-family: "averta"; font-size: 18.000000pt;">Jackie Stewart
</span><br />
<span style="color: rgb(13.300000% , 13.300000% , 13.300000%); font-family: "averta"; font-size: 12.000000pt;">Jackie Stewart covers community banks and mergers and acquisitions for American Banker.
</span></div>
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<span style="color: rgb(27.100000% , 27.100000% , 27.100000%); font-family: "icomoon"; font-size: 11.000000pt;">
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Trent Fleminghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14241748019290243041noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3364351610120245357.post-19617284554024046322017-06-28T21:21:00.003-07:002017-06-28T21:21:36.350-07:00Urgent Alert - Intellectual Property Issues in Banking Software<i>Rarely do I deviate from 6 newsletters a year, but I am issuing this
“Urgent Alert” because it contains information that will help you to
best protect your bank should so-called intellectual property issues
arise.</i><br />
<br />
One of the non-financial terms that I always try to
negotiate in software vendor contracts involves intellectual property.
Because of the rise of so-called “patent trolls” and the ease with which
patents are being given, banks need protection from such claims. The
best way to handle this is to ensure that your vendor offers language
indicating that they will defend any such claims that are brought
against your institution. Now is a good time to review your current
contracts to ensure that they contain such a clause. If they do not,
contact your vendor and request that such language be added. I can
supply sample language if you need it, but in almost all cases the
vendor will have suitable language that can be added to your contract.
The most likely reason you don’t already have this language in a master
agreement is if you have just renewed such an agreement over and over,
never updating the language.<br />
<br />
Several banks have already received a
letter regarding a certain issue surrounding mobile check capture. It
is likely that your bank will too. I want to encourage you to refer any
such claims directly to your software vendor(s) so that they can help
you to manage this. Please don’t respond directly to these letters, as
your vendor(s) are well aware of the situation and are best positioned
to respond. I would also advise you to alert your state and national
banking trade associations about the receipt of such a letter, as these
organizations are also working to help the industry manage such claims.<br />
<br />
My
purpose in writing this alert is to make you aware of both the general
issue of your needing protection in the case of intellectual property
disputes, and the specific issue concerning mobile check deposit that I
expect you will see shortly in the form of a letter. <br />
<br />
<i>Remember, I
am not an attorney,</i> and you should always consult an attorney about
legal matters. Please let me know if you have questions or if I can
assist you in any way.<br />
<br />
Trent Fleming<br />
<br />
trent@trentfleming.com<br />
901-896-4007Trent Fleminghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14241748019290243041noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3364351610120245357.post-50176552954701172262017-03-14T07:27:00.001-07:002017-03-14T07:27:18.257-07:00D+H Acquired by VC Firm<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
For more than 10 years, the Holy Grail of core
banking software has been the application that features full United
States functionality (especially regulatory compliance) along with
multi-lingual and multi-currency aspects. Such a product
would be well received by both foreign and US-based banks, who have
offices domestic and foreign. So far, a modern, integrated
enterprise solution
has not been found. The acquisition of D+H by a venture capital firm
that already owns Misys, a well known international firm, appears to be
the latest effort.
<span style="background-color: white;"><span></span></span></div>
<div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Misys will join two D+H cores, SPARAK and Phoenix
(which already has some international flavor, courtesy of a Caribbean
presence). SPARAK is a
stable, more mature community bank product, mainly found in
smaller asset based, rural banks across the US, and
some speculate that it may eventually be phased out
or sold to another
US based technology provider. Meanwhile,
combining Phoenix with Misys may give the new owners a leg up on
introducing a solution that covers the needs of both domestic and
foreign banks for a truly global product. While the merger will move the combined company into the top three US-based firms in terms of revenue, they will remain a smaller player in terms of the number of US banks processed.</div>
</div>
<div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In addition to the core offerings, the new company
will continue to be well positioned to serve the platform lending
software needs of small and large banks. Under the D+H umbrella is a
suite of lending applications ranging from consumer
to commercial to mortgage banking, that are arguably best of breed
solutions. Ongoing efforts to enhance interoperability
and service/support among these products promise even better things for the future.
</div>
</div>
<div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Current D+H customers, especially SPARAK users, <span style="background-color: black;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-clip: border-box; background-image: none; background-origin: padding-box; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto auto;"></span></span>should watch events carefully, for clues
to how the new owners will move to align resources for maxi<span style="background-color: white;"><span></span></span>mum benefit,
and of course for maximum profits. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If you would like to review your
core vendor relationships, D+H or otherwise,
please feel free to contact me. trent@trentfleming.com or 901/896-4007</div>
</div>
<br />Trent Fleminghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14241748019290243041noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3364351610120245357.post-83964344263465105482016-11-16T07:12:00.002-08:002016-11-16T07:12:13.914-08:00In Defense of Legacy Core Systems<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Tagging along with the FinTech wave of technology
innovation, there are a handful of companies promoting “next generation” core
systems.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Generally, their sales pitch
involves explaining why your current legacy core system is not right for the
future, and encouraging you to change.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There
are at least two problems with this approach.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>First, your basic accounting needs have not changed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The requirements for bank data processing
remain the same: accurate, timely posting and reporting of customer and bank
information. The surviving core vendors have proven themselves over time to be
reliable partners, have invested heavily in infrastructure and staffing to
support their bank customers, and yes, continue to invest in research and
development to bring out new products and services.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Second, converting to a different system –
any system – is far more complex than it used to be, and will have a tremendous
impact on your employees and your customers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The customer impact in particular is troubling, because they are likely
using systems ranging from mobile to Internet to bill pay that they’ve become
comfortable with.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Change will bring
about apprehension, and may in fact adversely impact utilization.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Utilization that you’ve worked hard to
promote. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Here are four reasons you should consider “re-investing” in
your current core system rather than converting to a “next generation”
product.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To be fair, I’m making the
assumption that your current software is still supported and enhanced by your
vendor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If that’s not the case, we need
to have a separate conversation.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
First, your existing core software covers the basics very
well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Your customer accounts are posted
in a timely and accurate fashion, and you have access to the products and
services that your customers need.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To be
successful, you have to cover the basics and execute on them well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This level of processing is not the desired result,
it is merely the start.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It builds a solid
base upon which you can begin to add internal services, including financial
analysis and reporting, and customer facing solutions, including mobile,
distributed capture, and P2P.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Don’t take
for granted that your core system performs as expected, day in and day out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is a key component of your IT infrastructure,
and should be viewed as a positive.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Second, address the underutilization of your existing
systems.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The result is reduced
productivity and higher costs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In my
experience, most companies are using less than 25% of the available feature/function
of software they invest in.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Doubling
that utilization will pay significant benefits. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Underutilization is caused by several
factors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Key influences include minimal
training at conversion time, no follow up training, and failure to keep pace
with new releases.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All of these factors
will contribute to a growing gap between your usage and the product’s
capabilities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Training is the key, and
it requires a commitment to establishing and managing a training regimen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Options include vendor supplied utilization
assessments, web-based training, and attendance at regional and national vendor
conferences for education on new capabilities and training opportunities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Third, you must actively manage the relationship.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While it seems trite to call the relationship
a partnership, it really must be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Your
commitment to the core vendor is huge, both financially and in terms of relying
on them to help you exceed customer expectations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Two key elements of this partnership are
support and contractual issues.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Support
is highly dependent on a number of factors, but let me encourage you to employ
these two techniques – document and escalate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Don’t accept poor service.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If
your initial support experience is not good, work to escalate to someone who
can help you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Consider sales and
management channels if the traditional support channels don’t work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For serious matters, especially if systems
are not working at all, make sure you properly document the incident.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is not only a regulatory and management
matter, it will also be of great value if the relationship turns sour, or when
you begin to negotiate a renewal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
frequently hear clients relate stories of poor service, but when asked for documentation
they don’t have it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The contract with your vendor is the governing document for
pricing, service levels, and all other matters involving the relationship.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is important that you are familiar with
it, and that you use any excuse – new contract, renewal, or extension – as a
time to negotiate better terms and conditions than you have now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I find many cases where banks have signed the
“boilerplate” language from a vendor, and later discover that those terms and
conditions are not necessarily in their favor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Please also use the pricing section of the contract to evaluate your
current billing, to be sure it is accurate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>These are often lengthy and complex bills, and only the contract can
guide you in understanding if you are being properly charged.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Finally, community banks don’t need to be Beta testers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Resist the urge to be the bank where a new
vendor works out the kinks in a new system.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Your goal is to deploy reliable technology that meets the needs of your
employees and customers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Testing and
development environments are generally not conducive to those goals.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Here are two things you can do today to improve the value
you get from your core banking solution.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Seek to improve utilization through better
training.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Engage your vendor in this
effort, and put together a game plan that provides immediate help, along with a
game plan for maintaining a higher level of utilization.<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Actively manage the vendor partnership, engaging
with the vendor to understand current contract terms and conditions, ensure
your pricing is accurate, and demand a satisfactory level of support.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>bring 35<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>years of experience to my role as a trusted advisor to executives on
matters of strategy, management, and technology.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am a frequent speaker at industry meetings,
and serves on the faculty of the graduate banking schools at the University of Wisconsin
and Penn State University.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">This fall, I will be
speaking to the following conferences:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span></i><!--[endif]--><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Kansas Bankers Lending Conference<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span></i><!--[endif]--><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Iowa Bankers Technology Conference<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span></i><!--[endif]--><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Kentucky Bankers Annual Convention<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">4)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span></i><!--[endif]--><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Southeast Oklahoma Bankers Association
Quarterly Meeting<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I’m currently
assisting clients in strategic planning, vendor evaluation, and operational
efficiency.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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More information on these and other matters at my website <a href="http://www.trentfleming.com/">www.trentfleming.com</a> or contact me
directly, <a href="mailto:trent@trentfleming.com">trent@trentfleming.com</a> <o:p></o:p></div>
Trent Fleminghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14241748019290243041noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3364351610120245357.post-28905077779076890292016-08-05T09:19:00.003-07:002016-08-05T09:19:52.845-07:00Purported EMV FlawYou've no doubt seen the news stories about hackers discovering an alleged flaw that allows EMV chips to be compromised. I don't believe this is cause for much alarm. The stories I've read indicate that the mag stripe on a card can be re-written to effectively turn off the chip. I'm sure this is possible, but it would require physical possession of the card. Ideally, your fraud detection, combined with the customer hopefully reporting a lost or stolen card, would serve to protect you. In addition, the bulk of the story seems to be about merchants not encrypting transactions, chip or otherwise. That is a very different matter - and you would think that merchants would have learned from the Target breach that encryption is important.<br />
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So let's keep our heads straight, and continue to deploy good fraud technology, including the feature that allows customers to temporarily disable a misplaced card - while we plan for partial or full EMV implementation down the road. Meanwhile, a good dose of employee and customer education about card fraud and safety is probably in order. You may get calls about this perceived EMV flaw. Make sure you are ready to respond.<br />
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Remember - you control the message or the message will control you.Trent Fleminghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14241748019290243041noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3364351610120245357.post-62976727615023436422016-07-17T20:40:00.004-07:002016-07-17T20:40:58.996-07:00Managing Strategic Risk in Core Vendor Relationships<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Times; font-size: 19px; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12px; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">There’s been a lot of attention around core system selection, contract negotiation, and related matters recently. I want to remind you that I have extensive experience in these areas, and generally have open projects involving new system selection, contract negotiation, and re-negotiation of existing contracts. I have two things that will be of great value to you: extensive experience over the last 30 years, and a proven methodology designed to get you the very best outcome.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><i>This time, I want to discuss contract negotiation (and renewal negotiations). Next time, we will discuss system selection.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Just like contingency planning, vendor management is more than a regulatory requirement. It is a prudent business practice. The failure of banks to properly manage their relationships with vendors caused banking regulators to impose vendor management guidelines. Poor vendor management costs money, plain and simple, and creates issues of exposure and liability that may be hidden until some sequence of events occurs that brings such liability to the forefront. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Essentially, you should organize all of your vendor relationships in such a way that you know who you are doing business with, what the terms of the relationship are (time frames, service levels, bank obligations, vendor obligations) who the proper contacts are (normal involvement, escalated involvement) and have in place a methodology for tracking existing contracts, and getting new contracts into the same organized system so that they are also properly tracked. In many cases, a simple spreadsheet will do, but you will find numerous vendors who offer both desktop and web-based solutions for managing vendor relationships. Again, this is just common sense. Make sure that someone has central responsibility for vendor management. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">I want to spend some time on the specific exposure and liability involved with your large Information Technology contracts. Primarily, core processing, item processing, EFT services, and perhaps Internet banking. Especially when you outsource these services, you will find these contracts to be extremely specific, and virtually loaded with pitfalls to navigate during the course of their lifespan. Over the years, these contracts have grown in size and complexity, and I can assure you that the additional language is primarily to protect the vendor's interests, NOT yours. Below are several clauses that are most critical, as examples of how serious these matters can be.</span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"> </span><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">1) Natural Termination or "deconversion" fees. You will find that your IT contracts contain language detailing the vendor's responsibility when you choose to move to another vendor at the end of the contract. Most read something like this: "we will provide reasonable deconversion assistance at our then current rates" - or as I like to call it, a blank check. In practice, I am seeing fees that are the equivalent of an extra 6 to 12 months of processing fees. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">All that, for providing one or two sets of “tapes” or files to your new vendor for the conversion process. Note that the word reasonable, in the sentence above, is not modifying the word cost. When renewing these contracts, or signing new ones, insist on a reasonable fixed fee for the deconversion charges. Move on if a vendor won't agree to fix these costs. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">2) Early Termination fees. Let me be clear - I don't ever advise a client to arbitrarily break a contract and attempt to walk away without penalty. You wouldn't allow customers to do that with loan covenants or corporate resolutions. That being said, there is nothing wrong with attempting to negotiate a better deal when you renew or negotiate a new contract. Most of the time, early termination clauses provide for you to pay 80% of the current monthly fees, for the remaining life of the contract. First, this is too high a penalty. The vendor's margins are just not that good. Second, you will find that the vendors often include in the calculation of this 80%, pass through charges (such as telecom, or other third party fees like card production, postage, etc.) that you will still have even when you move to a different provider. I try to negotiate a true cost of the monthly fees from the processor, and then implement a sliding scale as the contract ages. </span><span style="font-family: "times"; line-height: normal;"><i>I've seen a number of M&A deals fall through because the selling bank's early termination fees were simply too high. </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">3) Auto-Renewal Clauses. Many contracts contain such a clause, basically saying that if you don't serve notice in advance (usually 90 days to 180 days) the contract will automatically renew, at the same terms, conditions, and pricing. First, try to take the clause out. If the vendor won't agree, simply serve notice, via a letter, at the time you sign the new contract that you will not auto-renew. This does not mean you will not renew the contract, it just means you want the opportunity to negotiate terms, conditions, and pricing prior to renewal. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">4) Refunds of Incentive Payments - especially when you move to a new vendor in the core and EFT areas, it is not uncommon for vendors to give you either hard dollars up front, or a significant credit that you can use against the purchase of goods and services. Understandably, if you break the contract early, they will want some or all of their money back. Again, I suggest a sliding scale, so that your liability decreases over time. Probably 100% the first year, then 20% reduction per year for each year after. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">I believe I've made my point that there is significant exposure in contracts for Information Technology services. It's important that you address your situation relative to existing contracts, and that you educate yourself so that future contracts are negotiated not just on price, but also on terms and conditions in order that the contracts are more favorable to your bank. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; line-height: normal;">Because of the complexity of these contracts, you will likely need help. I have extensive experience in reviewing and negotiating Information Technology agreements, and would be pleased to help you should you need assistance. </span><span style="font-kerning: none;"><i>My methodology includes a checklist of items for review, along with a thorough reading of every contract, addendum, and extension, and provides significant value in helping you manage this important risk area, and negotiating better contracts going forward.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Upcoming Speaking Engagements</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">July 27 - Advanced School of Banking at Penn State University </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">August 5 - Kansas Bankers Association CEO Forum, Colorado Springs</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">August 11 - Graduate School of Banking, University of Wisconsin</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">August 13 - Alabama Bankers Association, CEO Conference, Point Clear, Alabama</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><i>Trent Fleming advises executives on strategy, management, and technology issues. Reach him at trent@trentfleming.com or on Twitter @techadvisor</i></span></div>
Trent Fleminghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14241748019290243041noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3364351610120245357.post-44911281773569994322016-06-02T11:56:00.002-07:002016-06-02T11:56:44.279-07:00Vacations and Succession Planning<div style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; font-size: 14px;">
Inevitably, the topic of succession planning arises during strategic planning sessions with my clients. Often, the discussion is focused on executive management and the board. I submit to you, however, that you should address succession planning across all levels of management, in all departments.
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In a typical organization, there exist what I call “concentrations of knowledge.” Generally, only a handful of individuals hold a complete understanding of processes, practices, and procedures. Overcoming the absence of these individuals is generally a collaborative effort of those who have partial knowledge, along with the occasional “emergency” phone call, text, or Facebook message to that person who is on vacation, home sick, or out of the office for a meeting. The better way to address these concentrations of knowledge is an intentional program of cross-training, succession planning, and overall training and education designed to increase knowledge and understanding of all employees.
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This is my annual reminder to you that vacation season is a great time to assess the extent to which you are impacted by these concentrations of knowledge. Evaluate the efforts of your staff when managers or other key employees are on vacation. Do errors increase? Are there compatibility issues that come to the fore? Is the staff reaching out to absent employees for help during the day or in the evening?. One key to a high performing organization is a level of cross training that anticipates and overcomes the temporary and permanent loss of a key employee.
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Here are three things you can do to reduce the potential impact of concentrations of knowledge, and prepare for both short and long term absences. First, insist that departmental policies and procedures are well documented, properly audited (practices versus written procedures) and that employees are trained well. Second, insist that employees within a given department are cross trained on other tasks and duties, and that actual rotation of duties occurs throughout the year. Finally, strictly enforce vacation absences, including communications via any method. This not only pays dividends from improving your bench strength, it ensures that the internal control benefit of required absences is fully realized.
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I’m eager to hear what you learn from your efforts and observations. As always, I stand ready to assist you in these or other areas. </div>
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<i>Trent Fleming advises executives on strategy, management, and technology issues. Reach him at trent@trentfleming.com or on Twitter @techadvisor</i></div>
Trent Fleminghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14241748019290243041noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3364351610120245357.post-57421259756231447442016-03-16T09:46:00.003-07:002016-03-16T09:46:39.498-07:00Ready to Give up on Free Checking? Not so fast . . . <div style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; font-size: 14px;">
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I’m hearing a lot about the demise of free checking in the bank and credit union environment. Rising costs are cited, among other issues, but I think that consideration has to be given to the profile of customers who have free checking accounts. If you are doing even rudimentary profitability analysis, you should be able to assess the impact of free checking on customer profitability. A properly configured account will serve to modify consumer behavior in ways that reduce the costs of servicing the account. This can be done without fees directed to the consumer. Increased debit card use, email statements instead of paper, mobile or Internet access (instead of phone calls and voice response systems,) and automatic deposit of payroll or other credits are commonly thought of as components of a successful free checking account. </div>
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One source I saw recently indicated that rising transaction volumes were a reason for FI’s to eliminate free checking. While per account volumes are rising, the increase is almost entirely attributable to electronic transactions, and these are not increasing your costs. Debit card activity is eclipsing check writing, and virtually all debit card transactions are not only cheaper than checks, they often generate interchange revenue. You want customers to use their debit cards, and a properly promoted free checking account will encourage such use.</div>
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If consumer accounts are important to your institution, free checking remains a great way to attract and leverage such relationships. As always, understanding your costs and revenue opportunities is the basis for configuring and pricing accounts. I’m available if you want to review and discuss these or other matters.</div>
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<i><span style="font-family: ArialMT;">Trent Fleming serves as a trusted adviser to financial institutions on matters
of technology, strategy, and management, and as an industry speaker. In
his advisory role, he has helped hundreds of banks make good decisions
about technology from a business perspective. Fleming’s presentations on
technology, management, and strategy consistently get the highest marks
from his audiences. He serves on the faculty of the Graduate School of
Banking at the University of Wisconsin, and regularly contributes articles to
industry publications. More information at </span><span style="color: navy; font-family: ArialMT;">www.trentfleming.com </span><span style="font-family: ArialMT;">,
</span><span style="font-family: CourierNewPSMT;">trent@trentfleming.com</span><span style="font-family: ArialMT;">, or @techadvisor on Twitter. </span></i><br />
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Trent Fleminghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14241748019290243041noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3364351610120245357.post-65651521162040934682016-03-01T12:28:00.000-08:002016-03-01T12:28:49.731-08:00Essential Speaking Topics from Trent Fleming<div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
As you work to complete your conference planning for this year, I hope that you will consider the attached presentations as options for your groups. I've included topics directed to CEO/Director audiences, as well as operations/technology, and marketing. It would be my pleasure to work with you on any of these topics.</div>
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I'm grateful to the many of you who have already booked me for this year, and hope to add many more engagements to my 2016 calendar.</div>
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<div align="center" class="Default" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="Default" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="Default" style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">CEO and Director Focus<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="Default">
<br /></div>
<div class="Default">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 0in 0in; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<b><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt;">Four Ways CEOs Can Better Manage Technology <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 0in 0in; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;">Technology has found its way into every
aspect of your institution.</span><span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Default">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;">It’s no longer a
“back office” only solution. The successful CEO will embrace technology,
and seek to actively manage it. This session is designed to show you how:
drawing on four key pillars: People, Strategy, Business Focus, and
Security. Participants will leave with a better understanding of how technology
can be integrated into the organization, and managed as well as any other
business unit.<br />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br />
<!--[endif]--></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Textbody">
<br /></div>
<div class="Textbody">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">Director Liability in a Connected
World<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="Textbody">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Increasingly, bank customers,
both business and consumer, are choosing electronic delivery channels over
traditional branch banking. To support these demands, banks are investing in
sophisticated delivery systems to provide real–time access for customers. In
addition, banks are finding it increasingly important to manage their Internet
and social media presence, as well as their Internet reputation across other
platforms. Payment methods ranging from wire transfer to ACH to debit cards
create the potential for significant fraud loss and also must be managed to
mitigate risk. For business, corporate account takeover is a major threat. On
the consumer side, card data breaches and identity theft loom large as sources
of loss for banks. Finally, the increasing reliance on outsourced
data–processing solutions means that banks are signing contracts that represent
significant liability and exposure for early termination clauses, annual price
increases, and de-conversion costs. This session will guide Directors and
Executive Management in understanding the risk and exposure presented by
today’s online environment and will also provide guidance to them as they seek
to offer advice and oversight to bank management in addressing and managing
such risks. </span><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Arial Unicode MS";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="Textbody" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-pagination: widow-orphan;">
<br /></div>
<div class="Textbody" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-pagination: widow-orphan;">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">The New Face of Strategic Planning: <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="Textbody" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-pagination: widow-orphan;">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">Integrating Technology Into Your Enterprise Strategy <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="Textbody" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-pagination: widow-orphan;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Historically, banks have had two strategic
plans: an enterprise, or business plan, and a separate technology plan. This is no longer tenable, as technology now
becomes the driving force behind most strategic initiatives. This session discusses methods of integrating
technology planning into your enterprise planning efforts, providing insight to
senior managers and executives as to the increasingly visible and important
role technology plays in the banking environment. Topics include selected new technologies,
negotiating and managing vendor relationships, merger and acquisition planning,
managing operations and technology staff, and engaging with customers to
maintain strong relationships via electronic channels. (this session can be
tailored for CEO/Director audiences, or Senior Operations staff. I can also provide this as a Director
Education or Planning Session, privately for individual banks)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Textbody" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-pagination: widow-orphan;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 0in 0in; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<b><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">Rural Economic Revitalization</span></b><b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="Textbody" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-pagination: widow-orphan;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt;">Drawing
on my volunteer work with various university-level economic development
efforts, I have developed presentations to address how small towns can initiate
efforts to revitalize their local economies. One component of my work is
a targeted presentation called “Small Towns and Small Banks” that is focused on
CEOs of community banks and talks specifically as to how these banks can be
catalysts for change that results in stronger communities</span><span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Textbody" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-pagination: widow-orphan;">
<br /></div>
<div class="Textbody" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-pagination: widow-orphan;">
<br /></div>
<div class="Textbody" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-pagination: widow-orphan;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="Default" style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">General Topics<br />
<br />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br />
<!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="Default">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">Preparing Your Bank for the Next Decade</span></b><b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></b><span style="font-family: Arial;">While the day to day pressures of
managing balance sheets and regulatory requirements seem overwhelming, smart
banks sense that the weight of competitive pressures make it even more
important to develop and execute on strategies that will ensure their banks’
success going forward. this session will look at emerging trends in banking
products and services, and provide keen insight into developing the
infrastructure, tools, and staff needed to deliver them successfully. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Default">
<br /></div>
<div class="Default">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">Managing Your Core Vendor Relationships </span></b><b><span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="Default">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Your contract for services with your primary banking software provider
defines a very important third party relationship with your bank. Issues of exposure, liability, service
levels, and yes, cost, are all in play.
Many banks have signed contracts with dozens of pages, without a careful
review. In some instances, the bank's
attorney has been asked to review and comment on the contract, but absent
specific software expertise, such a review may be cursory at best. This session is not a legal review, but an
operational one, of the implications of committing to selected aspects of the
contract. Participants will leave with
insight into how to evaluate contract terms, and what areas to ask the bank's
attorney to look into in further detail. These skills can then be extended to
other third party contracts, further enhancing the benefits. Today's focus on reducing expenses, and
controlling costs, makes this session especially timely. Ideal for Operations
audiences and CFO Conferences.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Default">
<br /></div>
<div class="Textbody">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">Alternate Branching Strategies:
Leveraging Technology to Efficiently Serve Existing and New Markets<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="Textbody">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">While
community banks offer a wide range of electronic delivery channels, branch
footprint remains a key component of service delivery. This session will look at smarter ways to
branch, including limiting physical plant investment, and utilizing a wide
range of technologies to provide outstanding service across all of your
markets. <br />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br />
<!--[endif]--></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Textbody">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">Developing Your Bank’s Call Center<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="Textbody">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Today, even small banks need
a plan for centralizing customer contact and support. As delivery channel options increase,
customer demands for timely, knowledgeable support will increase. A call center is the key, allowing you to offer
a seamless, consistent experience when customers choose to call, email, tweet,
or FB for help. To augment this policy,
banks must move to a “universal associate” model, whereby each employee with
customer service responsibility is cross trained on all products and services. This allows quick, accurate responses, and
raises customer satisfaction, which in turn increases customer loyalty, along
with the adoption of new technologies.
This session will guide participants in mapping out a plan to move to a
call center model from wherever they are now.</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">Developing Your Bank's Mobile
Strategy <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="Textbody">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Mobile Banking has quickly
become an expected service offering for bank customers. Consumer's desire
to do more on the mobile device, combined with extensive advertising at a
national level, have driven awareness and rapid adoption. In addition, our
society is rapidly moving into a “Post PC” stage, where the mobile device
(tablets and larger smart phones) will become the primary end user device. In spite of this, there are banks who are yet
to invest in this technology. Many who have deployed Mobile Banking have
done little beyond offering the basic product. What is needed? A
strategy. One that encompasses five pillars: technology, operations,
compliance, promotion, and innovation. This session will provide banks
with the information and techniques necessary to select, implement, promote,
and manage a broad Mobile Banking delivery channel, both now and in the
future. <br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">Social Media's Place in Your Marketing Strategy<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="Default">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Often, social media channels
like Facebook, blogging, and Twitter are talked about as if they exist in a
vacuum. This session is designed to
provide overall guidance for marketing, public relations, and advertising for
financial institutions, including traditional and social media channels. The session is offered with<u> two options</u>:
a focus on tactical issues, including implementation, security, compliance, and
management, or a CEO focused presentation to provide background, risk
management advice, and guidance to management as they seek to oversee the
bank's marketing, public relations, and advertising efforts.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="Default">
<br /></div>
<div class="Default">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">Attracting and Retaining Profitable Small Business
Customers: <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="Default">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">Packaging and Promoting Your Bank's Services</span></b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Default">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">For many years, I've spoken to
banks about the real battle in financial services – the fight for the profitable
small business account. This session
looks at recent trends, including “free” business checking, and commercial cash
management technology, and provides insight into ensuring that your bank has a
plan to attract and retain business accounts.
Often, community bankers find that they have all the tools needed to
compete on feature/function with the regional and national players. What is lacking is packaging, promotion, and
sales training. Participants will leave
with ideas that will allow them to address an overall strategy for the
commercial marketplace.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Default">
<br /></div>
<div class="Default" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"><b>Please
contact me today to schedule one or more of these presentations for your group!<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="Default" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div class="Default" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"><b>trent@trentfleming.com</b></span></div>
<div class="Default" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Arial Unicode MS"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>901-896-4007</b></span></div>
</span></div>
Trent Fleminghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14241748019290243041noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3364351610120245357.post-22320462586081447942016-02-23T09:14:00.000-08:002016-02-23T09:14:17.699-08:00Thoughts on Fee Income: Merchant Processing Services <div style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; font-size: 14px;">
Virtually every bank I speak to feels the pressure to increase earnings. In advising banks on such matters, I try to focus on items that are relatively easy to implement, and will generate a stream of earnings with minimal ongoing effort. Merchant Processing Services fall into this category. It’s this simple, really: every one of your business customers that accept debit and credit cards (and digital wallet payments) need this service. Too many banks have the attitude of “we can provide that if they need us to” instead of very intentionally trying to be the primary provider of such services.</div>
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It is exactly this type of thinking that prevents you from collecting all the fee income you should. Begin now to assess your current program in terms of pricing, functionality, and marketing support. If it is not what you need to be competitive, look at renegotiating with your current vendor, or evaluate alternate vendors. Get a program in place that you can be proud to offer. Then, incorporate this service into all your sales training, calling officer preparation, and marketing materials. Leverage the relationships you have to sell more Merchant Services to your existing customers, and make the product you offer a selling point for prospective customers as well.</div>
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Properly executed, this plan will generate fee income in two ways: signing bonuses for new accounts, and per transaction fees monthly. A third benefit is a stronger, more exclusive relationship with your business customer. These benefits alone should make you invest the time to focus in deploying a Merchant Processing Services program.</div>
Trent Fleminghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14241748019290243041noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3364351610120245357.post-13843038367397379292016-02-09T09:55:00.003-08:002016-02-09T09:55:55.743-08:00Comments on Fiserv Acquisition of ACI<span style="font-size: large;"><i>A number of you have asked me about implications of the ACI acquisition by Fiserv. Here are some thoughts.</i></span><br />
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By now you have seen news of the acquisition by Fiserv of ACI’s Internet Banking solutions group. I want to address this at a macro and a micro level. First, let’s take on the macro side. The banking software industry has mirrored the banking industry itself, by consolidating. We now have an oligopoly in banking software - three firms control a majority of the market. In such an environment, further consolidation is almost inevitable, as the big players seek to drive more revenue from ancillary products. You will see more of these types of acquisitions, as it becomes harder for third party, best of breed solutions to sell product into banks directly.</div>
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At the micro level, this is a win for Fiserv. It gives them an integrated product that works across all platforms, and includes both business and personal Internet banking capabilities. As mobile becomes increasingly important - to both consumers and businesses - demand for enhanced capabilities will increase. Fiserv’s current setup features distinct products for consumer and commercial, creating an unnecessarily complex delivery channel. If you are an ACI customer using a Fiserv core today, you may find that your product becomes the main Fiserv offering, rather than being replaced. When you consider that Fiserv acquired fewer than 600 customers, many of who are Credit Unions, you will see that this was more than just an effort to buy customer base. The product is important, and that’s good news for ACI customers.</div>
Trent Fleminghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14241748019290243041noreply@blogger.com0