How Banking Leaders Can Avoid Becoming Obsolete

Most financial institutions say they are data-driven. Far fewer can prove it in customer acquisition and relationship growth success. At a time when marketing costs are rising, response rates are under pressure, and every institution has access to the same channels, data is often the difference between growth and wasted spend. Today’s conversation is about how data actually drives results, not dashboards, not buzzwords, but measurable connections with the right consumers at the right time. We are going to talk about how modeling, channel orchestration, and analytics are reshaping direct marketing for banks and credit unions, and why doing this well is becoming a competitive necessity. I am joined by Preston Carroll, Director of Data and Analytics, and Eddie Tu, Principal Statistical Analyst at Franklin Madison Direct. Together, they work at the intersection of data science, marketing strategy, and financial services growth. Today, we will unpack what actually works, where institutions get it wrong, and how leaders can move from data awareness to data advantage. This episode of Banking Transformed is sponsored by Franklin Madison Franklin Madison Direct is a premier direct marketing agency within the Franklin Madison Group. Specializing in performance-driven strategies, FM Direct empowers financial and insurance brands to connect with their ideal audiences and achieve outstanding growth. The agency supports clients in expanding their customer base profitably through diverse acquisition channels, including direct mail, paid search, paid social, and display advertising. https://franklinmadisondirect.com/

Thirty to fifty percent of your fraud losses don't come from hackers or organized crime rings. They come from your own customers disputing legitimate transactions under their own names. This is first-party fraud, and it's a $100 billion problem that most financial institutions don't even track as a separate category. While banks use advanced tools to detect external fraudsters, their own account holders are taking advantage of long-standing dispute processes meant to protect consumers, turning chargebacks into weapons against the very institutions that serve them. The math is staggering: this single category now accounts for up to half of all fraud losses and keeps accelerating while most executives stay focused on threats from outside their customer base. Joining me on the Banking Transformed podcast is Shanthi Shanmugam, CEO of Casap, who developed products at Robinhood and Chime before founding a company to address this crisis. We're going to examine why first-party fraud has surged, how manual dispute processes enable it, and what essential changes are needed to transform this hidden vulnerability into a competitive edge.

Banking is no longer competing with the branch down the street. It is competing with every digital experience your customers have before they ever open your app. Expectations around speed, simplicity, and trust are being set by big tech, fintechs, and embedded finance, not by traditional financial institutions. And for many banks, that gap is growing. That is why today’s conversation matters. I am joined by Phil Tomlinson, Senior Vice President of Global Offerings at TaskUs, and Pragya Agarwal, Vice President of Financial Crimes and Risk Operations. They sit at the intersection of customer experience, advanced technology, and financial crime prevention, where speed and trust have to coexist every day. In this episode of Banking Transformed, we unpack what next-generation banking really looks like, where AI is delivering real value right now, and how banks can move faster, innovate responsibly, and still protect customers in an always-on, app-driven world. This episode of Banking Transformed is sponsored by TaskUs TaskUs is a leading provider of outsourced digital services and next-generation customer experience to the world’s most innovative companies, helping its clients represent, protect and grow their brands. Leveraging a cloud-based infrastructure, TaskUs serves clients in the fast-growing sectors, including social media, e-commerce, gaming, streaming media, food delivery and ride-sharing, technology, financial services and healthcare. https://www.taskus.com/services/financial-crime-compliance/

Nearly half of the skills banking leaders rely on today will be obsolete within five years. In this episode of Banking Transformed, Jim Marous explores why continuous learning has become the most critical leadership skill in financial services, and why failing to adapt is the fastest path to irrelevance. Jim shares the personal transformation that reshaped his career, explains how AI is accelerating the divide between learners and laggards, and outlines the daily habits leaders must embrace to stay relevant in a world where change will never be this slow again.

Banks love to claim they are high-tech and high-touch. The truth is, most are neither, and the gap between what institutions promise and what customers experience is widening fast. It is costing banks billions in lost trust, slower growth, and missed opportunities, especially as expectations accelerate across the rest of people’s financial lives. At Fintech NerdCon in Miami, I sat down with two leaders who are actually closing that gap. Siya Vansia, Chief Brand and Innovation Officer at ConnectOne Bank, and Suzan Chaffin, EVP of Solutions at LoanPro, are showing what modern banking looks like when technology, culture, and leadership come together with clarity and purpose. Our Banking Transformed conversation dives into the real work behind transformation. Not the marketing language, but the decisions, processes, and organizational alignment needed to deliver both speed and empathy. These leaders expose why retrofitting new technology onto old processes always fails, and how banks can rebuild for a future where high-tech and high-touch finally work together. If your institution is trying to modernize, improve experience, or break free from legacy constraints, this discussion offers a practical look at what it takes to move faster and deliver better value today.

What if the biggest myth in banking is that customers don’t need branches anymore? Because every time Bank of America opens a new financial center, digital sales in that market jump by 50 percent. Physical presence isn’t competing with digital — it’s accelerating it. Now, Bank of America is putting $750 million behind a bet the rest of the industry walked away from too soon, opening 150 new financial centers across 60 markets by 2027 at more than $5 million per location. Bold? Yes. Contradictory? Maybe. But the timing suggests something deeper: after shrinking from 6,000 branches to about 3,700, they now believe the future isn’t fewer branches… it’s smarter ones. These next-generation centers aren’t transaction factories. They’re advisory hubs staffed by 12,000 relationship bankers, designed to anchor communities and handle the conversations digital can’t — at least not yet. My guest on the Banking Transformed podcast, Will Smayda, leads this transformation. He’ll explain why Bank of America is expanding while others retreat and what these new financial centers reveal about how clients actually want to bank. So, here’s the question we all need to wrestle with: Is this the future of the branch — or the most expensive contradiction in banking?

Every bank today is trying to appear modern. But you can’t operate a digital institution with a core system that hasn’t been updated since the iPhone was introduced. After years of adding new features on top of outdated infrastructure, the limitations become clear: legacy cores slow innovation, hinder personalization, and make it nearly impossible to compete in an AI-driven world. Modernization is no longer just a tech project. It’s a strategic choice for whether a bank can stay competitive. Banks adopting unified, modern architectures aren’t doing it for appearances; they’re doing it because it provides the speed, flexibility, and resilience that legacy systems cannot match. The good news? Modernizing no longer requires years of planning and implementation. Progressive methods are giving banks safer, lower-risk options to move forward. Today on the Banking Transformed Podcast, I’m joined by Sai Rangachari, Chief Product Officer at Temenos, to explore what modern core banking really entails, why it’s important now, and how banks can update without disrupting their operations.

Nearly half of U.S. households are living paycheck to paycheck, yet millions of financially capable people are denied access to affordable credit. That is not a consumer failure. It is a system failure. I recently spoke at the Hope Global Forums in Atlanta, where the focus is on economic opportunity. I challenged the banking industry to address a blind spot. We rely on outdated credit models that look backward, not at real cash flow, real behavior, or real potential. When credit is denied, education alone does not work, mobility stalls, and banks lose the growth they say they want. Serving the underserved is no longer optional. It is the strategy gap holding this industry back.

The biggest threat to consumer financial health isn’t inflation, stagnant wages, or market volatility, but the financial system itself. Not because it’s failing, but because it’s been silently optimized to benefit the most educated, the wealthiest, and the most sophisticated players. In the new book Fixed, a harsh truth is revealed: from daily saving and borrowing to education loans, insurance, and retirement planning, personal finance is designed to disadvantage the very people it seeks to help. Complexity becomes a source of profit. Friction turns into a deliberate feature. And billions of people, from young families to aging retirees, are left making high-stakes decisions within a system stacked against them. Today on Banking Transformed, I’m joined by the co-author of the book, Tarun Ramadorai. We explore how we got here, why consumers struggle with even the most basic financial choices, and most importantly, what it will take to restore fairness, trust, and transparency. If you care about the future of consumer banking, financial well-being, or rebuilding confidence in the system, this is a conversation you can’t afford to miss.

The biggest competitive advantage in banking right now isn’t scale … it’s speed. According to PwC, GenAI is reshaping the balance of power across financial services, and the banks that move fastest will define the next era of growth. In fact, 58% of banking leaders believe generative and agentic AI will be the single most transformative force in the industry over the next three years, and 55% already consider it their top investment priority—more than any other sector in financial services. What’s truly disruptive is that AI is leveling the playing field. Smaller, more agile institutions now have access to the same intelligence, decision-making power, and client insights that once required massive scale. Speed—not size—is becoming the key differentiator. And this shift is pushing banks from asset-focused growth toward client-centered growth, where relevance, responsiveness, and rapid innovation drive real competitive advantage. Today, I’m joined on the Banking Transformed podcast by Sean Viergutz, Banking & Capital Markets Advisory Leader at PwC, to break down what this transformation means for leaders right now. We’ll explore how banks can redesign operating models, build new capacity for growth, and turn AI from a cost-saving tool into a true driver of client value.