Trust Professionals Reconvene in Madison This Spring

On May 25, 2023, WBA will once again host its annual Trust Conference at the Wisconsin Bankers Association (WBA) headquarters in Madison. The one-day event, designed specifically to aid trust officers, wealth managers, and trust administrators in enhancing their operations, will provide attendees with the resources to utilize in their adoption of various changes in regulations, the economy, and overall trust department functions.

In addition to various networking opportunities, the conference will feature several topics critical to those involved with trust and estate planning. to hear from Mike Burke of SHAZAM regarding the importance of recognizing elder financial abuse throughout the institution.

Victor Schultz, president and chief fiduciary officer at Prairie Trust, will provide attendees with an update on the Trust Code and Trailer Bill. This presentation will cover all the improvements, fixes, and benefits of this bill, designed to update Wisconsin’s Trust Code.

As fraudsters in order to take advantage of this opportunity to stay ahead of upcoming regulatory changes, earn continuing education credits, and gain insight on how to better serve their communities.

Schultz

Burke become more sophisticated, it is important that bankers know the signs, understand their rights, and feel confident in approaching the situation.

Trust professionals will also have the opportunity

Bankers are encouraged to register for the upcoming event at wisbank.com/Trust

Questions regarding this year’s event can be directed to Miranda Gustafson, WBA assistant director –education, at wbaeducation@ wisbank.com

SHAZAM is a WBA Bronze Associate Member.

Fintech

(continued from p. 1) important for younger generations to make transactions.

Already, over 1,200 banks around the country, including over 50 in Wisconsin, have begun integrating Zelle — a digital payments service offered by the FinTech provider Early Warning Services, LLC — to help meet the expectations of their customers. However, as banks continue to compete for deposits and new loans, innovation beyond incorporating P2P payments into their online services may become a necessity.

» Interested in developing a partnership with a FinTech provider? Learn more about WBA’s upcoming FinTech Showcase on p. 7.

» What is Embedded FinTech?

Virginia Heyburn, director – research, insights, & advocacy at Engage fi and recent keynote speaker at the Wisconsin Bankers Association’s (WBA) 2023 Bank Executives Conference, describes embedded FinTech as a strategy by which traditional banks own the experience and work to build FinTech functionality into their own digital banking experiences. This is comparable to the Banking as a Platform, or BaaP, model that banks may utilize to integrate FinTech solutions into their existing offerings.

Did You Know?

» I expect nearly every bank to pursue embedded FinTech strategies within five years.

— Virginia Heyburn Engage fi director – research, insights, & advocacy

Embedded FinTech emphasizes the bank’s possession of the brand, by way of providing the service on their own platform, and the augmentation of FinTech functionality behind the scenes. This process allows banks to strengthen their own offerings, increase customer engagement, and build loyalty rather than provide services to outside users, as is the case with embedded finance or Banking as a Service (BaaS).

» What Embedded Fintech Means for Banks

Although 95.5% of all U.S. households were banked in 2021, according to the FDIC’s survey, Heyburn states that it is important that banks continue to deepen their relationships with their retail and commercial customers and offer features that are valuable to them.

By integrating property management capabilities into digital portals for landlords, disbursements for commercial clients, or intelligent budgeting and savings tools for retail customers — banks have the ability, through a partnership with a FinTech servicer, to provide an even greater number of tools and resources for consumers.

Wisconsin Banker occasionally prints informative articles submitted by Gold, Silver, and Bronze WBA Associate Members. Interested in sharing your expertise? Please contact WBA’s Nick Loppnow at 608-441-1259 or nloppnow@wisbank.com or email sales@wisbank.com for more information about purchasing Sponsored Content space in WBA’s electronic publications.

As the banking industry evolves faster than ever before, embedding FinTech into their online services will not only allow banks greater flexibility in the products offered, but provide the opportunity for banks to increase their technological capabilities. Early Warning Services, LLC, the FinTech provider of Zelle, highlights that these valuable partnerships permit banks to utilize technology to consider new ways to attract and engage customers, including crossselling and engagement with the banking app, as well as reduce costs in other areas such as cash and check management.

“I expect nearly every bank to pursue embedded FinTech strategies within five years,” Heyburn states.

» The Challenges

While embracing FinTech solutions may be the next step for a bank, Heyburn says that legacy technology has always made the interoperability of systems challenging. Between delays, a strong reliance on core vendors, and inconsistencies, there are a number of factors to consider when strategizing a frictionless exchange of any internal or external system.

With mobile and online banking being the primary way many consumers interact with their bank, it is critical that banks not only have the personalized products individuals expect, but also can deliver information efficiently.

“Customers are no longer willing to tolerate delays and defects in the FinTech era

— they are voting with their fingertips as they choose online banks that offer the speed, ease, and convenience they want,” states Heyburn. “The cost of doing nothing has never exceeded the cost of making a change — until now”

As Forbes published in a recent article entitled Digital Transformation in Banking, in order to rapidly and costeffectively design, create, plug in, and deploy new digital products and services, the bank’s digital product platform must be component-based, API-driven, and cloud native.

» The Benefits

While less than 60% of all financial institutions currently deploy APIs or cloud computing, according to Forbes, many understand this conversion as a solution to meeting customer needs and expectations. In addition to allowing consumers the ability to connect their accounts across platforms, engaging with FinTech servicers will provide many banks with the ability to simplify their technology — which in many cases, may be limiting an institution's ability to roll out new competitive features or service offerings — as well as save on maintenance costs that limit the ability to compete on service price, according to PwC.

By incorporating an open banking system into their digital offerings, banks are able to balance safety and security with the expectations of all consumers. As the industry continues to evolve, and greater emphasis is placed on increasing competition in the marketplace, driving financial inclusion, and creating more consumer choice, partnerships between banks and FinTech providers have the potential to assist banks in not only improving their technological capabilities, but also more effectively serving their customers.

Flanders is WBA writer/editor.