A refreshing return to the new normal is how I would characterize the recently-held Money 20/20 event. The palpable energy in all of the sessions was reflective of the well-orchestrated 4-day experience. Hearty applause to the Money 20/20 planners who offered a fascinating range of experts, a resourceful agenda, while enacting safety protocols. The result: a substantial experience.
Event Yields Energy and Engagement
It’s doubtful there has ever been a stage set quite like this for the industry to take in. The crypto economy, the digital frontier, community banking, global issues, banks and fintechs, all of these brought tremendous energy to the conversations throughout the event. Notable, too, was the laser focus on regulations, and critical compliance issues.
Considering the enormous range of topics, trends and technologies presented, an overview seems helpful. In keeping with my long-held belief that learning amongst each other creates better partnerships, and results, I’m hopeful the quick read on the industry’s hottest issues offers insights to help meet high priority goals of greater security, compliance and success.
The Future of Regulation and Compliance
The convergence of technologies was the common thread among the wide range of topics. Unquestionably, the cryptoeconomy received the most attention. Understandably so. How to regulate? What new rules will apply? Impacts on disclosures, disclaimers, etc. were top of mind.
One thing is clear on compliance in the fast-paced cryptocurrency arena: it’s not whether, but when. Compliance is THE factor impacting all aspects of financial services. While banks are still the overarching forces moving money left to right, fintech companies are fast-moving players on the scene, coming into payments, crypto and personal wealth management.
Merging, converging, and emerging technologies create unprecedented opportunities to generate revenue. Pivoting to maximize outcomes is precisely where the laser focus on regulations — and necessary compliance tools to meet disclosure and disclaimer requirements — enters the scene. Marketing with confidence on compliance issues is a top priority.
The current pace of change is a clear indicator that there will be new rules on consumer outreach, and invitations to acquire new products. While everyone seems aware of this, there is increasing concern over how to best build out the infrastructure for these new regulations. Preparedness is essential to greater personalization and profitability.
Pivoting for Performance
Those who invest in innovative platforms to ensure more efficient, effective compliance will emerge winners in this complex market. Growing understanding of how technology supports compliance, and leveraging artificial intelligence, will become critical steps elevating the leaders to the top. It will essentially be a race to see how companies satisfy that individual consumer and meet them where they are. And this is the core of what Naehas does. It is all about removing compliance obstacles, automating to remove those bottlenecks. Same with disclosures, and into offer management. As you start to segment customers and new prospects with these tools and newly-emerging products, the need grows for analytics about how to segment that market, how to create those offers efficiently, remove the obstacles, track efficiencies and gain insights back from that data fulfillment. The banking client who can beat the rest to the market, to those consumers, will lead the pack.
This spells out a call to action for finserv martech leaders, in top institutions, regional and community banks. An urgency exists to partner toward creating the necessary infrastructure to streamline security and compliance to get and stay ahead of the competition.
Insights on Risk and Work from World Champs
Speaking of competition, one popular session I found fascinating featured three amazing athletes. Barrier-breaking race car driver Danica Patrick, Alex Honnold, who scaled Yosemite’s El Capitan without a rope, and Garrett McNamara, who risks life and limb surfing 100-foot waves in Portugal. In their compelling panel discussion, “RIsk Management through the Eyes of World Champions,” they shared impactful stories of the incredible amounts of conditioning and hard work required ahead of any performance. Why did this resonate? Their focus on challenges and preparedness mirror the call to action for fintech moving forward. This is especially pertinent in the compliance arena. Establishing the foundational elements to meet growing regulatory requirements and handle a fast-paced, ever-changing environment is critical.
Doing the work, which includes building a team of partners who can help do the heavy lifting, becomes a marketing force multiplier with a fierce competitive edge.
Leveraging Technology as a Competitive Advantage
The core challenges faced by fintech martech pros looking to lead in that space, are both daunting and doable. Working to help banks and financial service institutions meet their most vexing challenges, vendor partners stand ready to serve. How? With solutions that help identify tech tools essential to greater efficiencies and effectiveness, while ensuring compliance with all pertinent regulations. It’s a tall order.
Enter AI. Development of AI has those in finserv asking important questions. Rightly so. Learning how to leverage it, and in what capacities, is a turning point toward greater efficiencies and compliance. Purposely-built platforms, automated for better workflow, assisted by Artificial Intelligence, are driving the industry’s best minds to invest in a mix of strategy and technology to achieve best-ever results. The key is establishing the infrastructure, with trusted, streamlined regulatory compliance across all marketing communications. With many successful case studies, we’re seeing the immense ROI of AI.
In such a highly-regulated and complex industry, the road to revenue is paved by technology that drives more efficient compliance. Building better relationships, increasing productivity, and reducing risk are all within reach for fintech players large and small.
The industry is clearly experiencing a convergence of technologies. There seems a consensus that collaborative partnerships and innovations are critical to answering the myriad demands on martech teams. In that spirit, I’ll be continuing to offer resources that help shed light on, and bring solutions for, fintech’s biggest challenges. The goal: to enhance understanding of platform technology, and the automated, rule-driven tools that enable organizations to achieve accuracy, efficiency and compliance.
Next up: The how and why behind AI. Stay tuned for a deeper dive into how teams are adopting AI-empowered tech tools to support disclosures, reviews and regulations.
