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5 practical process improvements for financial institutions
As financial institutions seek to adapt to today’s ever more competitive business climate , leaders are looking for new ways to operate more efficiently. But could the key to doing this successfully be simpler than you think? For many institutions, the answer is yes. While some may benefit from new systems, better analytics or AI , there are often lower-hanging fruit available, like simple, practical process improvements that deliver meaningful improvements in efficiency while cutting costs. Keep reading to learn the top process improvements that could help your team operate more effectively. Too many financial institutions are still missing out on efficiencies Financial institutions are often slow to embrace change. This makes sense for a heavily regulated industry, but it also means many institutions are still operating like the 1970s — and missing out on practical opportunities to work faster and more effectively. For example, many institutions are still using pen, paper and calculator tape to prepare call reports or reconcile accounts. These institutions often don’t even use basic software like Excel, let alone the more advanced features that may be available within their core systems. If your institution operates this way, you might still need 25 hours to prepare a call report, while your more up-to-date competitors can do it in 5 or 6 hours. These kinds of operational inefficiencies add up, costing your institution time and money. However, there are practical steps you can take to change that. Five practical action steps for financial institutions to operate more efficiently Improving your financial institution’s processes doesn’t have to mean upgrading to expensive new systems. Try these targeted, practical adjustments (some of which are free to implement) to operate more efficiently, save people-hours and stop wasting resources. 1. Embrace a mindset shift For many years, “because we’ve always done it this way” was a good enough reason to keep a process in place. Changing that starts with a mindset shift that encourages your team members to question existing processes and look for more efficient ways to operate. For starters, simply ask why existing processes are the way they are. There may be a good reason, but you could also quickly discover processes that are ripe for innovation. Identify and act on those opportunities when they come up. As your team gets more comfortable thinking this way, you’ll uncover more of them. 2. Print to PDF rather than a hard copy If a report needs to be signed, many financial institutions continue to print a hard copy, gather signatures and then scan that report back into their systems. Making the switch to printing to PDF and getting electronic signatures instead is faster, less prone to getting lost in the shuffle and will save your institution a lot of money on paper over time. 3. Use Excel rather than calculator tape Another quick win: moving from adding machines and calculator tape to Excel. Most other industries made this jump decades ago, but many financial institutions have continued to do things the old-fashioned way. This is a low-cost transition that makes a big impact. If your team gets comfortable with Excel (for example, learning how to use formulas), this can dramatically speed up work around reporting while also making it easier to catch errors. 4. Make better use of your core systems Every financial institution runs on a handful of core systems. But many institutions don’t take advantage of all the features these systems offer, including those that can improve operational efficiency. Ask your core provider to help you learn more about your core systems’ full capabilities. Do they include a built-in auto-reconciliation feature, for example? Can you sign off on reports within the system? Also, explore whether there are any add-on features available that would be worth investing in. Core providers are working hard to remain relevant during the AI era and may have new feature offerings that you don’t know about, but which could help your team work faster and more effectively. 5. Leverage outsourcing For institutions looking to operate more efficiently, outsourcing can often help — but not necessarily in the way you might expect. The most effective use of outsourcing here is often as a coach — for example, an outsourced CFO who comes to support your full-time CFO specifically by looking for process improvements, implementing more efficient processes and then exiting stage left. Outsourcing can also be a crucial tool to spread institutional knowledge. Within many financial institutions, crucial process knowledge is often closely held by a small number of senior employees who are at or near retirement age. An outsourced CFO can help transition that knowledge to younger team members, as well as cross-train your team so that critical skills are more widely distributed. Read more Fractional CXO: A growth engine for financial institutions A guide to succession planning for financial institutions A short guide to vCISOs for financial institutions
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How financial institutions can compete in today’s economy
The financial services business climate is faster and more complex than ever. Today, traditional community financial institutions must compete for customers with not just each other, but fintech companies and new digital payment options, all while breaking through the noise of countless other demands on customers’ attention. How should an institution’s CEO adjust its growth strategy to succeed in this environment? Keep reading to find out, plus why doing so also requires a new approach to managing risk. How should community financial institutions adapt to compete in today’s attention economy? Winning customers’ attention, in today’s attention-starved environment, doesn’t mean creating a flashy ad campaign. Instead, it’s about meeting your customers (and potential customers) where they are by blending new technology, such as online account opening, with timeless community banking fundamentals. It’s this combination that helps your institution stand out from the plethora of large national banks, fintech companies and other digital payment alternatives competing for your customers’ business. Here are key actions CEOs can push to help drive growth and customer retention: 1. Win on customer experience Customer experience (CX) is what a customer experiences during their every interaction with your financial institution, including marketing, account opening, customer service and branch visits. CX is the single biggest strategic asset for community and regional financial institutions, because smaller institutions are better positioned than big banks and fintechs to build long-term, human relationships with customers that lead to organic growth. 2. Understand your customers better than ever To deliver that superior customer experience, you also have to understand what your customers want and need. To do this, do a deep dive into your customer data: Develop data-based personas, map your customer journeys, explore how you can provide more automated personalization and offer proactive services rather than waiting for your customers to come to you. 3. Use AI when it makes sense AI can help you analyze your data to learn about your customers more deeply. But you can also create customer-facing AI tools that provide instant answers to questions and personalized recommendations for products or services that fit a particular customer’s specific needs. Leaning into AI also helps give your employees more time to focus on the human aspects of their job, like customer relationships or complex problem-solving. However, you can’t just throw AI on top of ineffective processes or bad data and expect it to perform miracles — your foundation has to be solid before you add in AI . 4. Reduce friction wherever you can Friction kills CX. Nobody wants to wait for a slow app to load, navigate a clunky UI or struggle to set up a password for their new bank account. Reduce friction in your customer service experience wherever you can, as this is often an area where newer fintech companies will shine. Conducting a friction audit can help you accomplish this goal. During the audit, you’ll identify specific friction points within your customer experience and prioritize which ones to solve based on impact. 5. Offer a consistent omnichannel experience Whether a customer is stopping in the branch, opening a new account online, or calling your contact center to apply for a loan, they should feel like they are having a consistent, cohesive experience. This omnichannel approach is both a powerful branding exercise and an implicit promise that you will always come through for your customers. 6. Measure whether you’re delivering for your customers How quickly and smoothly can you deliver what your customers want? This is the essential metric you need to track, measure and seek to improve on, and someone in your C-suite should own it. 7. Earn (and keep) customer trust By taking the action steps above, you’ll also start earning meaningful customer trust. This is a long-term differentiator for community and regional financial institutions: The sense you’re looking out for your customers in a way that a fintech or a Wells Fargo never could. A frictionless omni-channel experience is also especially effective at building trust. While this might surprise you, how you manage risk and compliance also affects customer trust. And right now, the moment is ripe to change your approach to one that fits better with today’s business climate. Financial institutions should pivot to a risk-based approach to compliance and risk management Even as technology, markets and customer expectations are evolving faster than ever, regulatory agencies have pulled back on some of their traditional compliance oversight responsibilities . As a result, financial institutions have new flexibility to reallocate their compliance and risk management budgets from a compliance-based approach to a risk-based approach. Rather than approaching compliance as simply a box-checking exercise, a risk-based approach is more adaptive and better suited to navigating today’s risks and business realities. This strategy seeks to: Broadly assess your risks and compliance challenges. Identify risks as high, medium or low based on potential impact to your institution or customers. Prioritize mitigating risks that are higher impact so that you allocate your resources more effectively. Implement new or more effective controls to mitigate higher impact risks. Conduct ongoing monitoring and reassessment to ensure that your risk-management and compliance efforts continue to focus on where they’ll do the most good. A risk-based approach protects both your institution and your customer experience Risks are evolving as fast as the rest of the business environment is. By following a risk-based approach, your institution is able to constantly adapt as new risks emerge rather than getting locked into a compliance checklist that may no longer adequately reflect the latest risks in areas like cybersecurity or AI. Taking a risk-based approach is also a powerful tool to help protect your reputation with customers. Essentially, a risk-based approach goes hand in hand with your growth efforts by mitigating your risk of incidents that could hurt your customer experience (or draw attention to your institution for the wrong reasons rather than the right ones). Read more A short guide to vCISOs for financial institutions How should financial institutions respond to the federal compliance pullback? Minus a data strategy, financial institutions will fail at AI
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Succession planning gives financial institutions a strategic edge. Here’s how to strengthen yours.
Most financial institutions recognize the importance of succession planning. However, in today’s rapidly changing business environment, where technology and consumer demands are constantly evolving, a static documented plan alone is no longer enough. Institutions that treat succession planning as an ongoing strategic process rather than an annual exercise are better positioned to strengthen leadership pipelines, adapt to change and execute their long-term vision. A proactive approach to succession planning can also strengthen organizational resilience, support strategic priorities and position financial institutions for long-term success. Let’s explore more about that, plus how to get started with a proactive succession approach. How does reactive succession planning harm financial institutions? Passive, reactive succession planning actively makes it more difficult for financial institutions to achieve their strategic goals. Institutions that put succession planning on the back burner risk not only a last-minute scramble after an unexpected exit, but a workforce that’s unprepared for tomorrow. Poor succession planning often leads to: Talent and knowledge gaps: Deprioritizing succession planning exposes you to the risk that your workforce can’t adapt to tomorrow’s challenges because it doesn’t have the necessary skills and training. Individuals holding critical roles also often possess regulatory knowledge, customer relationships, expertise and awareness of institutional history that is difficult to replace. Business continuity risks: Succession planning involves identifying mission-critical roles and building a bench to fill them. Without an active succession plan, you risk operational disruptions and general uncertainty should an essential role become empty, even temporarily. Reactive hirings: Financial institutions often start succession planning only after someone in a critical role starts preparing to depart. This leaves you at the mercy of a last-minute scramble for talent where you’re forced to settle for whoever’s available rather than prioritizing fit. Falling employee morale: Reactive hiring can also lead to uncertainty around leadership continuity. This can harm morale and lead to an unfortunate ripple effect where one departure triggers others. Strategic misalignment: If you don’t actively develop future leaders, you may struggle to meet tomorrow’s strategic needs by keeping up with changes in customer expectations, workforce demographics, regulation and technology. However, making succession planning a more active process helps turn these weak spots into organizational strengths. How does succession planning give your financial institution a strategic advantage? Active succession planning is a key tool that financial institutions can use to connect talent development with strategic goals. Engaging in succession planning as an ongoing process rather than an occasional event creates growth opportunities within your team, builds a talent bench for critical roles and helps ensure that your talent will meet your strategic needs for years to come. Better retention and employee experience If you have an active succession planning process, your employees are more likely to stick around and enjoy their jobs. This is because succession planning gives your team a clearer sense of how they fit into your overall organization — and how they can move upwards. Don’t just plan for executive roles, either. Positions like teller, while lower-level, are nonetheless essential to the success of your institution and should be considered in your planning as well. This approach makes succession planning more exciting for your whole team, not just your future leaders. Clear and actionable career paths Good succession planning creates clear, actionable careers for people working within your organization. This gives talented team members the opportunity to progress their careers and also helps them understand how to align their development with your institution’s future plans. Develop institutional knowledge, skills and abilities Creating an internal talent bench helps preserve your institutional knowledge, which plays a key role in keeping your operations running smoothly. You’ll also be able to draw on a higher level of in-house capabilities, making it easier to promote internally. Create cross-functional exposure across silos Aspects of succession planning like coaching, mentorship and stretch assignments help your top talent learn to think about your institution more holistically. When that talent moves into higher roles, they’ll do so with a clearer understanding of how your various functions and departments work together, and how their decisions will impact your institution as a whole. Build a deep, capable talent bench to maintain business continuity Finally, active succession planning means you are prepared for unexpected departures in critical roles. If your CEO suddenly decides to take up windsurfing in Tahiti, you’ll be much more likely to have capable talent ready to step in on either an interim or a permanent basis to maintain continuity and help ensure your strategic priorities remain on track. Here’s how financial institution leaders can implement a proactive succession planning strategy Proactive succession planning involves identifying your mission-critical roles and actively preparing internal talent to fill them. To be most effective, succession planning should align with your overall strategic goals, so your team is ready for tomorrow as well as today. Here’s how financial institutions can start implementing an active succession planning strategy: 1. Get support from your board Nobody wants to ask when the CEO plans to retire. It can be an uncomfortable conversation, but that discomfort risks leaving your institution vulnerable should that retirement come with less of a runway than expected. Lean on your board to help facilitate conversations around succession planning with key leaders. Board members are often better positioned to raise the issue than day-to-day employees and should understand that taking a hand here is part of their fiduciary duty to the long-term health of your institution. 2. Identify critical roles Identify the essential, mission-critical roles inside your institution — roles where an unexpected departure would cause genuine disruption. These are typically roles essential to serving customers, managing risk, executing strategy or maintaining operations. Don’t assume that a lower visibility role is less important here, as people working in those roles may possess valuable institutional knowledge or customer relationships. For example, if only one person on your IT team knows how to keep your aging servers running, you could be in a lot of trouble if that person leaves. 3. Align with your long-term strategic planning Consider how talent fits into your long-term strategic planning. Specifically, what roles will you need to fill over the next five years or so? How are your most critical roles likely to change during that time frame? Think of succession planning as a tool to deliver a workforce that fits into your long-term strategic needs and an opportunity to focus your talent investments. 4. Integrate succession planning into your performance management process Make succession planning an integrated element of your existing talent processes — like recruiting, performance management and talent reviews — rather than a standalone effort. This helps you identify and develop a pipeline of emerging leaders and other high-performers and also makes it harder to fall back into a passive succession approach. 5. Account for change management Succession planning is a key tool to align your workforce with the changing needs of your institution. Develop talent with an eye towards promoting people who can weather change, especially during an era when it’s happening so rapidly. 6. Don’t overlook your unique strengths Is being closely tied to your local community a core part of your financial institution’s appeal? What about your culture, specialized expertise or customer service? Take these types of unique strengths into account when succession planning, especially because institutions that rely on a particular strength to stand out in the market may find promoting from within helps maintain that differentiator over time. 7. Begin well ahead of time Proactive succession planning allows you to take your time, avoiding a last-minute scramble and reducing your risk of rushing a promotion or making an offer that doesn’t work out (which can be expensive and damage your strategic progress). By giving your institution a longer runway, you’ll also find it easier to maintain business continuity and act with confidence even if the unexpected happens. Read more Can traditional banking avoid losing Gen Z to fintech? Financial institutions need proactive general ledger certification Ransomware attacks on financial institutions: What to do
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