14 Hoosier Banker December 2015 FEATURE Mobile, mobile, everywhere, but barely time to think. Welcome to mobile mania. Financial innovation is booming. It’s freewheeling and chaotic. It also continues to transform the operational and competitive contours of our industry. Mobile technology, combined with Internet connectivity, results in a lot of data. Think about it. With email, search engines and mobile geolocation, companies have data on who you are, where you are, what sites you visit, what you have bought and what you are planning to buy. Many of those companies want to offer various bank-like services. Community banking in today’s rapidly digitizing world is rife with powerful rewards, but also with challenges and uncertainties. Fortunately, community banks are patiently and prudently adopting powerful mobile and information technology in wondrous ways. Your institutions have all the technology that any consumer or business could need, or that any other reputable financial company is providing. But we all need to tell that story more. Certainly community banks have valuable, reliable technology partners, and we increasingly have formidable technology competitors, too. So-called FinTech firms are creating new digital platforms for consumers and businesses to easily access new providers of loans, payments, investments and financial data (and even digital currencies). These nonFDIC-insured companies, including marketplace lenders, are enticing consumers to bypass FDIC-insured mainstream banks for new-fangled, sometimes risky or harmful products. Many of these leverage data analytics in highly sophisticated ways. We cannot take them lightly. Within this disruptive environment of financial technology innovation, what should the Independent Community Bankers of America and community banks do to continue delivering the best, most convenient and safest technology for our customers? ICBA sees three key priorities: 1. Promote bank-centric payments. As an industry and as a country, we have to continue advocating the benefits of a bank-centric payments system. Banks are proven, secure intermediaries for moving money. The value of our tested controls, security protocols and protections, including federal deposit insurance, must be understood and supported by consumers and policymakers alike. We cannot allow random disruption or disintermediation from infant technology firms to undermine our longstanding banking and payments systems. 2. Uphold uniform standards for everyone. Consumers need and deserve the same safety and reliability from all financial services providers. Consistent compliance of consumer protections must be enforced for bank and nonbank providers. Federal and state regulatory frameworks for the licensing and regulation of FinTech products and services should be the same as those for the banking industry. 3. Continue innovating. As an industry, we can’t stop innovating — with our trusted partners and within our own institutions. While maximizing our nimbleness, we have to capitalize on our proven, longstanding business model, while also adopting the best tools the digital world provides. This includes modernizing our existing banking and payments infrastructure. In short, we have to be hightech and high-touch. Of course, pursuing these priorities will require navigating the complexities of today’s galloping financial innovation. What’s certain is that digital banking and ongoing technology innovation are here to stay, which is wonderful and daunting at the same time. But we’re up to the challenge. We may have to lean into today’s digital world together, but the opportunities for doing so will remain as rewarding for us and our customers as ever before. t Wild, Wild Tech About the Author Camden R. Fine is president and chief executive officer of the Independent Community Bankers of America. He came to ICBA from Midwest Independent Bank, Jefferson City, Missouri, where he chartered and organized the bankers’ bank and served as president and CEO for nearly 20 years. A long-time member of ICBA prior to becoming the association’s president and CEO, Fine served on several association standing committees and on the ICBA board of directors. The author can be reached at: cam.fine@icba.org.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTg3NDExNQ==