The term “digital banking” has been in flux for at least 30 years as technology has evolved, but its essence is enabling your customers to seamlessly access financial services across devices. This includes a broad array of interactions in addition to mobile and online banking.

Two of our experts, Larry Gordon and Dr. Kathleen Gowin, discuss leveraging both technical and non-technical solutions to improve customer KYC processes in a video interview with Bank Info Security.

A digital customer experience is no longer a benefit. It’s a requirement for today’s lender. Millennials and the quickly emerging Gen Z market expect to do anything and everything from their smartphones, and it’s not just them...Lenders must now deliver a seamless customer experience across all channels and devices, while also increasing their emphasis on security protocols to meet customer expectations.

“By the end of this year, there will be close to $2 trillion in banks that have digital online account-opening capabilities,” Curry said in an episode of JR/Now, hosted by Journal Record Interim Editor Joe Dowd.

“Those businesses expect ongoing cash inflows and outflows in Bitcoin, so it makes sense for them to hold a little excess Bitcoin to smooth the payment process. For them, holding Bitcoin is like a jeweler holding gold,” Patrick points out.

Stephen Curry cautions that companies should weigh the pros and cons of going public. “It’s important because at the end of the day you don’t want to go public and then not have the proper investor support to make sure your stock gets the attention it needs and to craft the story you need to be successful.”

“A transaction of going public and for a public company to go private, it’s often thought of as a once-in-a-lifetime kind of occurrence,” [Patrick] said. “In the lifetime of a company, it’s once maybe every 20 years.”

For the right company, an IPO is the public culmination of years of hard work. In these cases, the pros far outweigh the cons, and the choice is clear. For a surprising number of companies, however, pursuing an IPO is a mistake... Considering an IPO is one of the most complicated decisions any company faces. There are numerous issues that must be addressed and prioritized.

A downturn in deals throughout 2020 meant that many banks paused efforts for growth, a position that can only be sustained for so long. Now, the challenges and changes wrought by the pandemic have a flip side: new opportunities for growth...“Consolidation is definitely in the winds,” said Stephen Curry, CEO of the bank consulting firm Endurance Advisory Partners.

The idea behind a VC firm forming a SPAC is that the firm has all the information that enables it to figure out the right structure for the IPO, and the firm is therefore better positioned to execute the IPO than an investment bank...SPACs, once looked down upon, have become mainstream and are no longer viewed in the “same kind of category as penny stocks and the Wolf of Wall Street kind of behavior.”...“There is enough money in the SPAC world that almost anybody that’s approached to manage a SPAC would say, ‘sure I’d love to do that,’” Patrick said.

A potential reason to outsource is difficulty in finding niche compliance talent or due to the high cost of maintaining that talent in-house. A big problem for mid-sized and small banks is having in-house subject matter experts to deal with narrow but important problems…. Outsourcing, and even sending compliance functions offshore, is a potential alternative solution.

It is imperative for banks of all sizes to have a stated client selection strategy. In this article, Dr. Kathleen Gowin, offers a guide for sales management and provides insights for those in the role of compliance and audit with regards to the development of a client selection strategy that fits the needs of their bank.

Client selection strategies can be used to guide the sales organization in client acquisition. If after the implementation of your client selection strategy, you discover current client relationships that fall outside the acceptable parameters of your strategy, it may be time to exit those relationships. This article lays out an approach that can be utilized to exit unacceptable relationships.

Scott Flowers, the managing director for retail and small business for Dallas-based Endurance Advisory Partners, says community banks should use electronic signature vehicles like DocuSign while paying “specific attention to regulatory required wet signatures.”

Everbach will focus on assembling and positioning real estate teams to ensure maximum returns to occupier and investor clients. Everbach has previously held real estate posts with Trammell Crow Company, Cambridge Realty Partners, Cushman & Wakefield, Lazarus Property Corporation, and Jones Lang LaSalle, as well as founding and managing Evergreen Realty Advisors.