Do the underbanked really need bank accounts anymore? With the introduction of mobile financial options, more and more people are opting out of traditional bank accounts and turning to the myriad of financial options that are becoming available as an alternative to traditional checking accounts. Between pre-paid debit cards, gift cards, Western Union accounts, Paypal,…

It is an old cliche that is proving to be untrue. But the trick to money buying happiness may not lie in how much money we have, but in how and when we spend it. This week Brett is joined by Michael Norton, a Harvard business school professor and author of HAPPY MONEY, which explains…

We are now in a time when interface is a more common experience than face to face. It is faster, easier, and simpler… or at least it should be. Banks must look for ways to build bridges to customers through these new interfaces and create customer experiences that build trust, create commonality, and increase loyalty….

After the banking crisis of 2008 and the lingering effects on the economy, people have felt a mistrust in their banks and communities. Many have put even more trust in credit unions, but have found that there are restrictions on their accounts and access that they don’t like. To take a deeper look at these…

Pre-paid debit cards are the fastest growing deposit product in countries like the United States and China today. In the US healthy 25% year-on-year growth the last 4 years now amounts to $350 Billion dollar annual business. In contrast checking accounts in the US have been shrinking by close to 4% year-on-year since 2009. The…

When we think of technology in banking we often think of 40 year old legacy mainframe systems and clunky IVR menu trees (Press 1 for banking, 2 for credit cards, etc) that are complex, unwieldy and don’t exactly provide a great customer experience in comparison with sitting in front of a smiling human in a…

When we think of technology in banking we often think of 40 year old legacy mainframe systems and clunky IVR menu trees (Press 1 for banking, 2 for credit cards, etc) that are complex, unwieldy and don’t exactly provide a great customer experience in comparison with sitting in front of a smiling human in a…

PFM or Personal Financial Management tools first popularized by Mint.com have taken the financial services space by storm in the last couple of years. In this week’s show we talk to some of the leading PFM platforms to talk about why banks are taking on PFM capability and how customers are referencing this capability. More…

For more than 2,000 years commerce has been conducted on the basis of cash, hard cold currency. Today, however, 90% of global transactions are done electronically, and while cash use is still strong in the retail environment, even there cash use is declining in many economies. In this week’s show we’ve invited renowned author David…

In this week’s Episode Brett is joined by some of the top research analysts in the field of commercial banking include Rom Shevlin from Aite Group, Kevin Travis a Managing Director of Novantas and Jerry Canning is the Industry Director, Financial Services for Google. Analysis is showing that there are some fundamental shifts in consumer…

Social networking and platforms like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Tumbler are changing the way we share and interact. Unlike traditional broadcast channels, these new channels encourage participation, feedback and dialog, but in an environment steeped in traditional processes that discourage transparency banks are sometimes finding the shift towards a more socially engaged brand a…

Most banks rely on their branch infrastructure for the vast majority of revenue and customer acquisition today. From the basic requirement many banks have for in-person, face-to-face identification and the legacy signature card, for many banks this is a very hard habit to break. But there are already many banks who’ve not only cracked this…