Latest opinions that Shawn Conahan has shared on Finextra

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Shawn Conahan

Chief Revenue Officer

Wildfire Systems, Inc.

Member since

18 Jan 2022

Location

San Diego, Ca

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Shawn's opinions

Marketing: The Most Critical Component of Your Loyalty Rewards Program

The top reason why companies don't achieve significant user adoption of a loyalty rewards program is due to a simple lack of marketing. In general, large banks and corporations are really great at cross-selling "core" banking and finance products, but not so great at conveying the benefits of a rewards program. This is almost certainly ...

22 July 2025 /retail Fintech

Why Banks Need To Start Marketing Like Retailers

Financial institutions are still navigating a challenging economic and regulatory landscape. Fintech challengers luring traditional bank customers away, an inflationary environment, and potential regulations impacting interchange and fees are just some of the challenges to banks’ traditional revenue streams. This situation has spurred some banks a...

17 June 2025 /retail Fintech

Why Incentives Drive Customer Engagement and Loyalty Program Participation

A compelling loyalty and rewards program can be a significant differentiator in the competitive financial services landscape. These programs can improve customer retention at neobanks, add more value for existing customers and drive new revenue streams for banks. Or payments startups can leverage loyalty programs to encourage specific user behavio...

22 April 2025 /retail Fintech

How Value-Added Financial Services Are Evolving to Meet Consumer Demand for Financial Security

Today, consumers remain budget conscious and very careful about how and when they spend money due to high grocery and housing prices, adding to financial stress and the everyday challenges of managing their finances. Economic uncertainty, fueled by fluctuating government policies, has only heightened the need for financial stability. Threats of a ...

19 March 2025 /retail Fintech

How To Win and Retain Customers In The Loyalty Era

Today, an abundance of consumer choice online has become the norm, and hyper-competitiveness rules. We have shifted into the Loyalty Era, in which consumers are no longer only swayed by the lowest price. This era, characterized by limitless consumer options, low friction enabling easy switching among those options, and high consumer expectations, ...

15 October 2024 /retail Fintech

All Rewards Platforms Are Not Created Equal: Why Bank-Grade Capabilities Matter

With some of the biggest financial institutions in the world launching shopping rewards programs, it’s clear these loyalty incentives are becoming table-stakes in the field of value-added financial services. But not all loyalty/rewards platforms are created equal when it comes to meeting the needs of sophisticated financial institutions. As finan...

19 June 2024 /retail Fintech

How the Value-Added Services of Loyalty 2.0 Could Help Offset Interchange Revenue Contraction

Interchange revenue constriction for card issuers and banks is likely to result from the settlement between Visa, Mastercard, and U.S. merchants reducing rates and guaranteeing no increases for at least five years. What will happen when the lowered fees take effect? These reductions in interchange fee revenue might ultimately threaten the revenue...

26 March 2024 /retail Fintech

Navigating the Evolving Fintech Landscape in 2024

After years defined by explosive growth and disruption, the business environment for fintechs is shifting. Fintechs and financial institutions alike will need to chart a strategic course to navigate these headwinds. To succeed this year, firms must understand and adapt to the key trends that will reshape their markets. Looking ahead, three trends ...

19 January 2024 /retail /predictions Fintech

Loyalty: No Longer a Cost Center with the Loyalty 2.0 Framework

Competition among Financial Institutions (FIs) for valuable customers has heated up of late. A slew of challenger banks and other fintechs have taken market share away from once-solid banks, while a shift away from the branch banking model has pushed more consumers online, where new and innovative approaches to customer engagement have made custom...

31 October 2023 /retail Fintech innovation and startups

8 Requirements to Sell Your Product to Banks and Other Financial Services Organizations

Having partnered with many banks and financial services organizations, I’ve learned a lot going through the business development process with each of them. Based on this experience, for other fintechs looking to partner with banks, I’d like to share the following eight requirements to guide your own business development processes: 1. First of all,...

08 June 2023 Banking