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Graham Seel

Graham Seel Principal Consultant at BankTech Consulting

Is Community Bank Innovation Strategic or Tactical? Yes

Everyone likes to think they’re strategic. And that they can be tactical when they need to. When it comes down to it, though, how many of us are really either? How often have you heard someone ask what the strategy is, only to be told “this is a tactical project, so there’s isn’t a strategy”? What nonsense that is! There is no real tactical initia...

/retail Innovation in Financial Services

Graham Seel

Graham Seel Principal Consultant at BankTech Consulting

Innovation Basics for Community Banks and Credit Unions

“We must innovate!” Are you sick of hearing this yet? Are you focused on revenue growth, expense management and the increasing burden of regulatory compliance? If so, innovation may be the furthest thing from your mind. And yet the plaintive refrain continues, and it has merit. Why Innovate? Not because everyone else is doing it, that’s for sure.

/retail Innovation in Financial Services

Graham Seel

Graham Seel Principal Consultant at BankTech Consulting

Alternative Lending: Friend or Foe to Banks?

An Interview with Glenn Goldman of Credibly Recently I had the opportunity to pose a few questions to Glenn Goldman, CEO of alternate small business lender Credibly. I have used Credibly as an example of an alternative lender – this piece is not intended to endorse them or otherwise. However, by way of background, they have focused on providing lo...

/wholesale Innovation in Financial Services

Graham Seel

Graham Seel Principal Consultant at BankTech Consulting

It Takes a Village to Manage Operational Risk

Whose job is it to manage operational risk? The Chief Risk Officer? Check Operations Management? Check Compliance? Check Data Management? Check Technology Providers, FinTech and RegTech? Check Yours and mine? Check! Yesterday I had the pleasure and privilege of moderating a great panel discussion on Big Data Analytics for Risk Management. The dis...

/regulation Innovation in Financial Services

Graham Seel

Graham Seel Principal Consultant at BankTech Consulting

What Every FinTech CEO Should Know About Risk Management

A FinTech CEO who doesn’t understand risk management is at a crushing disadvantage. Why? Banking at its core IS the business of managing risk. Banks don’t just have to be risk-aware. They are in the business of managing risk on other people’s behalf – that’s the primary reason they exist. Banks look after our deposits, ensuring they don’t get lost...

/regulation Innovation in Financial Services

Graham Seel

Graham Seel Principal Consultant at BankTech Consulting

How Many Lawyers Does It Take to Save a FinTech?

Bank regulation is older than you think. The ancient Code of Hammurabi, which predates Moses and the Biblical legal code of the Pentateuch, includes rules for interest-bearing loans (not more than 30% interest for past due loan repayments!) Since then, review of the history of banking shows that regulation of financial services has become more an...

/regulation Innovation in Financial Services

Graham Seel

Graham Seel Principal Consultant at BankTech Consulting

Can FinTech Companies Thrive in Community Banking?

There are over 6,000 community banks in the US. Many of these manage significant assets, and have meaningful IT budgets. Their small business and consumer customers are looking for competitive digital banking services. But community bank technology is often outdated, and difficult to enhance. What an opportunity for FinTech! There is no clear asse...

/retail Innovation in Financial Services

Graham Seel

Graham Seel Principal Consultant at BankTech Consulting

FinTech and Core System Providers - Between Scylla and Charybdis

Community banks and Credit Unions buy most of their technology from the core banking system providers. So they aren’t terribly excited about buying directly from a FinTech. There are four main core system vendors: FIS, Fiserv, Jack Henry, and D+H. Between them they own 96% of the community banking market. This presents a rather limited set o...

/wholesale Innovation in Financial Services

Graham Seel

Graham Seel Principal Consultant at BankTech Consulting

Booking a Taxi and Payments .R.evolution

It struck me today that a brief history of booking and paying for taxis provides quite a nice illustration of what’s happened to payments over the past 20 years or so. Here’s my experience. Evolution 1980s: hailed or booked a taxi (from my home phone or a callbox), went where I wanted to go, kept an eye on the meter, and paid with cash. 1990s: same...

/payments Innovation in Financial Services

Graham Seel

Graham Seel Principal Consultant at BankTech Consulting

How Industrial Operations AI Can Help with Banking Risk Management

At first blush, you might think the kind of Artificial Intelligence applications that are deployed in industrial contexts would have nothing to do with financial services. Whether we’re talking manufacturing, process control, utilities administration, or any other industrial setting, what could they possibly have in common with banking? The answer...

/regulation Innovation in Financial Services

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