Today’s guest, Dion Lisle, bills himself as the Rosetta Stone between FinTechs and Legacy FIs. He says FinTechs and banks operate at different speeds, and like gears, they need a transmission or a translation to be able to work together effectively.

In this episode, he talks with host Josh DeTar about some of the current challenges community FIs face and what’s at stake if they fail to listen to their customers more closely in the coming years.

⚡ Consumer expectations have shifted, and FIs are still lagging.

Handshake deals and relying on relationships from past generations just don’t work anymore. Even college students are not going to visit an FI’s table at an orientation fair; they’ll check out the app instead. Consumers now know what instant is, but banks haven’t kept up. As Dion points it, “That’s a bank problem, not a customer problem.”

⚡ FIs have access to data, but aren’t using it correctly.

When consumers are already dealing with FIs that are behind the times, getting offers in the mail for things that don’t even match their life stage is baffling. Since banks have access to so much data, they have to be able to use it correctly to meet the consumer on the consumer’s terms.

⚡ Hiring a tech person is not the cure-all for bringing FIs into the tech era.

Hiring a person with technical expertise, but not giving them a strategy or plan to work from is a recipe for disaster. Too many FIs hire out development first or bring on a CTO when there’s no plan to support that or enough information even to get a successful start. Having just one person in this role is not sufficient.