The Financial Brand

Full conference agenda and schedule of events for the?Forum 2025?is now available! Just released today!?Check out the?complete schedule?of events at?The Financial Brand Forum 2025, including dates, times and locations — who's speaking, what's happening, when and where. Take a look at the interactive, printable agenda and see everything you'll miss if you don't attend — killer keynotes,?Forum X?talks, the?Executive Leadership Series,?CMO Masterminds, the?Growth Strategies Lab, and dozens of breakout sessions. https://lnkd.in/g9RPRxXt

Two words that strike fear in community bankers everywhere: core conversion. These high-stakes transformations are banking's equivalent of a major home renovation — disruptive and messy during construction, but potentially transformative when complete. The challenge? Your customers experience it as a financial earthquake, shaking the very tools they rely on daily. "Banking should enhance lives, not interrupt them," notes The Twiggs Group, highlighting why creative communication becomes the difference between a conversion disaster and a loyalty-building opportunity. When customers log into unfamiliar interfaces or receive notices about changes they don't understand, fear and confusion quickly escalate. Without proper guidance, your most valued relationships hang in the balance. The solution isn't just more communication — it's better communication.

All Financial Services folks - join us this Wednesday @ 2pm ET / 11am PT to learn about getting your content indexed on AI Engines (link to register below) The Financial Brand is sponsoring a chat between U.S. Bank's SVP of Content Marketing John Dotto and Milestone Inc's CEO Anil Aggarwal to cover: -Optimizing websites for ChatGPT, Gemini and other LLMs -Improving content discoverability -Crafting personalized, high value content -Using AI & personalization to improve engagement and drive member/customer satisfaction -and more https://lnkd.in/d7xiNjdB

Remember the Credit Suisse collapse in 2023? The bank's silence created an information vacuum filled with speculation and rumors. When they finally did communicate, the discrepancies between official statements and actual measures only accelerated market panic and trust erosion. This isn't uncommon. Many financial institutions make the same critical mistakes: - Remaining silent during a crisis - Issuing vague, uninformative statements - Delaying responses while coordinating with legal teams - Neglecting social media channels - Lacking a pre-formed crisis team with defined roles - Allowing uncoordinated, emotional statements from executives When things aren't going well, communication becomes more critical, not less. Silence doesn't protect you — it simply creates space for competitors to thrive and for misinformation to spread. Learn how to handle situations like these MUCH better.

Reports of the bank branch's death have been greatly exaggerated. With approximately 97,000 branches still operating across the U.S. at the end of 2023, physical locations remain central to banking strategy — but their purpose is evolving dramatically. The post-pandemic era has revealed a surprising truth: leading banks aren't abandoning branches, they're reinventing them. Bank of America's ambitious plan to establish 165 new locations by 2026 eliminates traditional teller lines in favor of collaborative spaces with financial specialists. Citizens Bank is "rightsizing" branches into intimate environments designed for meaningful financial conversations. Why this renewed focus on physical presence in a digital world? "Physical branches are fundamental for deposit gathering, which remains the lifeblood of the bank," explains Andrew Short, executive director of product management at Candescent. "Small businesses still manage a large quantity of cash, which requires visiting a branch to make deposits — often several times per week." Learn more in the article in the comments.

Celebrating women shouldn't stop on March 9th. Proud to share this recent byline in The Financial Brand from Nicole Haverly who is leading the charge at nCino, Inc. to help credit unions close the innovation divide. ?? Read more to learn how she's challenging credit unions to better meet their members where they bank: digitally. https://lnkd.in/ewkNUaQN

JPMorgan Chase plans to triple its Alabama presence by 2030, aiming to put "over half of Alabama's population within an accessible drive time to a Chase branch." But Chase isn't alone in this southern push. Fifth Third's ambitious strategy will transform its entire network profile—targeting a 50/50 split between Midwest and Southeast branches by 2028. Chairman Tim Spence highlights their progress: "We generated year-over-year household growth of 2.3%, punctuated by 6% growth in the Southeast." What's driving this migration? Huntington's CEO Stephen Steinour explains it simply: "The growth in Texas is phenomenal. If you had a choice to go there, or North Carolina or South Carolina, versus most other states, you'd choose those [three] states." Bank of America proves the strategy works, with President of Retail Banking Holly O'Neill revealing: "We know that when we go into an expansion market where we have a financial center located within 15 miles of that new market, we drive 50% more in digital sales." Read the full article below in the comments:

Users are getting rid of financial apps they feel are redundant — but banks have plenty of ways of ensuring customers don’t delete theirs, a new MX study found. Far from a threat, banks can see customers’ clamoring for better digital experiences as an opportunity. Roughly 55% of consumers would agree to sharing more data if their banks can deliver better tools, up sharply from 46% last year, MX found. The list of desired offerings is broad: budgeting tools, savings goals, debt repayment trackers and personalized advice. And customers don’t just want one or two — they want them all. Bank tech budgets aren’t unlimited, but the industry is nonetheless finding ways to deliver those tools and keep customers engaged. Executives at U.S. Bank, Ally and Dallas-based First Foundation share what’s worked as they try to personalize their offerings without coming off as cringy.

Leaders face a critical balancing act between leveraging AI's potential and managing its risks — particularly AI "hallucinations," where systems generate misleading or false information. Remember the recent case where Air Canada's chatbot promised a refund under an incorrect policy? When challenged in court, the airline argued the AI was "a separate legal entity responsible for its own actions." Banks can't afford such missteps. Financial institutions have wisely implemented strict guardrails around customer-facing AI, but this is changing as the technology evolves. As Amas Tenumah, global leader of service transformation & AI Innovation at Slalom puts it: "We're going to see more contacts with the customer. This will allow bankers to build more relationships because they can use these tools to automate minutiae."

Capital One Auto recently launched a state-of-the-art, customer-facing AI tool which enhances the car buying experience for all. Chat Concierge is so much more than the typical chatbot. Backed by our proprietary technology, Chat Concierge leverages agentic AI to answer questions, schedule test drives and more to help streamline the car buying process. We’ve only begun to realize the potential of AI, and I am so excited to see how the talented teams at Capital One continue to harness the power of this technology and provide dealers the tools they need to succeed in an evolving digital landscape. Check out more about how Chat Concierge helps both dealers and car buyers in The Financial Brand: https://bit.ly/3D5U855. Steve Cocheo