February 2025
Bank Automation News
The definitive source for insights and news surrounding automation in financial services
Bank Automation News invites you to check out these top stories from the past month:
Lenders must be mindful of existing consumer law and state-level enforcement despite the current pause in enforcement activity by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
State attorneys under the Dodd-Frank Act can bring actions that fall under unfair, deceptive or abusive acts or practices authority, John Redding, senior counsel at law firm Husch Blackwell, told Bank Automation News‘ sister publication Auto Finance News.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) pause is “not all of a sudden a free-for-all where you can do anything you want,” he said. The bureau also “looks at what you did previously, not what you’re going to do tomorrow, so you have to exercise care to ensure you’re following the law."
Deutsche Bank is restructuring expenses aimed at investing in technology, reducing overall headcount and exiting certain business lines.
The $1.3 trillion bank is looking to drive efficiencies and reduce operating costs, Chief Executive Christian Sewing said during the bank’s fourth-quarter earnings on Jan. 30.
The bank hired 1,300 tech specialists, while eliminating 1,800 contractors and cutting headcount by nearly 3,500 employees in 2024, according to the company’s Q4 earnings report.
The reductions are a “part of our longstanding drive to internalize talent,” a Deutsche Bank spokesperson told Bank Automation News. “This means we reduce our dependence on external staff and develop internal talent, thus retaining expertise and knowledge in-house.”
Tech leaders at FIs are part of an exodus of top leadership across industries since the presidential election in November 2024.
In December, 230 chief executives left, according to executive outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas’ Jan. 30 report.
“The environment of economic, political and regulatory uncertainty that prevailed in 2024 certainly led to many CEO exits,” Andrew Challenger, workplace authority and senior vice president of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, said in the report. “With that as a backdrop, we also saw rapid technological advancement and boards that were laser-focused on efficiency and productivity. If CEOs were perceived to be lacking, they were not tolerated.”
Tech roles are evolving as FIs adopt new technology and several institutions have recently announced leadership changes.
Investors are exploring a multitude of fintech startups with the expectation that venture capital will bounce back in 2025 along with better macroeconomic conditions.
While fintech funding this year may not match the $143 billion it reached in 2021, it is forecast to grow marginally higher than 2024, when funding fell 20% year over year to $33.7 billion.
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Easing interest rates and a rebounding IPO environment should give the market much needed liquidity, Benjamin Lawrence, senior lead analyst at CB Insights, said during the company’s “Venture Capital Outlook” webinar recently.
As capital frees up, investors are hinting at the type of startups that are drawing their attention. BAN polled multiple VCs, financial institutions, analysts and industry experts on the fintech startups they are keeping tabs on in 2025, and why.
Will 2025 present investment opportunities for fintech startups?
Citi’s Mike Naggar, chief digital officer and chief information officer for U.S. Personal Banking, focuses on customer experience at the $2 trillion bank.
Naggar has worked at Citi since 2018, initially holding the title of chief digital officer before assuming the additional role of chief information officer in 2023. Prior to joining Citi, Naggar served as managing director and head of mobile and emerging payment solutions at $3.9 trillion JPMorgan Chase. He also worked at $2 trillion Barclays as managing director for mobile payments and as executive director of consumer product development at Verizon before entering the financial services sector, according to his LinkedIn profile.
The technology goals in Citi’s U.S. Personal Banking division “center around improving the client experience, risk and controls and efficiency,” Naggar told BAN, adding that he’s motivated by empathy toward customers and colleagues.
Chip manufacturing behemoth Nvidia is seeing the adoption of its financial services grow as it creates custom bank solutions.
“Financial services is one of the fastest growing — and is becoming one of our largest — verticals,” Kevin Levitt, who leads global business development for the financial services industry at Nvidia, told BAN.
This is because “the largest banks in the world are investing in building AI factories” with the company, he said.
Hemal Nagarsheth, head of strategy for wealth and investment management COEs, banking, lending and trust at Wells Fargo, will speak at Bank Automation Summit 2025 on March 3 in Nashville, Tenn.
Bank Automation Summit 2025, taking place March 3-4, brings together experienced industry leaders and pioneering startups for two days of collaboration and discussion about emerging topics and technologies within the industry.
Nagarsheth, a tech industry veteran and former business consultant who joined $1.9 trillion Wells in April 2024, will speak on the panel “Generating Returns on AI Investment” on Monday, March 3, at 9:15 a.m. CT at the Hilton Downtown Nashville.
View the full event agenda here.