What’d I miss? News and Insights that got noticed

Key themes this week (May 19 - 25)

• A.I. could kill Google Search and Amazon
• Step launches 5% savings account trumping Apple
• Stay Now Pay Later – Airbnb/Klarna partnership
• Highlights from FinovateSpring 2023 (scroll down)

Bill Gates says A.I. could kill Google Search and Amazon as we know them

"... Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates believes the future top company in artificial intelligence will likely have created a personal digital agent that can perform certain tasks for people.”

Key takeaways:

• “Whoever wins the personal agent, that’s the big thing, because you will never go to a search site again, you will never go to a productivity site, you’ll never go to Amazon again,” he said
• This yet-to-be developed AI assistant will be able to understand a person’s needs and habits and will help them “read the stuff you don’t have time to read,” Gates said

LinkedIn Post

Starling Bank eases budget management for customers

"...Starling Bank has launched a tool that splits inbound payments and automatically determines the optimum accounts for storing funds. The new feature, called ‘Split payment’, allows customers to decide how much of an inbound payment, such as their salary, to put away and where, including their saving Spaces, joint accounts, additional accounts and Kite cards."

Key takeaways:

• The tool aims to make money management easier for Starling’s GBP Current Account and Business Current Account holders
• Helen Bierton, chief banking officer at Starling Bank says: “Our customers can take their budgeting to the next level with Split payment, and organize their finances in seconds.”

LinkedIn Post

JPMorgan added roughly 600,000 checking accounts through April

"...JPMorgan Chase & Co. is forecasting $84 billion in net interest income this year, a $3 billion increase from its forecast prior to its First Republic Bank acquisition, the bank said at an investor day presentation Monday."

Key takeaways:

• The bank increased its retail-deposit market share by about 60 basis points, Chief Information Officer Lori Beer said
• JPMorgan has more than 13% of deposits and 21% of all credit card spending in the U.S.

LinkedIn Post

Move over Apple, Step launches 5% savings account

"…Step, the digital banking service geared toward teens and young adults, is now offering a 5% rate on its savings accounts. With just one in three Americans having adequate savings for emergencies, Step is among dozens of startups, like Current, Greenlight, Super.com and hyve, focused on helping people save."

Key takeaways:

• To secure that 5%, users have to set up a monthly direct deposit of $500 or more from a payroll provider or employer
• “The savings percentage is not interest, but instead earned as cash rewards directly funded and managed by Step,” according to the company

LinkedIn Post

How America’s Largest Restaurant Franchisee Decides When to Raise Prices

“…San Francisco-based Flynn, considered the largest U.S. restaurant franchisee with more than $4 billion in annual sales, is harnessing reams of internal and competitor data to take a more surgical approach to selling fast food and sit-down meals.”

Key takeaways:

• Many restaurants increased their prices three to five times last year, up from a typical two to three cost hikes annually, according to industry consulting firm Revenue Management Solutions
• Fast-food prices were up 8.2% in April compared with last year, outpacing annual inflation at grocery stores for the first time since early 2022, according to the Labor Department
• Some restaurant companies have experimented with increasing prices hourly depending on time of day and demand

LinkedIn Post

Airbnb jumps into bed with Klarna

"... Klarna has joined forces with Airbnb to provide guests in the US and Canada with flexible payment options when booking their stay.”

Key takeaways:

• Guests in the US and Canada can now apply to pay for stays in four interest-free installments over six weeks, and for bookings over $500, guests in the US can apply to pay monthly
• The US represents Klarna's largest market, where it has amassed more than seven million monthly active app users and 34 million consumers

LinkedIn Post

Inflation Is Changing People’s Money Habits: 7 Studies Show the Trends

“…The banking, payments and savings habits of American consumers are shifting in an environment of continuing economic turmoil and some gaps in their financial knowledge — and reluctance to even discuss money with their spouses or families — could be making matters worse.”

Key takeaways:

• 27% of BNPL users surveyed say that have used some form of buy now, pay later program as a bridge to their next payday
• 75% of those surveyed won’t discuss money with friends, 63% won’t talk about money within their family, and 46% won’t so much as touch on the subject with their spouse or significant other
• More than half of respondents — 51% — don’t know how to calculate net worth

LinkedIn Post

This week I attended three days of FinovateSpring to catch up on everything FinTech, see many 7-minute solution demos, and hear industry experts provide their take on key themes in the financial services industry. Here are some of my observations.

Beyond The Hype: Why Banking In The Metaverse Matters

"... Modelling Scenarios For Building & Monetizing Relationships In The Metaverse.”

Key takeaways:

• AI might have stolen the spotlight but the metaverse still maters
• Banks should experiment to get comfortable with the metaverse
• Second Life’s virtual economy provides great lessons on monetization and value transfer in a metaverse

LinkedIn Post

Amplero Personalization Optimizer - Dynamic Creative Optimization That’s Fit for Finance

"...What a great presentation of the Amplero platform by my Curinos colleagues Sarah Welch and Tazmin Bailiff Curtis. It is clear that to achieve true personalization and the benefits that come with that you need a platform that can dynamically learn and help your marketing team become 50X more efficient.”

Key takeaways:

• The current rules-based marketing approach does not allow for real personalized experiences leaving customers frustrated
• Leveraging an AI platform allows for true personalization at scale by significantly enhancing the efficiency of the marketing team
• This approach allows financial institutions to capture the value from satisfied customers currently left on the table

LinkedIn Post

Creating Digitally Confident Bankers and Customers

"...Steve Frook, from HORIZN showed how financial institutions can truly maximize and accelerate the impact of their digital transformation strategy by increasing fluency and confidence with all their digital assets by both their employees and customers.”

Key takeaways:

• The HORIZN platform increases the Number of Fully Digital Customers
• It drives Mass Adoption of and confidence with New Platforms and Capabilities
• And reduces the Cost to Serve Digital Customers

LinkedIn Post

Actionable insights for business owners and relationship managers

"...Adam Dolby demonstrated the upSWOT platform that connects small business data from a large number of sources to provide actionable insights for both business owners and financial institutions.”

Key takeaways:

• upSWOT delivers insights into trends and performance across the customer base to easily monitor churn and engagement
• It utilizes data from 200+ business-critical SaaS applications and delivers personalized business insights to ensure the bank and its clients thrive
• Pre-integrated with the world's leading digital banking providers

LinkedIn Post

Transforming people, places, and companies for a more inclusive world

"...Insightful presentation by The Lazu Group on how to support your Diversity, Equity and Inclusion strategy leveraging their helpful platform.”

Key takeaways:

• Diverse teams generate better results making clear business case for it
• The platform provides a helpful toolkit to support a successful DE&I strategy
• If you are serious about DE&I, you need to get the details right

LinkedIn Post

The Future Of Payments

"...A Power Panel of industry experts discussed how New Technologies, New Competitors And New Business Models are shaping the future of Payments.”

Key takeaways:

• A new type of SuperApps will become common place combining different customer services and seamlessly embedding payments functionality
• Payments are getting embedded in many new platforms including chat and social networks allowing consumers to immediately act on intention to buy
• As friction in the payment process is getting reduced the need for security increases as with easy of transacting there is also an increased risk of fraud

LinkedIn Post

Innovations In Lending To Help SMEs & Consumers During The Cost Of Living Crisis

"...Interesting insights on how deposits data can help improve the credit decisions and improve inclusion.”

Key takeaways:

• Leveraging deposits data allows lenders to approve more applicants
• Supports inclusion without taking on incremental risk
• Helps predict credit utilization to support risk management and reduce costs

LinkedIn Post

As I am always interested in what you think about these posts, send me a message, or just leave a comment on the post on LinkedIn.