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The role of technology and fintech partnerships in banking today [Webinar]

Whitney McDonaldbyWhitney McDonald
December 14, 2021
in Technology
Reading Time: 22 mins read

Fintechs continue to introduce new technologies and partnership opportunities as the shift toward digitization gains traction in the auto finance space.

Today, financiers are partnering with fintechs to implement technological advancements, overcome legacy system challenges, shift to digital-first banking and continue to meet customer needs in a new digital era.

In this webinar, part of a quarterly series presented by Auto Finance Excellence, Erin Erhart, executive vice president of bank operations at St. Louis-based Midwest Bank Centre, discusses the challenges and opportunities that new technologies present in the auto finance space.

Video Transcript:

Editor’s note: This transcript has been generated by software and is being presented as is. Some transcription errors may remain.

Auto Finance News: hello, and welcome to our fourth quarter webinar presented by auto finance excellence, a sister service to auto finance news and industry source for best practices and actionable advice for auto finance professionals and generously sponsored by Solifi.

Auto Finance News: i’m Whitney McDonald associate editor for auto finance news, and I would first like to thank you for joining us today.

Auto Finance News: auto finance excellent provides Members with an unparalleled opportunity to gain professional development, all and networking resources in this competitive industry.

Auto Finance News: We intend for auto finance excellence, not only to guide industry executives, but also to inspire them to greater success.

Auto Finance News: joining me today is Erin Erhart executive Vice President of being operations at Midwest BankCentre, including the bank’s digital brand rising think.

Auto Finance News: She started her career at Midwest buying Center in 2016 as the Vice President of consumer banking and corporate services and later in 2017 served as the executive Vice President of consumer banking and fee services before entering the position she holds today.

Auto Finance News: Since the pandemic had more than a year and a half ago, technological advancements in capabilities have come leaps and bounds today Aaron will walk us through the role of technology and fintech partnerships in banking.

00:01:20.730 –> 00:01:30.060
Auto Finance News: including both challenges and opportunities that new technologies, present in the lender space Erin thanks so much for being here and i’ll go ahead and pass it over to you.

00:01:30.660 –> 00:01:32.430
Erin Erhart: Wonderful Thank you so much.

00:01:34.050 –> 00:01:38.460
Erin Erhart: All right, i’m going to go ahead and pull up my screen here.

00:01:39.510 –> 00:01:41.280
Erin Erhart: And we’ll get started, so thank you.

00:01:41.580 –> 00:01:54.780
Erin Erhart: i’m glad to be here, thank you for having me today we’re going to be talking about the role of technology and then tech partnerships in banking, but first just wanted to give the group a little bit of background on.

00:01:56.580 –> 00:02:04.170
Erin Erhart: The big that I worked for today, so we can kind of see where all this leans more so in the Community banking space if that’s okay so.

00:02:05.130 –> 00:02:19.560
Erin Erhart: As as was mentioned, I work for Midwest bank Center and we are a community bank we’ve been around for about 115 years and about two years ago, we launched a digital only brand called rising day.

00:02:20.130 –> 00:02:31.470
Erin Erhart: And so, this was really our first foray into the true digital space rising Bank operates online only and so.

00:02:31.890 –> 00:02:41.790
Erin Erhart: was really exciting to be a part of that project and and kind of be a little bit of a trailblazer in my Community banking space to stand something up like this that that.

00:02:42.180 –> 00:03:00.870
Erin Erhart: Really allowed us to partner with fintech and really did allow us to engage in some cutting edge initiatives at that time and so really wanted to talk through how all of this kind of routines I guess primarily in the Community or or more regional banking space.

00:03:02.070 –> 00:03:11.970
Erin Erhart: Obviously I have already been introduced so we’ll skip past that but first I wanted to start with some of the challenges that are faced by Community banks today.

00:03:12.540 –> 00:03:27.990
Erin Erhart: So the first one is going to be reduction in branch traffic, so this is not something this new Teller transactions alone have decreased significantly over the last 20 years or so.

00:03:29.070 –> 00:03:34.800
Erin Erhart: And you know when covert it it really accelerated that change.

00:03:35.850 –> 00:03:45.510
Erin Erhart: Also, seeing a lot more accounts opens online really just a lot less need for people to be visiting those brick and mortar locations.

00:03:46.110 –> 00:03:58.590
Erin Erhart: Historically, can you make simply relied on those brick and mortar branches, though, to bring in the deposits that are used to, then you know grow assets for the banking organization and so.

00:03:59.280 –> 00:04:10.080
Erin Erhart: That reduction in branch traffic is really created a little bit of an issue there right so we’ve got through people coming in through people opening accounts they’ve got a lot more choices through.

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Erin Erhart: A lot of different online options plus you know we’re actually located in St Louis and we’re one of the most overbanked.

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Erin Erhart: cities in the country, so it really was becoming something that we felt like from a longevity perspective to make sure we would be around for another hundred and 15 years that we needed to start preparing for and so that’s actually what initially drove our.

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Erin Erhart: Our our desire to go into the digital space to raise those deposits, but, but it is a challenge that that a lot of Community banks are facing today.

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Erin Erhart: The next piece of that is keeping up and remaining relevant so technology has changed so much in the finance industry over the past five to 10 years.

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Erin Erhart: And big banks have the ability, and the budgets to really invest in proprietary technology that they can then.

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Erin Erhart: You know gain market share, because people want to use it and so really being some really been at a little bit of a disadvantage, up until this point and now obviously there’s all the opportunities that will be talking about today, but, but this is definitely a challenge that.

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Erin Erhart: Community banks are based additionally legacy core systems, so we were really limited by what technology they could offer for a long time as well, and then the cores themselves were really restricting because.

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Erin Erhart: You know you invest in the R amp D to develop new technology, but then you also have to keep it.

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Erin Erhart: Price rate so that Community banks can actually afford to do it the next piece to that would be meeting today’s customers, where they are so this does go back to.

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Erin Erhart: Digital but in a different way, so a lot of us have been focused on making sure that we have that mobile APP that we have that online account opening.

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Erin Erhart: That you’ve got online banking, but in a lot of cases if we’re not intentional the experience or the process is very different, and so.

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Erin Erhart: omni channel, so making sure that that experience is the same, regardless of the device that you’re on is becoming more and more important, so you know I.

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Erin Erhart: Am in my home office and I, you know, want to start paying bills or opening an account online when I leave and switch over to my mobile device, you know I want to be able to pick up where I left off, and I want the process to be similar.

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Erin Erhart: So that’s been another challenge that that Community banks are faced as well also providing a great experience so.

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Erin Erhart: You know the customer service has always been a big differentiator for Community banks right, so your local you can give your customers a little bit of extra attention but.

39
00:07:09.180 –> 00:07:17.760
Erin Erhart: In today’s environment not all customers, you know we already talked about how they’re not really coming into the branches so much anymore, and so, not all customers want.

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Erin Erhart: You know that interaction they do with certain things, so if there’s a problem to solve or you know, maybe they get stuck will try to open an account online or.

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Erin Erhart: You know there’s a fee that they have a question about in those cases customers do generally want to speak to a person that can help them solve that.

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00:07:39.270 –> 00:07:56.130
Erin Erhart: But for day to day transactions, a lot of times they really want to have that digital experience and so again having that great balance between digital and human interaction is always becoming more and more important.

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Erin Erhart: Another challenge that a lot of Community banks have faced is the ability to leverage their their internal data.

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Erin Erhart: to drive growth right so data analytics that’s something that’s huge these days, a lot of large organizations are really able to tap into that to find you know.

45
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Erin Erhart: Cross sell opportunities right so identifying more information about their customers they might know from that initial conversation and then being able to market to that.

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Erin Erhart: Another piece that comes in, when we speak about leveraging that internal data.

47
00:08:36.540 –> 00:08:53.040
Erin Erhart: is really that personalized experience so, can you tap into that data and then can your technology support giving more of a netflix or an Amazon type experience, where it’s really catered that person’s.

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Erin Erhart: activity and how they’ve done their banking.

49
00:08:58.290 –> 00:09:10.170
Erin Erhart: that’s something that you know is out of reach for some anyway, you know some of our larger institutions don’t have that ability, but it’s definitely something that because of the cost involved in the sophistication.

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Erin Erhart: In developing that type of technology it’s it’s something that you know Community banks really haven’t been able to tap into even though we’ve got a lot of really great information.

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Erin Erhart: On our customers and and how they do their banking and even a lot of things that are going on in their lives, and then finally talent acquisition and retention so.

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Erin Erhart: A lot of industries and face this, particularly since comin but really finding employees to not only just fill the positions, but then also finding strong quality candidates there’s just there’s definitely been a shortage, particularly in the retail banking space for us.

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Erin Erhart: Definitely, and then it’s definitely something that we’ve heard from pure banks as well, that really finding.

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Erin Erhart: Quality talents to fill those positions, has been a bit of an issue, and then I think retention of employees is something that’s being experienced across a lot of industries, at this point.

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Erin Erhart: A lot of people are just making the choice to stay remote in and become entrepreneurs, or you know start different types of of smaller I guess more gig type work, if you will, and so it’s really made it a little bit challenging in the banking space as well.

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Erin Erhart: And so, now that kind of talk through some of those challenges, you know there’s a lot of opportunity to overcome those so some of the things that.

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Erin Erhart: You know, we can do to overcome those today one open banking so open banking really allows for.

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Erin Erhart: You know, for us to partner with fintech so that they can.

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Erin Erhart: plug into our core system, so it really opens up our ability to add new technology beyond what our providers are able to provide.

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Erin Erhart: And really just gives us a lot more options that continues to become more and more common.

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Erin Erhart: In is also it’s almost something that a lot of providers have to do at this point right they they really don’t have the option, because they can’t provide all the technologies that that the Community banks need to.

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Erin Erhart: To meet the needs of their customers and so opening up their system to allow for those plugins is just becoming more and more you vic witness.

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Erin Erhart: fin techs as partners, so this is something that is becoming a lot more common as well when fin techs are starting to arrive in the market, there was a lot of.

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Erin Erhart: discussion around them being more challengers or competition and their ability to actually take customers away.

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Erin Erhart: But I think we should never underestimate the importance of a big Charter, and so, because of the open banking and because.

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Erin Erhart: Of the fact that these big charters, are very desirable, a lot of fin techs have actually made the choice to partner with banks and do that plug in to help them have that technology, as opposed to trying to go out into the open market themselves and.

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Erin Erhart: This is pretty key because, in my opinion, this is an area where Community banks actually have.

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Erin Erhart: an advantage, so if you think about it you’ve got a big bank that is investing a lot of money into research and development and they’re wanting to create their own proprietary technology to.

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Erin Erhart: You know, to wow customers and and in the Chair, but then you’ve got fin techs, and these are groups that.

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Erin Erhart: Really generally are putting something really amazing together, and this is their focus, this is what they do it’s not.

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Erin Erhart: A group within a larger organization that does a lot of other things it’s it’s generally something that someone who had a great idea and put a lot of hard work into it, that they put it together and so it’s generally going to be a really, really strong.

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Erin Erhart: really strong piece of banking technology, and so, if they’re willing to partner with banks Community banks and particularly because of that open API.

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Erin Erhart: You can have the best of both worlds right because you can partner with multiple fin techs.

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Erin Erhart: For different products and services that you’re wanting to offer to your customers and training base can generally do that fairly quickly we can be a little bit more agile because we’re smaller so there’s just not quite as much red tape to go through.

75
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Erin Erhart: it’s going to be a much more simplistic system, most likely, and so it really does, in my opinion, give events, a little bit of a leg up over some of our larger competitors.

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Erin Erhart: Balancing legacy and new so this goes to what I was just kind of referring to right so you’ve got your legacy for system.

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Erin Erhart: and balancing that with adding new technology and it definitely is a balancing act because there’s a lot of really great technology out there that.

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Erin Erhart: serves a great purpose and seems like it would be amazing to be able to offer to customers, but.

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Erin Erhart: You know, really making sure that when you’re setting those things up that you’re creating the right experience that it’s really going to work well and flow well.

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Erin Erhart: With the core and legacy systems that you have in place that is a that is really important.

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Erin Erhart: You know there’s nothing worse than spending a tremendous amount of money on technology that doesn’t quite integrate with your.

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Erin Erhart: legacy systems, the way that you would hope and as a result isn’t creating the experience for your customers that in hopes so.

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Erin Erhart: Just something to keep in mind there greenfield banks, so this is another really great opportunity and that’s actually what we did with rising bank, so we knew that we needed to find a more sustainable way to grow deposits within the organization.

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Erin Erhart: To to support our growth over time and we knew that we didn’t want to continue to rely on on our branches our brick and mortar branches to do that right, because over time as.

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Erin Erhart: branch traffic continues to slow, we want to be able to have that flexibility to close a branch if we need to without being as concerned about the consequences are the repercussions of losing those deposits.

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Erin Erhart: So that is actually why we stood up rising bay and again operating under a completely different brand.

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Erin Erhart: and marketing it outside of the state of Missouri because we didn’t want to cannibalize our deposits that we had today, but really going out into the open market nationally, to find new deposits and bringing new deposits, it really could give us more flexibility on the retail side.

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Erin Erhart: So you know that’s that’s a huge opportunity I think for.

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Erin Erhart: Community banks, these days, because you know, while you are paying for two different brands, it really is a differentiator because I think sometimes Community banks get stuck in you know, trying to go digital with the brand that they have.

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Erin Erhart: And then you’re really kind of still tied down to some of those.

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Erin Erhart: Maybe legacy thought processes, whereas if you really are going into that digital only space and knowing that there is no branch behind it.

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Erin Erhart: It really gives you a different point of view, I guess, and how you want to approach that that digital experience and then, finally, the impacts on brick and mortar of engaging in more of these technology and digital conversations, so you know when we launched raising bay.

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Erin Erhart: One of the things that we made the decision to do was not have signature cards and so as a 115 year old Community Bank as i’m sure you can imagine, for us to say to our.

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Erin Erhart: operations and compliance teams that we’re not going to have signature cards anymore, you know it took some getting used to.

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Erin Erhart: But we’ve really used rising vein as a bit of a cm box to test in and see how things are going and learn from it, so that we can apply that to our.

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Erin Erhart: legacy operations with Midwest bank Center it’s worked out beautifully we actually continue to add technology that does offset some of those legacy pieces.

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Erin Erhart: Our compliance team has been wonderful about always helping us trying to keep an open mind on these things.

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Erin Erhart: But you know it’s worked out really well, I think that Midwest bank Center has come a long way, because of the things that we’ve done on the rising bank side of things and we’re able to kind of carry that over.

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Erin Erhart: But again, these are just some of the things that are available to us today to help us overcome the challenges that that really banks are facing.

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Erin Erhart: here.

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Erin Erhart: In the next really just kind of the the current state so.

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Erin Erhart: You know where are we in this evolution of fintech partnerships for banks, so, as I mentioned before the open banking piece again it’s just becoming more and more common, the cores are now really actually talking about how they do have.

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Erin Erhart: Open they are open api’s and really touting that because you know it does put them at a disadvantage if they’re going to keep it closed and not allow Community banks to do.

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Erin Erhart: Those plugins and so it’s definitely in their best interest to be open and allow us to partner with fin techs and other digital banking options in the market today and so that’s going to just continue I, I believe, to become more and more common and more and more readily available.

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Erin Erhart: Additionally, there’s regulatory guidance style on on the things that you might want to look at as a vague when contemplating.

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Erin Erhart: partnering with a fintech so when we were getting into this for rising bank we didn’t have any of that guidance, so of course we did reach out to.

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Erin Erhart: The fed me reach out to our regulators and and really did kind of talk through what we were trying to achieve and and ask for that.

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Erin Erhart: Help and you know really had a lot of those conversations, but.

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Erin Erhart: There was no actual guidance out there, that was available for someone that was new getting into this space and so.

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Erin Erhart: It you know we we wanted to make sure that we were being very careful and we were, but now there is actually guidance out there for banks wanting to.

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Erin Erhart: get into this, and so I think that that’s something that’s that’s wonderful and actually just came out, I believe, in August of this year, so it’s still fairly new but but it’s available now and hopefully it helps.

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Erin Erhart: institutions that have not gotten quite comfortable in this space to get a little bit more comfortable because they can feel.

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Erin Erhart: You know, secure in the fact that they’ve got that guidance out there, and at least it’s it’s something to to try to follow, or at least have put some guard rails out there for you.

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Erin Erhart: And then next there’s so many fintech partners to choose from, at this point so.

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Erin Erhart: You know I tried to participate in a lot of the webinars things like that, now that conferences are opening up trying to get to a lot more of those.

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Erin Erhart: Just for the purpose of seeing what the options are what’s out there and it’s amazing you know there’s just so many to choose from which really gives you the opportunity to pick the right one right so.

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Erin Erhart: I think that that’s something where sometimes Community banks can go wrong you’re looking at a couple of different ven texts and.

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Erin Erhart: one’s got that slightly better experience, but the other one might be a little bit more cost effective, but as soon as you.

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Erin Erhart: You know, cut back or cut corners on customer experience it is impactful you know you just kind of lower the bar a little bit, but if you go into it with the experience that you want your your customers to have in the problem that you want that technology to solve.

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Erin Erhart: You know you set your bar and you said hi and then it really helps kind of weed through what those different options are and.

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Erin Erhart: really helps you hold true to what you want, that experience to be a defined that bright fintech partner that’s going to help you.

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Erin Erhart: Create that experience this was for us again we were standing up rising bang We wanted a very, very seamless online account opening experience, and so our former CFO who really led the charge for us as an organization and standing up raising bay.

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Erin Erhart: You know, we would sit through demos for different account opening syntax and even just you know some of the the core options as well, and as soon as something would come up that was I guess the old way or the traditional way of doing things such as.

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Erin Erhart: You know scanning a copy of your ID and and emailing that to us or printing out a signature card signing it scanning that back to us.

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Erin Erhart: You know those demos, and it pretty quickly, because that was the experience we were trying to pick and so he would say that you know, raising the bar really helps you find the kind of Tom Brady of fin techs that are out there because you’re really.

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Erin Erhart: kind of the keeper of that experience that you want to have, and you know if you hold true to that you’ll find a way to make it work, even if the price tags a little bit higher for that fintech partner that gives that experience and then finally filling the sales funnel so.

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Erin Erhart: Technology is not something where you build it and they will come, so you can invest a lot of money and standing up this amazing digital experience for your customers.

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Erin Erhart: But it’s not necessarily going to drive more customers to your organization and so something that we’ve started looking at.

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Erin Erhart: More recently, our fintech options, where they help fill the sales funnel and one of those we’ll talk a little bit more about in just a moment, but ultimately, you know, some of them are out there in the marketplace, as I mentioned before, our big charters are pretty appealing and so.

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Erin Erhart: You know, there might be a cost for something to come referred to you from them, but at the end of the day, it’s likely going to be significantly cheaper than digital marketing in the.

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Erin Erhart: The broader online space, so you know when we set up rising bang we invested a significant amount of money and marketing in that first two years.

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Erin Erhart: And then we were able to bring a lot of that in house and so really our focus at this point is just to keep kind of that always on brand marketing out there.

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Erin Erhart: And then we’ve got you know little levers, if you will, that we can pull as we want to raise deposits again, or you know if we want to increase.

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Erin Erhart: You know mortgage volume things like that, but you know finding those partners that you can work with that again for a fee, but that can direct.

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Erin Erhart: You know sales opportunities from their site to yours and it feeds directly into your system, and they can open that account or they can fund that loan.

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Erin Erhart: Is a great way to go to market as well, again, because you know, marketing and digital spaces is incredibly pricey.

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Erin Erhart: But, but again, this is kind of the current state and where things stand today, I think again, all of it is amazing opportunity.

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Erin Erhart: For Community banks wanting to create a more digital experience and then, how does all of it apply to auto lending so in the research that i’ve done.

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Erin Erhart: And the things that we’ve done as an organization, I have found that there are a few different ways.

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Erin Erhart: To apply digital to auto lending, and so the first one, you know many Community banks have a loan operating system, and if you are partnering with in encino, for example, they have an online portal, so you can have that digital experience accepting those loan applications online.

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Erin Erhart: And really again giving it to some degree that digital experience, and then there are point of sale options right, so they are kind of that initial point of sale, where the application comes in, it might be part of the credit pool, it might be where they’re connecting with their.

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Erin Erhart: You know their bank to pull in income verification or bank statements, but it really sits on top of your your LM s and.

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Erin Erhart: You know feeds everything into that and then you know a lot of times, it can even take back for a digital closing but.

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Erin Erhart: They kind of work together and then, finally, you know, there are fin techs out there that can do the beginning to end.

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Erin Erhart: And that’s one of the things that we’ve chosen to do actually we have all three of them in some way, shape or form, whether it be for consumer lending small business lending commercial lending.

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Erin Erhart: or mortgage so.

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Erin Erhart: So we do participate in all of these, and all of them work well for the things that we’re using that for but.

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Erin Erhart: The fintech opportunity and that’s the one that I would like to focus on today because that’s something that that we’re engaging in now in the process of standing up for raising bank but.

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Erin Erhart: upstart is a fintech that does personal loans, as well as auto refinancing loans and they’re a great example of a fintech that helps you fill that sales funnel so.

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Erin Erhart: A consumer go out to the upstart website and if they’re interested in applying for an auto refinance them, which is a great opportunity to.

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Erin Erhart: You know, lower your monthly payment or lower your rate in addition upstarts underwriting model.

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Erin Erhart: Actually, is a great opportunity for people who may not be able to be approved, using traditional underwriting methods can potentially be approved or.

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Erin Erhart: If they were approved by traditional underwriting methods, and you know, maybe got a really high interest rate on their auto loan, this is opportunity for them to lower that.

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Erin Erhart: or at least reduce their monthly payment, and so you know definitely aligns with the values of us as an organization trying to help those that that need access to capital.

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Erin Erhart: And and helping them achieve that and get that so.

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Erin Erhart: That was something that was very appealing for us, but you know you go out to their website, you can apply, you know select that you went over five for that auto reply loan.

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Erin Erhart: And then you can pick which bang you want to go to so it’s going to give you several options and one of those options and so as people select rising bang they go through the process and.

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Erin Erhart: That loan comes over to us and so again it’s a lot cheaper than.

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Erin Erhart: Trying to market the white label in the digital space, because that digital marketing is it is so incredibly expensive or can be, depending on on what you’re gonna do with that so.

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Erin Erhart: You know, great example of a fintech the true fintech it’s not feeding into our Lol it’s really just you know handling the loan from beginning to end the the load itself comes over to us.

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Erin Erhart: You know, we didn’t spend marketing money to get back, but it’s in the the broader digital online only space it and it’s just great opportunity and then it’s a new household for rising bank.

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Erin Erhart: So that’s one that that we just recently kind of stepped into but, but so far, so good and we’re really optimistic about how it’s all going to work out but, again, you know from an auto lending perspective, these are some of the options that are out there for you.

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Erin Erhart: And with that we’ll jump into questions.

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Auto Finance News: Great Thank you so much Aaron that was jam packed with information and a lot of the topics you discussed or are things that we cover on auto finance news.

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Auto Finance News: On the website, so I do have a couple of questions for you, I know that the overarching theme of this presentation is these partnerships is growing fintech you just gave a great example with upstart i’m wondering if you might have another partnership.

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Auto Finance News: An example of a partnership that’s already in place and discuss those benefits.

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Erin Erhart: yeah so obviously to your point she’s talked about upstart another one or a couple that that I would mention so.

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Erin Erhart: mantle is one, so they are one that we partnered with when you’re standing up rising bank in so they were a newer fintech and and we were one of their earlier banks that they worked with.

169
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Erin Erhart: And it was an amazing experience, and so the vision that our CFO had for what that online account opening experience was they worked with us to make sure that we were able to provide that.

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Erin Erhart: It worked out beautifully they were able to feed directly into our core after you know gathering all the information and running it through.

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Erin Erhart: You know verification process, so it it’s worked it’s worked out really well they’re not one that fills the funnel but again that’s something that, at least for us is fairly new but, but they do a wonderful job we’re actually expanding our relationship with them, so we will be.

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Erin Erhart: Doing Business online account opening for both brands, as well as in branch account opening with them in the future it worked out that well actually.

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Erin Erhart: So we’re very excited about that and then another one would be blend so we started working with them a few years ago for mortgage and they’re one of the options, where it’s really a point of sale system that.

174
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Erin Erhart: feeds into your loan operating system, but you know it’s it’s a in as far as a mortgage online application those they they really are best in class.

175
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Erin Erhart: And we’ve had a great experience with them.

176
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Erin Erhart: as well, but we’re always looking for something that’s going to help us drive that great experience so that you know as customers come into the funnel we’re we’re able to keep it going and not really seeing a lot of drop off so yeah it’s worked out great.

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Auto Finance News: yeah great that’s really interesting and from our perspective, we are covering these fintech partnerships left and right so it’s it’s definitely a growing thing.

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Auto Finance News: um another question for you is when taking the leap into these new digital product offerings what are some ways that Community banks can slowly integrate into new technology without becoming overwhelmed with everything that’s available.

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Erin Erhart: yeah so I did that’s that’s actually an excellent question, so in my opinion.

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Erin Erhart: The way to approach that or at least the advice that I would give is have a problem in mind, or I guess know what you’re trying to solve for right so whether it’s account opening or.

181
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Erin Erhart: Loans you know know what you’re trying to solve for have a vision of what you want, that experience to be and then start with that one right.

182
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Erin Erhart: And you know, make sure that you’re giving it the attention it needs to stand it up right, and then you know, take a step back and see how it works out because I think that sometimes not only.

183
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Erin Erhart: When there’s you know so much going on, anyway, and just trying to work in the banking industry if you’re trying to add on.

184
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Erin Erhart: Multiple pieces of technology, simultaneously, particularly when they don’t interact with each other, so I guess standing up alone operating system, at the same time as you’re standing up.

185
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Erin Erhart: You know, a new account opening system, for example, doing those at the same time can be overwhelming and something will be missed right so when we’re setting these things up, you really have to have the right group in the room.

186
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Erin Erhart: You all have to be an agreement and understand the experience that you’re trying to create the problem that you’re trying to solve.

187
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Erin Erhart: And so, if you’ve got this group that’s going in two different directions in something will be overlooked, and so I really think it’s a matter of you know, picking the thing that’s most important to you as an organization, giving it the focus and attention it needs.

188
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Erin Erhart: And then you know, making sure that you understand how it’s working after it’s set up and then determine what’s next, but I think when people try to plug in too much at the same time.

189
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Erin Erhart: that’s when it can become overwhelming and that’s when you’re not going to end up with the results that you’re hoping for, or the experience that you were trying to create, to begin with, because it just didn’t get the attention that it that it needed.

190
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Auto Finance News: Right, I think that’s great advice, just to kind of take it one piece, at a time and have an idea in mind of what you’re trying to solve.

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Erin Erhart: Right.

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Auto Finance News: I agree okay um I think that that kind of finishes it up for the questions that I had today, I just wanted to close out by saying thank you again for your willingness to share your knowledge in this area.

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Auto Finance News: and also a big thank you to our viewers, as we finish up, I want to remind you to please check back to auto finance excellent and auto finance news for leading industry insights and auto finance coverage Thank you again, and we will see you next time.

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Erin Erhart: Thank you.

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