Banking

Key Takeaways from the Financial Brand’s Forum Conference: Put Humanity Back in Banking

5 mins read
April 22, 2019
By
Total Expert

Ten years ago, the country faced the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Consumers were apathetic and lacked trust in financial institutions. In recent years, banks and credit unions have shifted their focus back to the customer and member experience.  

Last week, Total Expert was at the Financial Brand’s Forum conference in Las Vegas. Here are our top takeaways from the conference.  

Embrace Change in the “Accelerating Present”

Banks and credit unions are facing a “kodak moment,” according to Jeffrey Hayzlett, Former CMO of Kodak.  

Either adapt and change… or die.

As consumer expectations in today’s Amazon, Uber, Airbnb world continue to rise, financial brands are racing to transform the customer experience and set themselves apart from competitors. The on-demand world we are ushering in is beyond our imagination. 

Data Silos Prevent Financial Brands from Truly Knowing Their Customers and Members

Banks and credit unions have massive amounts of data, but it’s segmented, siloed and frequently impossible to make sense of and use.  

Because financial brands don’t understand their data, they don’t really know their customers and members. Without personas, it’s difficult to be empathetic in your marketing because mass marketing lacks specificity and relevance to individuals.  

“If you’re in marketing and you can’t access your customer or member data, you are driving a car with half the windshield blacked out,” said Jonathan Rowe, CMO at nCino. We’ve all been the recipient of personalized marketing gone wrong. Nothing turns a consumer off quicker than feeling misunderstood because they’re receiving marketing irrelevant to them and their specific needs. This is especially true when it comes to financial marketing where people long for advice tailored to their particular financial situation.  

Banks and credit unions have more data and insights on their customers and members than ever before, but in many cases, the customer experience isn’t evolving or improving as a result of these insights.  

Humanize Complex Financial Decisions to Build Trust  

In the “accelerating present,” the most premium experience for any customer or member is the human touch. Human interaction is required in the financial services industry, especially for the more complex products and services. 

There’s a direct correlation between people’s physical well-being and their financial well-being.  Banks and credit unions are in a unique position to give their customers and members the financial confidence they long for. Among consumers who receive financial advice, eighty-nine percent of them become repeat customers. 

As Gary Vaynerchuk said: Value, value, value – then ask for their business. Knowledge is power. Education-centric marketing empowers banks and credit unions to build trust as they educate customers and members.

Disney is continually focused on “plussing the show” – always improving the customer journey –, according to Doug Lipp, Former Head of Training at Disney. In order to do this, you have to get up from your desk and go walk the bank or credit union branch, talk to tellers or apply for a loan through your financial brand. Actually live your own customer journey to know how to make it better.  

If you don’t keep improving your customer or member experience, you’ll lose them. And once you lose them, it’ll take a really long time to earn their confidence back. 

One bank, IdeaBank launched the first bank branches on commuter trains in Poland. They are literally meeting their customers where they are and humanizing their customer experience.  

“The best way to do personalized banking is to include a person,” said Rilla Delorier, EVP/Chief Strategy Officer at Umpqua Bank

From Inspiration to Action

With so many great speakers, insights and takeaways, you may have left the Financial Brand’s Forum conference wondering what to do first. Here’s a roadmap. And remember – take small bites.

  1. Consolidate and understand your data.
  2. Create customer personas.
  3. Define your customer journey and identify gaps.
  4. Produce content specific to your target customer personas.
  5. Deliver a multi-channel customer journey.

Conclusion: Make Your Marketing Organization a Revenue Center

In the just-released Digital Banking Report: 2019 Financial Marketing Trends, Jim Marous writes: “Rather than leadership of financial institutions asking to see the newest TV commercial or hear the next radio commercial, they will increasingly say, ‘Show me the money’ as it relates to the impact of marketing initiatives. It’s time to move from being viewed as a cost center to being a revenue center within the bank or credit union.”

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This isn’t about dodging restrictions. It’s about recognizing that the playbook for winning customers is evolving—and those who embrace that evolution will come out stronger.

What’s changing?

Under the HPPA, credit bureaus can no longer sell a consumer’s credit file unless the lender meets one of a few narrow conditions:

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For lenders who have long relied on trigger leads, this represents a fundamental shift. But for institutions that have invested in building relationships the right way, this is good news.

What this means for lenders

The HPPA shuts the door on spray-and-pray solicitation tactics. But it opens the door wider for lenders who want to compete on trust and relationship strength. Specifically, it creates new opportunities to:

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The lenders who lean in here will win—not because they shouted the loudest, but because they earned the right to stay connected.

Why this isn’t just another regulatory headache

Consumers have been saying it for years: the barrage of calls, texts, and emails after a mortgage application is exhausting. Some borrowers receive 100+ solicitations within 24 hours. That doesn’t build confidence—it erodes it. And we know this is not how our TE customers run their business.

HPPA represents a rare alignment of regulators, consumer advocates, and lenders themselves. It clears away predatory noise, improves the homebuying experience, and rewards lenders who put relationships at the center of their strategy.

As our Founder & CEO Joe Welu often reminds us, “Trust is the currency of modern financial services.” This law is an accelerant for lenders who understand that principle.

How we're going to help you thrive in a post-HPPA world

We’re not sitting on the sidelines waiting to see how this plays out. Our platform was purpose-built to help lenders engage customers in a way that’s personal, compliant, and built to last. Here’s how we’re making sure you’re ready for March 2026:

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Bottom line: this isn’t a roadblock—it’s an opportunity

Every regulatory change comes with friction. But HPPA isn’t just about compliance—it’s about clarity. It’s about stripping away noise and giving lenders who prioritize relationships a stage to shine.

The lenders who thrive in this new environment won’t be the ones chasing trigger leads. They’ll be the ones investing in trusted, personalized engagement—from first touch through every financial milestone.

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AI has surged from curious novelty to critical business driver faster than any other technology in the digital age. With AI capabilities evolving faster than most financial institutions (FIs) and marketing teams can train for, it’s easy to understand how leveraging AI tools and enterprise solutions effectively can become a frustrating experience for both leadership and marketing pros.

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Focus on using AI to scale—not replace—your team

The AI revolution arrives with ironic timing for FIs: We’ve spent the last decade talking about how to bring back the human touch in a digital-first world. On the surface, it’s easy to think that AI will push us in the opposite direction—breeding more generic, cold, impersonal experiences.

But like other tech tools, the most immediate and significant value will come in using AI as a tool to scale your team’s capabilities. What does that look like in practice?

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Choose the right AI—and connect it to your core systems

Not even three years after ChatGPT opened this AI era, there are thousands of AI tools on the market—including hundreds of marketing-specific AI solutions. Don’t be fooled by the “they’re all the same under the hood” line—the packaging is critical to the usability and time-to-value with these tools, especially when it comes to delivering authentic experiences.

It’s really a classic Goldilocks problem: On one side of the spectrum, the big-name generalist AI platforms that claim to do everything produce generic experiences for your customers. They’re not built for the highly regulated, highly sensitive kinds of engagement and conversations that FIs have with their customers. Plus, it takes a lot of work—and time and money—to get them to work like you need them to.

On the other side of the spectrum are hyper-specialized AI apps built to do one very specific task right out of the box—but lacking the broader capabilities to connect with your core systems and orchestrate entire experiences. This kind of extremely focused functionality ends up creating maddening experiences for customers when they hit the limitations of the tools’ knowledge and capabilities. FIs need AI tools built with enterprise-grade, enterprise-wide capabilities—able to tie into your marketing system of record so they can see and orchestrate the full customer journey.

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Give your AI the inputs that set it up for success

Using GenAI to create content — copy, design, video, etc. — really can feel like magic. But the reality is that it’s inherently derivative. In other words, the outputs are only as good as the inputs — like the classic analytics adage: garbage in, garbage out.

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Best practices for prompt engineering is an article—or an entire book—in itself. But the point is, as incredible as AI is, it’s still a tool — and a tool requires a skilled, intentional user. Cultivating these skills also takes intention. Workers in any role can feel naturally hesitant to be open about their AI use and experimentation; they don’t want to risk looking lazy or replaceable. But to move forward effectively with AI, FIs need to build a culture that encourages that experimentation and sharing of new use cases and best practices.

AI as an engine for authenticity

There’s little doubt that AI will lead to a surge in impersonal, generic banking experiences. That’s not a condemnation of AI; it will be the result of FIs using generic AI tools and generic AI strategies.

That also means that genuine, personalized experiences will become even more differentiated in this incredibly competitive industry. The key is to focus on how to use AI to amplify what we’ve always strived to do in this industry: make real connections and build authentic relationships based on trust.

By focusing on these three principles — using AI to help your team focus on scaling human connections, choosing the right tool and integrating it deeply, and giving your AI the best possible inputs — you’re building a strategy that makes AI an engine for authenticity. The reward isn't just increased efficiency; it's the ability to deliver authentic, brand-consistent experiences at a scale never before possible.

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