JULY - 20209completely re-designed their branch strategy to match this, and some have abandoned physical branches altogether. Such shifts tend to be expensive though.On the other hand, waiting to see what happens next, and doing nothing except for "keeping up with the Joneses" in the banking innovation space has its own risks. A similar strategy would be to decide to pursue an innovation strategy that is fully complete and worked out in detail. By the time that happens (if it is even possible), technology has surely changed, and the strategy will need an update. One can imagine this cycle repeating and repeating.For small regional and community banks and credit unions, one answer might be to simply pick a few key innovation battles. Based on the bank's position in the community, customer base, any specialized products or services--a bank can maintain baseline technology, but identify a few key areas that they could invest in, learn from, and also promote (not unimportant). Blockchain, AI/ML, cryptocurrency, predictive analytics, IoT banking, advanced authentication, chatbots, biometrics--some of these technology buzzwords may be useful in some way, but I argue that such activities can be far more effective if used in conjunction with a bank's customer segments or segment goals.AI/ML might be impactful to an agriculturally-focused bank, when combined with tools to help farmers track market pricing trends. Video banking done correctly might be impactful to rural banks finding it hard to be cost-effective with physical branches in all locations. IoT banking might be impactful to seniors (if they can learn to be comfortable with Alexa). Chatbots might be interesting to first-time mortgage customers.Is small regional and community banks and credit unions simply pick one or two areas to invest in, modestly jump into some form of technology innovation, the benefits could be substantial to their organization and customers alike. Benefits for the bank include experience with working actively on technology innovations, the ability to identify what works (and probably more importantly, what doesn't work), and to build some institutional knowledge and momentum. For customers, they'll see the bank working on innovation for them, looking to the future, and ensuring that they both won't be left behind. BCIn survey after survey, customers state that they expect their bank to look to the future, pay attention to trends, and protect their information and their money
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