ABA Banking Journal - September 2010 - (Page 26)
Cover story | community bank of the future: what will it look like? relevant Rapid changes in how customers bank threaten traditional banking. It doesn’t have to be that way, say three community bankers and Brett King, author of “BANK 2.0” by steve cocheo, executive editor eff Smith has as much invested in the status quo of community banking as any other CEO. He’s been with $826 million-assets Ohio Valley Bank, Gallipolis, for nearly 38 years, and now serves as chairman and CEO. He’s a strong believer in community banking. Yet Smith has been wrestling with a conundrum: Will banking as practiced by Ohio Valley Bank and thousands of others remain relevant? He’s had some recent matters bring that to mind. First, his own behavior. “I am certainly, by no means, a technocrat,” said Smith. “But I recently realized that, while I’m in a bank every day, I do not conduct my own banking at the bank. I do my banking on the internet, using our online banking service, from home.” Second, a conversation with his 24-year-old daughter. “She’s the daughter of a banker, and, at her age, she’s written three checks in her life,” says Smith. “And she recently commented to me, ‘Dad, checks are archaic’.” Author Brett King also has a daughter, age 10. “She’s a ‘digital native’,” says King, who is also a FUTURE OF COMMUNITY BANKING SERIES This is the latest in a series of print and online articles concerning the future of the community bank. Read more about the series online at http://tinyurl.com/36twsnd. Also, a podcast of the full discussion summarized here will be available on www.ababj.com in mid-September 26 | ABA BANKING JOURNAL | september 2010 Keep your bank consultant and futurist. “She will never in her life write a check.” Now, if this was a matter only of checking, one could shrug. Debit cards and online billpay have been replacing checks for years. But that’s only part of what’s going on. Rapid technological advancement has been reshaping what retail and business customers want from their banks. King summed up the challenge recently in his book “BANK 2.0: How Customer Behaviour And Technology Will Change The Future Of Financial Services”: “A staggering 90% of daily transactions are executed electronically today. Institutions that hold on to the belief that physical branches remain at the core of what the brand does, will not adapt easily to the customer of tomorrow who rarely visits a branch or the customer who sees no need for an over-the-counter transaction with cash or checks. Those who still classify the internet, ATM, and iPhone applications as ‘alternative’ channels will be playing catch up for the next decade, while intermediaries will increasingly capture niche service opportunities.… “Understand one thing. Customers are not going back to the old ways of banking. They are moving forward. If you are not moving forward with them, then they will pass right by you—at warp speed.” King speaks of the need for banks to become “channel agnostics,” meaning that “every channel
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