Independent Banker - January 2023 - 17

cases to meet customer demands.
" FedNow is obviously going to
change the landscape for us, and I
think it's going to accelerate [digital
development] for community banks, "
Lakoumentas says.
" The trend to watch will be how
quickly adoption and implementation
start to scale in the marketplace
throughout 2023, " shares Nick
Denning, senior vice president of
payments industry relations at
ICBA Bancard. " The time to act is
now, and banks should be in the
process of defining their plans for
instant payments. "
2
Embrace digital
transformation.
The industry has discussed
digital transformation
for years, but 2023 will give way
to actionable shifts. From core
infrastructure modernization to plugand-play
solutions via application
programming interfaces (APIs),
community banks will become
more assertive in identifying ways
to implement solutions that fill
customer voids.
" When it comes to payments,
there are opportunities out in the
market to partner with fintechs, " says
Chris Doyle, president and CEO of
" The trend to watch will be how quickly
[FedNow] adoption and implementation
start to scale in the marketplace
throughout 2023. "
-NICK DENNING, ICBA BANCARD
$2.1 billion-asset Texas First Bank
in Texas City, Texas. " You can ramp
up a revenue source that you've
not had in the past and offset some
of the losses in revenue that we've
experienced or may experience. If
you're not exploring those types of
partnerships, it may be a good idea to
start doing so. "
3
Create frictionless
customer experiences.
A recent Salesforce
study indicates that 88%
of customers say the experience a
company provides is as important
as its product or services.
That means personalized,
seamless digital capabilities will
elevate community banks in
their customers' eyes.
" If I talk about Bank of Tampa's
vision, we want to be great at our
personal relationships and upgrade
our digital capabilities so that we get
as close as we can to being a best-inclass
digital bank, " Lakoumentas says.
" The combination of the two could be
something really powerful. "
Products like contactless payments,
QR codes, tap-to-pay, virtual cards
and other streamlined solutions
increasingly will be deployed by
community banks because they
support the goal of simplifying
payments for the customer,
while keeping the bank central to
Payments resources for community banks
ICBA Bancard has created a Digital Payments Transformation
Report and a soon-to-launch workbook that will help community
banks solidify the next steps in their payment journeys. These
resources aid community banks in putting actionable, integrated
plans in place, which will be vital as payments play a central role
in shaping what's next for community banking. Visit icba.org/
bancard for more information.
the payment.
" A QR code can be converted to an
ACH, a card or FedNow [payment], "
says Tina Giorgio, president and
CEO of ICBA Bancard. " I think the
whole point is going back to the
mantra we've been saying for years:
Frictionless is key to success. The
more frictionless the ability to pay
becomes, the more consumers are
going to migrate to those channels. "
4
Evaluate payments
at the point of sale.
Emerging and traditional
offerings are mixing at the
point of sale, introducing both choice
for the customer and opportunity
for the community bank. " You have
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Independent Banker - January 2023

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