Last month, the aequilibrium digital banking team embarked upon a world tour to discover, connect, and understand the current state of the digital banking market. From Las Vegas to Amsterdam, digital transformation was at the top of everyone’s agenda.
Money 20/20 | Las Vegas
Head of Product and Innovation, Kelly West, kicked off the tour in Las Vegas, NV at the annual Money 20/20 Conference on October 21-24. The event tackled solutions towards a simpler, fairer, faster, and more inclusive financial system for individuals, businesses, and society.
“I gained tremendous perspective on the US market at Money 20/20, including the size and depth of US prospects and the projections for banking systems over the next several years,” said Kelly. “There are approximately 12,000 financial institutions in the US, with about 6000 credit unions. With our recent expansion into the US, we can look forward to helping a large handful of these institutions with our services in digital banking transformation.”
Momentum | Vancouver
Meanwhile, Director of Projects Sherry Smeaton and fellow aequilibrium colleagues Ruxandra, Sergey, and Mike attended Central 1’s Momentum Conference & Trade Show in Vancouver on October 28-30.
Sherry and the team were excited to be part of the official launch of Central 1’s new digital banking platform, Forge. Sherry expressed, “We value our close partnership with Central 1 and we were honored to be invited to witness the unveiling of one of the most exciting new platforms for digital banking. The release of this groundbreaking product means a lot for growth and innovation in this field.”
Forge is a SaaS product built on the Backbase platform by Central 1 with the help of aequilibrium’s senior development team. This is the first time in Canada where the omnichannel banking platform, Backbase, will be served to financial institutions beyond the major banking sector, serving over 250 credit unions and 3.5M members through Central 1 across Canada. “As a proud supporter and partner of Central 1, it was also a great opportunity to meet and connect with all of the credit unions in attendance and speak to them about their challenges and need for digital transformation,” said Sherry.
Backbase Connect | Amsterdam
After an eventful week at Money 20/20 and Momentum, Kelly, Ruxandra, and Mike boarded a plane to Amsterdam for the final leg of the world tour. They were joined by CEO Adrian Moise and Damien from aeqinnovate. Backbase Connect’s annual conference was held near the company’s headquarters in North Holland on October 30-November 1.
aequilibrium GM Ruxandra Aldea reflected on the privilege she had to learn from global digital leaders on stage. “Jerome Frey of Discovery Bank in South Africa was particularly insightful. He shared his company’s journey as a new digital bank emerging from an established insurance company and their winning aspiration to provide products designed to improve the money management of their clients. A “behavioral bank” with the mission to improve behaviors which in turn lead to improved financial outcomes, Discovery Bank holds a niche role in the banking eco-system.”
The team came back to share more success stories, including RBC who discussed their strategies to deliver winning client journeys for both retail and small business. With a customer-first strategy, RBC’s digital journey prioritizes positive first impressions, ensuring every dream is realized, and every experience is delightfully simplified.
“Backbase Connect was really a culmination of everything we learned during the world tour about the state of technology and banking today,” said Kelly upon his return home to Vancouver. “As Backbase is one of our most valuable partners, it was vital for our team to be present with our partners and customers for first-hand discussions about the advances in omnichannel development and the progress being made toward our shared vision for digital banking with Backbase.”
Looking forward
Three cities, three conferences, and dozens of lessons to take home. Listening and engaging with financial institutions from around the world revealed many new insights for the aequilibrium team. To sum it up, banks who embarked upon a digital transformation that led to success had these traits in common:
- They were decisive to break the status-quo and start today
- Thy did not shy away from retakes to achieve the envisioned perfect picture at every step
- Unequivocally, they used support and resources from a well-defined eco-system, including platform vendors, fintech point solutions, and delivery partners with expertise in strategy and implementation
- They consistently realized that while digital transformation spans from the back to front of the office, the customer is always first
The aequilibrium team has returned to Vancouver with new insight and new leads to help businesses accelerate their digital banking potential. They will be attending more conferences and events in the months to come. Follow @aequilibrium on Twitter and LinkedIn for the latest news and updates.
