Name: Bank of America at Sibos 2023 – The evolution of transaction banking
Uploaded: 2023-10-03T15:08:05.240Z
Duration: 474.23
Description: At the Sibos 2023 conference in Toronto, FinTech Futures sat down with Chris Jameson, Head of Product Management EMEA at Bank of America, to discuss the shifting transaction banking landscape and the growing importance of digitisation in transaction services.

06-Chris Jameson (1).mp4

06-Chris Jameson (1).vtt

ENGLISH

{{00:00:05}}
This is FinTech Futures at

{{00:00:07}}
Sibos and I'm

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joined by Chris Jameson
of Bank of America.

{{00:00:09}}
Chris, thank you so much for taking
the time out to speak with us.

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Just get started.

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Let's give us a quick introduction
to yourself then and your role.

{{00:00:14}}
Yeah, super.

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Thank you so much for having me.

{{00:00:16}}
So I run our transaction banking
product team in Europe for bank of.

{{00:00:20}}
Excellent, excellent.

{{00:00:21}}
So you took part in a panel earlier this
week on the future of transaction banking.

{{00:00:24}}
For those not in attendance, can
you give us a rundown on that and

{{00:00:27}}
some of the key takeaways of it?

{{00:00:28}}
Yeah, of course.

{{00:00:29}}
I spent quite a bit of time talking about
our flagship online banking portal called

{{00:00:35}}
CashPro and kind of the journey and the
path that we've been on there in terms

{{00:00:39}}
of delivering digitization at scale.

{{00:00:41}}
If you go back to 2018 and we
think about CashPro, it was a very

{{00:00:45}}
utilitarian, functional tool it
had some file capability but no

{{00:00:52}}
real mobile capability whatsoever.

{{00:00:54}}
And then a few things came together,
including a phone call from a CEO

{{00:00:58}}
into our CEO, Brian Moynihan, to say
I'm traveling to India with with my

{{00:01:03}}
work, I'm able to pay my gardener.

{{00:01:05}}
on my mobile phone, but I can't
approve payments for my work.

{{00:01:09}}
And so we went through that process
of assessing how we would develop Cash

{{00:01:13}}
Pro Mobile, and also changing the way
that we develop and we build Cash Pro.

{{00:01:18}}
And so we've moved, for example, from four
releases per year, to a much more dynamic

{{00:01:23}}
process of around 50 releases per year.

{{00:01:25}}
So almost one release every week.

{{00:01:29}}
And that then has made a much
more sort of broad, holistic

{{00:01:32}}
platform for clients to use.

{{00:01:35}}
And that's really the kind of
the digitization story that

{{00:01:39}}
we were sharing on the panel.

{{00:01:40}}
Excellent.

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Transaction banking has changed a lot
even just over the last five years.

{{00:01:45}}
Your clients have probably been
having to keep up with that.

{{00:01:48}}
What are their expectations today
from their transaction banking

{{00:01:51}}
experience and how have you
been responding to that as well?

{{00:01:53}}
So I think it is there's
no one size fits all.

{{00:01:57}}
There's a broad spectrum of clients
that we deal with, and some of those

{{00:02:01}}
clients are at the very cutting edge.

{{00:02:02}}
They expect real time, and that's
API connectivity both from a payments

{{00:02:09}}
perspective, but also from an
information reporting perspective.

{{00:02:12}}
But then you've got many large companies,
many large corporates that are further

{{00:02:17}}
behind, let's say, on that spectrum.

{{00:02:18}}
They're set up for batch processing.

{{00:02:21}}
They know who they're going to pay in
three weeks and therefore is an API real

{{00:02:25}}
time solution really needed for them.

{{00:02:26}}
So you'll hear Bank of America talk
a lot with our clients about on time

{{00:02:31}}
treasury rather than real time treasury.

{{00:02:34}}
And so I think that's how we
bring our solutions to clients.

{{00:02:38}}
We work out what their needs are
based on where they are on that

{{00:02:40}}
spectrum or that continuum and then
we bring it to them in that shape.

{{00:02:45}}
Excellent, excellent.

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The rate of digitalization these
days, technology is rapidly changing.

{{00:02:51}}
How would you characterize
the state of digitalization in

{{00:02:54}}
transaction services at the moment?

{{00:02:56}}
I think there's a huge amount going
on even from a regulatory perspective.

{{00:03:00}}
And the banks have to, obviously, keep
up with that regulatory change and the

{{00:03:05}}
technology spend that goes with that.

{{00:03:07}}
with that regulatory change but also
digitization is opening up a lot of

{{00:03:10}}
possibilities especially in you know the
servicing and onboarding side of things

{{00:03:15}}
so for example we're able to onboard
clients much more quickly by offering

{{00:03:20}}
them a self serve self serve testing tool.

{{00:03:25}}
Rather than sending us through a
file, we have people that look at

{{00:03:27}}
that for a few days, work out if it's
valid or not, and then send it back.

{{00:03:32}}
They send something into us, our tool
responds to them immediately, and they

{{00:03:36}}
can therefore onboard more quickly.

{{00:03:38}}
I think we're seeing digitization
start to impact as I say, in the

{{00:03:41}}
onboarding space and also from
a client servicing perspective.

{{00:03:45}}
Excellent.

{{00:03:46}}
Looking at Open Banking countries
like the UK have been at the

{{00:03:49}}
forefront of Open Banking.

{{00:03:51}}
How has that matured, do you
think, recently over the last

{{00:03:54}}
few years, and what are the
challenges there to this continuum?

{{00:03:57}}
Europe is the cradle of open banking
we've seen that then expand beyond

{{00:04:03}}
Europe into other regions across
Asia, North America as well, perhaps

{{00:04:07}}
slightly less developed in, in the U.S.

{{00:04:09}}
in North America.

{{00:04:11}}
But we've been really excited
by a number of the developments.

{{00:04:15}}
We've actually done a number of
partnerships, let's say, one with

{{00:04:20}}
a company called Banked in the UK
who support a pay by bank solution.

{{00:04:27}}
So this is for clients of
ours who are merchants.

{{00:04:30}}
who may have somebody that's trying
to pay online and rather than paying

{{00:04:34}}
by card online or sending a check in
they're able to pay by bank, and so it

{{00:04:38}}
toggles on their phone at the checkout
experience between the merchant site,

{{00:04:44}}
their own bank site, which they trust,
and then it's a bank to bank payment.

{{00:04:48}}
So those kinds of opportunities just
didn't exist before open banking, and

{{00:04:53}}
we're excited that we're doing that
with banked across the UK and Europe,

{{00:04:57}}
and there's a lot of talk in the U.S.

{{00:04:59}}
Now about pay by bank as well.

{{00:05:01}}
So that's an evolving topic.

{{00:05:03}}
Excellent.

{{00:05:04}}
And AI has been one of the big
talking points across industries

{{00:05:07}}
for the last year or so.

{{00:05:09}}
It's another big talking point

{{00:05:10}}
here at Sibos as well.

{{00:05:11}}
How do you see that technology impacting
transaction banking going forward?

{{00:05:14}}
I think it's been a big topic.

{{00:05:21}}
We've got a lot more
fundamental challenges that

{{00:05:23}}
people are facing right now.

{{00:05:25}}
From our perspective, we've
actually seen some great progress

{{00:05:29}}
in the past couple of months.

{{00:05:30}}
And we talked earlier about that CEO that
was traveling and wanted to be able to

{{00:05:37}}
pay on their app or approve on their app.

{{00:05:40}}
And that's all down to the
consumerization of corporate payments.

{{00:05:44}}
Another example of that is
we have a tool in the U.S.

{{00:05:48}}
for consumers called Erica.

{{00:05:50}}
So it's a chat function.

{{00:05:52}}
It is powered by ai.

{{00:05:54}}
We've now brought that from the
consumer bank into the corporate

{{00:05:58}}
bank for for corporate clients.

{{00:06:02}}
So they're able to interact with the
chatbot for simple basic requests

{{00:06:07}}
linked to their corporate accounts.

{{00:06:09}}
And in our first week of going live
with that, we saw 50 percent of all

{{00:06:12}}
of the engagements from those clients
being answered by the, by Erica rather

{{00:06:18}}
than having to go to a live agent.

{{00:06:19}}
So the efficiencies that gives
us and the ability for clients to

{{00:06:22}}
get a quicker answer I think is a
great example of, how AI can work.

{{00:06:28}}
But again there are other very practical.

{{00:06:31}}
and real, tangible issues right
now that we need to solve which

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AI is not always the answer.

{{00:06:39}}
Excellent.

{{00:06:39}}
So just to finish off then, what are you
most excited about then when it comes

{{00:06:42}}
to the future of transaction banking?

{{00:06:44}}
Is there anything else you've
got in the pipeline at Bank of

{{00:06:46}}
America you can tell us about?

{{00:06:47}}
So I do think one of the big discussion
topics here has also been about

{{00:06:50}}
cross border real time payments.

{{00:06:52}}
And in, in the European market
there's talk about SEPA offering one

{{00:06:58}}
leg out transactions to, so that.

{{00:07:00}}
That excites me about the possibility
of joining together different

{{00:07:04}}
real time payment schemes and
the ability to make that happen.

{{00:07:08}}
And then closer to home more
specifically for Bank of America,

{{00:07:11}}
what we're excited about is we've just
launched a new branch in Europe for

{{00:07:14}}
the first time in around a decade.

{{00:07:19}}
We've opened a new branch in
Luxembourg earlier this year.

{{00:07:22}}
At the direct requirement from
our clients, we've seen demand

{{00:07:26}}
for support in Luxembourg.

{{00:07:27}}
And I guess it's not necessarily
about Luxembourg itself as a country,

{{00:07:30}}
but what that shows is we as a bank
continue to invest in the region,

{{00:07:33}}
continue to invest in Europe at a
time when there's quite a lot of

{{00:07:36}}
retrenchment in, the banking sector.

{{00:07:39}}
We're very excited about that
and the, path that takes us down.

{{00:07:43}}
Excellent.

{{00:07:43}}


{{00:07:43}}
Thank you so much again, Chris,
for taking the time out to speak.

{{00:07:45}}
It's been a pleasure.

{{00:07:46}}
Pleasure.

{{00:07:47}}
Thank you.

{{00:07:47}}
Thanks.

joined by Chris Jameson
of Bank of America.

Chris, thank you so much for taking
the time out to speak with us.

Let's give us a quick introduction
to yourself then and your role.

So I run our transaction banking
product team in Europe for bank of.

So you took part in a panel earlier this
week on the future of transaction banking.

For those not in attendance, can
you give us a rundown on that and

I spent quite a bit of time talking about
our flagship online banking portal called

CashPro and kind of the journey and the
path that we've been on there in terms

If you go back to 2018 and we
think about CashPro, it was a very

utilitarian, functional tool it
had some file capability but no

And then a few things came together,
including a phone call from a CEO

into our CEO, Brian Moynihan, to say
I'm traveling to India with with my

on my mobile phone, but I can't
approve payments for my work.

And so we went through that process
of assessing how we would develop Cash

Pro Mobile, and also changing the way
that we develop and we build Cash Pro.

And so we've moved, for example, from four
releases per year, to a much more dynamic

And that then has made a much
more sort of broad, holistic

And that's really the kind of
the digitization story that

Transaction banking has changed a lot
even just over the last five years.

Your clients have probably been
having to keep up with that.

What are their expectations today
from their transaction banking

experience and how have you
been responding to that as well?

So I think it is there's
no one size fits all.

There's a broad spectrum of clients
that we deal with, and some of those

They expect real time, and that's
API connectivity both from a payments

perspective, but also from an
information reporting perspective.

But then you've got many large companies,
many large corporates that are further

They know who they're going to pay in
three weeks and therefore is an API real

So you'll hear Bank of America talk
a lot with our clients about on time

And so I think that's how we
bring our solutions to clients.

We work out what their needs are
based on where they are on that

spectrum or that continuum and then
we bring it to them in that shape.

The rate of digitalization these
days, technology is rapidly changing.

How would you characterize
the state of digitalization in

I think there's a huge amount going
on even from a regulatory perspective.

And the banks have to, obviously, keep
up with that regulatory change and the

with that regulatory change but also
digitization is opening up a lot of

possibilities especially in you know the
servicing and onboarding side of things

so for example we're able to onboard
clients much more quickly by offering

them a self serve self serve testing tool.

Rather than sending us through a
file, we have people that look at

that for a few days, work out if it's
valid or not, and then send it back.

They send something into us, our tool
responds to them immediately, and they

I think we're seeing digitization
start to impact as I say, in the

onboarding space and also from
a client servicing perspective.

Looking at Open Banking countries
like the UK have been at the

How has that matured, do you
think, recently over the last

few years, and what are the
challenges there to this continuum?

Europe is the cradle of open banking
we've seen that then expand beyond

Europe into other regions across
Asia, North America as well, perhaps

But we've been really excited
by a number of the developments.

We've actually done a number of
partnerships, let's say, one with

a company called Banked in the UK
who support a pay by bank solution.

So this is for clients of
ours who are merchants.

who may have somebody that's trying
to pay online and rather than paying

by card online or sending a check in
they're able to pay by bank, and so it

toggles on their phone at the checkout
experience between the merchant site,

their own bank site, which they trust,
and then it's a bank to bank payment.

So those kinds of opportunities just
didn't exist before open banking, and

we're excited that we're doing that
with banked across the UK and Europe,

And AI has been one of the big
talking points across industries

How do you see that technology impacting
transaction banking going forward?

We've got a lot more
fundamental challenges that

FinTech Futures

Expert Insight

At the Sibos 2023 conference in Toronto, FinTech Futures sat down with Chris Jameson, Head of Product Management EMEA at Bank of America, to discuss the shifting transaction banking landscape and the growing importance of digitisation in transaction services.