Name: Coastal Community Bank at FinovateSpring 2023 – Banking in the metaverse
Uploaded: 2023-06-06T11:59:19.927Z
Duration: 386.72
Description: At the FinovateSpring 2023 conference in San Francisco, FinTech Futures sat down with Barb MacLean, SVP, head of technology operations and implementation at Coastal Community Bank, to discuss whether the metaverse is still seen as a key area of opportunity for banks and the technology’s potential to transform the future of financial services.

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English

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I'm head of technology at

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Coastal Community Bank.

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We're community bank based in Everett,

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Washington and also serving a bunch of

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customers across the country through

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our banking as a service partners.

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Well I think the answer is,

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a wishy-washy "it depends".

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This feels like 1995 all over

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again where people are like, "Hey,

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there's this new shiny thing, and

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should we be a part of it or not?

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Why would I want a webpage?

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What on earth would I even do with it?"

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If you're still asking yourself those

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kind of existential questions, you

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probably don't yet have really a

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theory proposed about how am I gonna

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interact with my customers differently?

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So I would start there before trying to

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get to the solution of how to do that.

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It's all about thinking, where can I go

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and meet my customers where they are,

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and how can I drive a different kind of

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engagement that's meaningful to them?

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That's what resonates with us.

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But I would encourage all financial

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institutions to start back at

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that point with the customer.

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And where can you meet them

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to drive better engagement?

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Well I think you need to consider what

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kind of internal capabilities do you have?

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Do you have any partners in your ecosystem

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that are particularly strong in this area?

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Do you even know really how to think

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about the mindset of the customer?

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Again, if you're kind of starting

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at ground zero there, you probably

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want to reset your thinking.

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Focus on the customer first versus the

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outcome, and actually you'll end up

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driving yourself to the right space.

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I think tools are making this much more

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accessible than they ever used to be.

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So don't be afraid to experiment.

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Make sure that you're designing

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those in a low risk way, right?

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We're all risk averse bankers after

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all, but don't be afraid of that.

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I can see a couple things happening

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because, you know, there's been

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some tectonic shifts, not only in

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the financial services vertical,

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but in the technology industry as

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a whole in the last six months.

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So some are gonna get distracted by the

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shiny new generative AI object and throw

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all of their investment behind that.

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So I think that's going to be potentially

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a distraction for a few folks that

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maybe were focused more on the tool

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than the outcome of engagement.

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And I also think some are going to be

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concerned about where they're putting

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in their investment dollars, rightly so,

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and maybe pausing or canceling projects.

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We see it probably in the flip

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side, double down and, you

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know, now's the time to build.

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If I can borrow some

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famous language there.

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That's what it's all about

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at the end of the day.

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For us though, we see it as

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provide value and the value will

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eventually come back to you.

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And I think customers are wise enough to

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sniff out if you've got some sketchy way

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that you're trying to make money off the

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back of them, they will not be interested.

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So you need to be focused on the

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customer understanding how they engage.

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If you can provide value in that

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experience the money will come back

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to you eventually in that kind of

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shared, valued trusted ecosystem.

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Those points are really important to us.

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I think it's not the single definition.

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There's no one metaverse to rule them all.

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You know, I think you need to experiment

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with the ones that will touch the

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community that's important to you.

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How can you bring that place of

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engagement closer to them in the places

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that they're going to spend their time?

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We're fundamentally all competing for that

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mindshare and time in the mind with the

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likes of Netflix or, you know, Xbox Live.

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So you need to be designing it in

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a way that it's interesting enough

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for the customers to come back.

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But I also don't think that we should

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all be chasing vanity metrics, like

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I've got all of this engagement.

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What difference have you made in their

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lives through that engagement, and what

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can you understand about them as they

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choose to give you more information

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about them and their own situation?

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Those are the things that

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are actually important.

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Well this one's all about people as well.

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You know, that's one of the fundamental

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facts about digital transformation.

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The technology part is

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usually relatively easy.

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If you're not working with your

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teams and making sure that they can

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see a better way to get work done, a

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better way to serve your customers,

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you've lost that game from the start.

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We have to change how people are

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thinking, how they're choosing to

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work removing the toil of their

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day-to-day life and showing them a

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better path to serve those customers.

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If you can do that, You'll be successful

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in your digital transformation efforts?

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Well, considering we're standing here at

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Finovate and I've seen some of the demos

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inside, it would be really easy for me to

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say generative AI or some kind of Chat GPT

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but I'm actually gonna go back to RegTech.

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We're a highly regulated industry.

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After all, I think we can be doing much

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better to respond to the really needed

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oversight that those bodies are trying

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to give us and work better with them.

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And if we can do a better job at that,

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we'll be doing the thing that we need

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to do, which is caring for the data

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that the customers entrust with us.

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It was never our data to start with.

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And so I would say, you know, look to

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the vendors that are playing in that

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reg tech space, cuz I actually find

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that super fascinating and interesting.

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They're solving a really

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good problem there.

kind of internal capabilities do you have?

Do you have any partners in your ecosystem

that are particularly strong in this area?

So I think that's going to be potentially

back of them, they will not be interested.

There's no one metaverse to rule them all.

We're fundamentally all competing for that

likes of Netflix or, you know, Xbox Live.

FinTech Futures

Expert Insight

At the FinovateSpring 2023 conference in San Francisco, FinTech Futures sat down with Barb MacLean, SVP, head of technology operations and implementation at Coastal Community Bank, to discuss whether the metaverse is still seen as a key area of opportunity for banks and the technology’s potential to transform the future of financial services.