Conference Round-Up: Autobooks at AOBA 2020

The Autobooks team recently attended the 2020 Acquire or Be Acquired conference in Phoenix, Arizona from January 26-28. The annual conference, now in its 26th year, helps bank CEOs, executives and board members plan for what's ahead. This covers everything from strategic discussions around successful mergers, organic growth and building your bank's value to in-depth examinations of digital strategies and innovations. AOBA is a must-attend for all financial institutions looking to grow.

This year's conference concluded with a panel titled "Lessons from the Past and Preparing for the Future" moderated by Bank Director CEO Al Dominick. On the panel were Derik Sutton - VP of Product & Experience at Autobooks, David Ness - VP of Innovation and R&D at US Bank, and  David Koscheski - Director of Industry Solutions, Financial Services at Microsoft.

Highlights from the Panel:

David Ness shared that US Bank evaluated thousands of fintechs in 2019, and performed due diligence on 976! The framework used by David and the team at US Bank accounts for measuring technology, market opportunity, and culture. 

David Koscheski added that technology should be an enabler of the financial institution, and should not just be delegated to IT. Microsoft works with hundreds of financial institutions each year to help better match technology solutions to line of business problems. 

Derik Sutton offered up the advice for financial institutions to make it a priority to better understand fintech in the boardroom and on the executive team. This requires executives to "understand the language of technology."

Additional highlights from the conference:

Kevin Tweddle, Senior Executive Vice President, Community Banking Solutions and COO at ICBA offered the following:

In year's past there may only be one or two sessions on fintech at this conference, now it's 40% of the agenda. It's becoming more clear that most of the time banks should partner with fintech, leveraging what they bring to the table to act as a force multiplier to what the banks currently provide. 

When asked about small business banking, Kevin stated that when it comes to the digital channel business banking was less mature than consumer. Adding that any investment in making small business banking better is really an investment in the local community.

And the quote of the event came from a board member of a community bank. When asked about fintech he said, "the evolution of fintech at our bank is night and day from years past. We are becoming much more partner friendly. Case in point, our CEO recently said, "Oh, fintech vendors can actually be revenue drivers!"

Yep -- we think that about sums it up!