Fintech-ing the community Although maintaining community values is key at local banks , some form of digitisation is crucial to stay relevant . The conundrum for community banks , therefore , is finding the right fintech partnerships and digital solutions that help the digitisation of both back and front-office systems , while simultaneously maintaining the in-person traits and human customer service qualities that they offer .
“ I think fintech is ultimately in a period where there ’ s a host of exploration and experimentation out there . It ’ s about addressing a niche solution , but then before you know it there are four other competitors trying to do the same thing ,” says Driest .
Finding the right fintech products that best suits F & M is therefore vitally important , and , as Driest puts it : “ Who you choose to partner with is far more important than the API you use .”
He adds : “ API infrastructure and architecture is going to all get standardised
very , very quickly . I think things are moving in that direction . Our core fintech vendor , Jack Henry & Associates , is the right fit for us , with their go-to-market approach in building an open platform .”
Partnering with fintechs is not just about upgrading digitally either , with one of F & M ’ s vendors teaching Driest and the bank “ about lines of business [ they ] didn ’ t fully understand ”. In the same way , F & M taught the fintech “ about the needs and necessary capabilities that the bank can deliver ”. It is in this way Driest feels both fintech and bank “ institutions can level up their knowledge ”.
For F & M Bank , the next stage of evolution sits very much in finding a fintech partnership to deliver deeper market insights , correlating the data points provided by its existing vendors .
“ One of the common things that community banks run into can be something as simple as tracking a customer from the website through online account opening , and then fundamentally back into the core ,
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