Behind the Vault

While every financial institution has education in its service model, differentiating on financial wellness requires a deliberate and sustained effort. In this episode, we hear from Bree Shellito of Colorado's Ent Credit Union. Bree shares Ent's history and playbook for scaling financial coaching from a small core team to all of their 500,000 members and community touchpoints.

Ent's model for coaching as both a member service and community support

Which 3rd party certifications were most useful to Ent, and how they create their training material

The difference in coaching Ent's own employees vs. their members

How Ent's team is organized, ensuring alignment of incentives and managing the currency or skills across 50 branches and community outreach teams

How Ent customizes their coaching experience and material and then measures success

For more on Ent's programs, visit: https://www.ent.com/education-center/

To join Bree's monthly financial wellness practitioner roundtable, visit here.

In this episode, we hear from Jody Guetter, Chief Marketing Officer at Nymbus, about the lessons learned in consumer engagement from a career in consumer brand marketing, community banking, and fintech. Jody shares insights on the evolution of marketing roles in community banking, the importance of data-driven strategies for growth, and the often missed uses of technology in marketing. She delves into the verticalization strategy, illustrating how narrowing focus can expand market reach and improve service offerings. This episode offers valuable lessons on balancing risk, optimizing growth strategies, and leveraging data and technology for financial institutions.

Key topics from our conversation:

• Transforming marketing from cost center to growth driver
• Using data to understand and reach specific market segments
• How vertical strategies can expand rather than limit growth
• Building effective marketing technology stacks
• Measuring marketing ROI in financial services

Whether you're a bank executive, credit union leader, or marketing professional, this episode offers valuable insights on creating focused growth strategies that deliver results.

For more info:

• Nymbus Labs
• Jody's LinkedIn Profile

Financial institutions worldwide will spend over $9 billion on digital banking solutions this year, yet more than half of these initiatives fail to meet expectations. In this episode of Behind the Vault, we explore why this happens and how community banks and credit unions can build better digital experiences through design thinking.

Key topics from our conversation:

• Why digital transformation often falls short
• How design thinking applies to banking
• Creating low-fidelity prototypes to test ideas
• Balancing customer needs with regulatory requirements
• Building differentiated value in digital experiences

Actionable takeaways from this episode:

• Building systematic customer observation practices
• Creating frameworks for capturing insights
• Evaluating digital initiatives against strategic differentiation
• Practical steps to start implementing today

Whether you're a banking executive, digital transformation leader, or technology decision-maker, this episode provides practical frameworks for making smarter technology investments that truly serve your community.

For more info:

• Design thinking overview:
• Standford d.School toolkit
• Design of Everyday Things:
• Beyond Good
• IDEO Finance Services case studies
• Gartner survey of digital transformation

In this episode, we sit down with Gregg Margosian, Chief Operating Officer of Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions, a company deeply embedded in the world of retail store systems. Gregg provides insight into emerging trends of consumer behavior and how that is impacting payment systems in the US.

Topics discussed:

-Why self-checkout is becoming the norm in retail, with a preference of 85% for shoppers

-How the pandemic reshaped mobile payments and what this means for the future of contactless payments like ApplePay

-The persistence of cash in an increasingly digital world, and the cultural factors driving it

-Potential breakthroughs in mobile payments and whether a major player could revolutionize the industry

-The challenges and opportunities for retailers in the changing payment landscape

Want to learn more about Gregg's work at TGCS? Check out their website HERE.

Think you'd be a great guest on the show? Apply HERE.

How does the age distribution in your community directly impact your institution's risk? In this episode, we talk with Gazi Kabas, co-author of the oft-cited paper Population Aging and Bank Risk Taking, which examines the effects on community banks and credit unions when the average age in their served markets quickly grows older.

Highlights from our discussion:

Why this team of European economists are studying American financial institutions, and how their findings are not just relevant in the U.S.

How demographic changes are impacting the risk profile and lending practices across the country.

A look at the indicators of detailed analysis of loan-to-income ratios provides insights into banks' lending behaviors, highlighting a propensity for increased risk-taking as populations age.

The outsized risks for smaller community FIs.

Some potential ways regulators and individual institutions can mitigate the individual and systemic risks to banking.

The full text of the paper can be found here: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3430184

For more on Dr. Kabas's research and to contact him, visit: https://gkabas.netlify.app/