3 Takeaways From the CEB TowerGroup Financial Services Technology Conference

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The CEB TowerGroup Financial Services technology conference, held last week in Boston, featured dozens of speakers and hundreds of attendees gathering to discuss the latest trends and issues in the industry. While much was discussed, Bank Systems & Technology highlights three key takeaways from the event.

1. Innovation

In the highly mobile, ever-evolving technological world we live in, banks must be innovating or risk alienating consumers. This message was driven home by Mark Jamison, managing vice president of Capital One Labs, a small division of the larger bank that is tasked with developing innovative digital products and "re-imagining the way customers interact with their money."

Jamison noted how the advent of smart mobile devices have been a catalyst for "creative destruction," and referenced several industries that have been greatly marginalized by recent technological advances, including travel agencies, atlas publishers and camera makers. "There have been major industries eaten up by apps," he said, adding, "Of the original Fortune 500 list [first published in 1955] less than 15 percent still exist today."

This warning is especially pertinent for banks, he noted, who face increased competition in some aspects from nontraditional competitors, such as Google, PayPal, Bitcoin and Green Dot. "I think they're more of a threat that many people realize," he added.

Jamison advised banks to incorporate characteristics that are usually indicative of the most technologically innovative companies, such as speed and agility, collaboration and dative design.

Bryan Yurcan is associate editor for Bank Systems and Technology. He has worked in various editorial capacities for newspapers and magazines for the past 8 years. After beginning his career as a municipal and courts reporter for daily newspapers in upstate New York, Bryan has ... View Full Bio

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