A Potentially Strong Alliance: Every Bank CEO's Concerns + The Undiscovered Capabilities of Information Technology

After 321 client assignments, dozens of seminars, and lots of private feedback from 241 blogs, I have obtained a very good feel for what is on the minds of bank CEOs every day at 8:00 AM. I never asked them the question because I was too timid. And I didn't commission a survey just to receive politically correct answers. The telling was entirely their idea, and I happen to be a very good listener.What I realized is that the concerns of bank CEOs are quite legitimate, and because of my career-long affiliation with IT, I feel partly to blame that IT hasn't even provided a band-aid to take care of the concerns. So this is my contribution, for about the fourth time, to tell anyone who cares, vendors and CIOs, that there isn't an IT-based solution anywhere in the world that will rectify this situation.

Bank tech vendors, for the most part, produce "factory systems" that process billions of transactions for bankers so that the accounting is accurate and timely. They hit the bulls eye every day 99.9% of the time. When it comes to answering critical questions, however, IT responds with "go figure." Business Intelligence applications offer a promise and mountains of data, but they are a bit short of delivering hard answers.

First, here are the concerns of CEOs, culled from a pretty good memory spanning the past 37 years:

• Credit quality • Next quarter's earnings report • Shareholder value • Customer loyalty • The wrong acquirer • Partial technology (all banks have core, some banks respect the value of ancillary applications, some banks have weak technology throughout, no bank has the perfect technology) • Who is peeking at our customer databases that we didn't authorize? • The bank examiners are where? • Is Ben speaking today? • What are Jamie, Vikram, Brian and John doing today that we should mimic? • What's the bank down the street going to announce in the local paper? • How many class action lawsuits have we received since yesterday's report? • Is Harry Markopolos telling us things we don't want to hear?

Following, in concept, is a viable solution based on these characteristics:

• deliver it [an IT status report] daily starting at 8:00 AM • push it, even if the boss doesn't ask for it • make it bold, even if it's a suspect • don't let go until the boss confirms receipt • identify all major exceptions from the factory work just completed • force accountability of the suspect even if it is based on skimpy evidence • identify the concerns of front-line employees who hear customer complaints • make sure the suits don't whitewash the messages provided by the troops

The actual solution is an IT device. It consists of a laptop, a beeper that will annoy the hell out of even a rock star on a stage of rockets and fire, and then add a blinking light. The laptop will be connected to a dedicated and secure server that is loaded with software that even the CIA hasn't been able to develop. That server will also provide a link to trusted outside agencies that the DOJ will always subpoena at a trial to test the veracity of the CEO. Also included in all links is the lowly bank examiner who every bank employee made fun of as the quintessential nit picker.

There you have it. My final say on what's missing in bank technology.