77% of the Top 50 U.S. Banks Need Help, and I'm Not Talking TARP

It has been 36 years since I had a corporate-type job. I'm now ready to get back into the labor force because the timing is perfect and the need at the top 50 is acute. After living with 45-year-old technologies, large banks have to face the reality of a much-changed world of banking requiring new tech innovations. I'm going to tackle that problem. I have convinced my wife that our CPA will take care of all household business matters and her financial security is intact. But the deal includes no husband for a while. I'll be very busy for the next five years.I have zeroed in on three prospective employers. They are fiserv, Fidelity National Information Services and Jack Henry & Associates, Inc. I don't have a resume, just a proposal and five new suits. What these highly competent bank tech companies have not been able to achieve, I will deliver to them in a bunch of FedEx overnight envelopes containing contracts with some number of the 38 large banks on my prospect list. Who can resist such a deal?

My presentation to these bank tech providers will begin with the facts

Only 23 percent of the top 50 banks currently rely heavily on a bank tech vendor. The top four banks each spend $10 billion a year to operate IT. The top three vendors collect only $10.6 billion to process 10,618 financial institutions. What's wrong with that math?

I finally figured out why FIS is acquiring MV. Together, they will own 92 percent of that space, even though they haven't signed a new deal among the top 50 in decades. Fiserv is the third core systems vendor that has faced challenges in that space, not because they don't have the goods, but mostly because they have a small bank mentality and are intimidated by big city operators. Jack Henry has no ownership in this space, but ironically, they might be the most qualified because they have the goods and their employees have the strongest motivation to get the heck out of Monett to experience life in the fast lanes. Jack Henry and fiserv are inching higher in the size of their new sales, but not yet with the top 50. Jack Henry recently clinched a $13 billion bank in New Orleans and fiserv signed up a $5.2 billion bank in Hawaii. If they had achieved a core sale to a $25 billion bank, that would have put them at the entry level of the top 50 sweet spot. And just to throw more irony into this picture, even though FIS/MV represents the strongest performance in the 141 top tier banks, that apparently wasn't good enough for them to get these two recent banks.

My Requirements I don't want a salary, health insurance, stock options, a title, fancy office, a Prius or a lapel pin. I want a 5 percent commission on the contract value of each signed, sealed and delivered contract. I want an unlimited expense account. I want to report to one man-the CFO. I will build my own collateral material and spend all my time in the field. I'll never travel to Brookfield, Jacksonville or Monett so I can maintain a 24/7-driven dedication to my prospects. I'll have a condo in the New York Plaza and a Learjet at LaGuardia. After I deliver a package to the CFO, he'll have to do the internal selling, while I'll be chasing other hot prospects. Corporate bureaucracy and political correctness will have no place in my activities. Delivery of results will.

Have I defined the quintessential professional salesman yet? If you don't recognize him, it's because you're part of conventional stagnation, still doing things according to a 1965 corporate procedures manual.

If my demands sound too high, ask yourself how a 30 percent increase (equivalent to 12-month highs) in the stocks of three languishing investments would sound to the holders of 430.6 million shares of stock.

It was after that computation that I was awakened to the sweet voice I have heard for 46 years, "Your toast is ready."

On a more serious note: Last week I blogged about six major challenges that bank tech vendors face. But I didn't offer any solutions because there aren't any. This blog suggests a solution for bank tech companies that possess the chutzpah to implement it. The three major players should focus 99 percent of their business development efforts on 1,735 financial institutions ($500 million and above) starting at the top. That's where the greatest need is and that's where the money-spending mentality is. The other 14,639 financial institutions can be handled the way Amazon.com sells books. I view this potential commitment from the three providers as some form of public service. Our country can't handle another stimulus plan for the big banks.