Alex Jimenez from Backbase Explains How Fintechs May Complement Role of Banks to Improve Financial Services

Alex Jimenez from Backbase has shared key insights with Crowdfund Insider. Alex mainly focused on the advantages of leveraging the latest Fintech technologies and how innovative tech may be used to complement existing banking solutions.

Alex Jimenez serves as the Lead Principal Consultant at Backbase. He has over 28 years of experience in banking in various roles, including strategic planning, payments, digital banking, operations, program and project management, business process improvement, marketing, and voice of the customer.

Before Backbase, Jimenez worked as Managing Principal, Financial Services Consulting at EPAM and as Chief Strategy Officer at two organizations, Extractable, a digital experience consultancy, and Finalytics.ai, an AI journey orchestration fintech firm.

He has been named to several industry influencer lists in the areas of Fintech, Regtech, Blockchain, Insurtech, Innovation, and Digital Marketing. Jimenez was also named Indie Banker of the Month by the ICBA, in December 2015, for his innovative work in banking.

Backbase is on a mission to re-architect banking around the customer. We are the creators of the Engagement Banking Platform – a composable platform that empowers banks to accelerate their digital transformation through progressively modernizing their main customer journeys. From onboarding, to servicing, lending and investing, our platform streamlines every aspect of the customer and employee journey. Pre-integrated with leading core systems and cutting-edge fintechs, it enables institutions to unlock innovation at scale, driving instant value creation.

Industry analysts Forrester, Gartner, Celent, Omdia and IDC continuously recognize Backbase’s category leadership. Over 150 financials around the world have embraced the Backbase Engagement Banking Platform — including AIB, Banorte, Barclays, BIAT, Bank of the Philippine Islands, BDO, BNP Paribas, Banque Saudi Fransi, BRD, Citibank, Discovery Bank, First National Bank, HDFC, Ila Bank, KeyBank, Lloyds Banking Group, NatWest, Navy Federal Credit Union, OTP Group, PostFinance, Raiffeisen, Standard Bank, Saudi National Bank, Société Générale, Truist, and TPBank.

Backbase is a private fintech company, founded in 2003 in Amsterdam (Global HQ), with regional offices in Atlanta (Americas HQ), Cardiff, Dubai, Hyderabad, Kraków, London, Mexico City, Singapore (Asia HQ), Sydney, and Toronto.

We recently connected with Backbase’s Lead Principal Consultant, Alex Jimenez.

Our discussion with Alex Jimenez is shared below.

Crowdfund Insider: How can banks and credit unions ensure that their technology investments contribute to a lasting legacy rather than becoming financial burdens?

Alex Jimenez: It’s a matter of strategy and leadership. Organizations that see technology as an enabler of their strategy, choose their technology partners appropriately, and execute with strategic intent won’t have to worry about technology becoming a burden. Organizations and leaders that chase the latest hot tech vendors or choose technology products to patch up problems will forever have issues with technology as a whole.

Crowdfund Insider: What challenges do banks and credit unions face when breaking down organizational silos, and how can overcoming these barriers impact their long-term success?

Alex Jimenez: I’ll sound like a broken record, I am afraid. The main challenge I’ve seen is a lack of leadership that enables empire-building for each silo. A strong leader with a strong strategy requires cross-functional cooperation. Each functional unit that works toward shared sets of objectives will easily outperform competitors.

Crowdfund Insider: What strategies should banks and credit unions adopt to balance the need for continuous technological advancement with the pressure to deliver immediate business value?

Alex Jimenez: Nearly three-quarters of all digital transformations fail, and many others succeed but do not meet their originally expected results. Part of the story is that once an organization begins a transformation the planning for that transformation isn’t informed by their strategy. In other words, organizations try to do it all as quickly as possible to get a return. That is an obvious mistake. The planning requires defining the steps needed to transform and stage them to meet the strategy of immediate business value, for example.

This is why we at Backbase, talk about progressive modernization. Organizations can look at what will give them the biggest value with the smaller amount of effort, as a way to get started. By the way, that isn’t always what organizations do. Some organizations have the strategy and discipline to start elsewhere. Ultimately, every organization must develop its unique plan.

Crowdfund Insider: In what ways can Fintechs complement the strengths of credit unions and banks, while leveraging their own technological expertise to streamline processes?

 Alex Jimenez: I think the question itself is self-evident. The vast majority of banks and credit unions set their mission around providing financial service solutions for their clients and members – not to have the best technology. For fintech firms who develop and sell their technology to financial institutions (FIs), their mission is to provide the best technology solutions that address the FIs’ needs.

I’ve worked in and with FIs that were excellent in service, products and financial advice. Yet, their tech teams didn’t have access to the most modern technology, resources or know-how. The traditional bank tech vendors have been the main technology providers to FIs, but they’ve also had issues with keeping up with the fast acceleration of technology. This is what fintech firms offer: the latest in technology capabilities – from both tech and people resources.

Crowdfund Insider: How can credit unions and banks leverage data and AI to create a lasting impact on their operations and customer satisfaction?

Alex Jimenez: For as long as I have been in financial services – over 35 years, I’ve heard companies talking about how they have so much customer data. But the biggest issue has been that very few organizations have the appropriate access to this data to make informed decisions in their processes that better help and serve their clients or members.

You don’t “do AI” until you tackle the access to data question. Organizations don’t need to finish their data journey to apply AI. They do, however, need to have a reasonable data set to leverage the technology for things like improving fraud prevention and underwriting practices while delivering real personalization.

In my role, I keep asking organizations to think about how they can provide contextual, bite-sized, automated advice for their clients. At Backbase, that’s the kind of personalization that we believe will move the needle: a journey-based approach to progressive modernization – delivering value while mitigating risk.



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