Adaptability key to survival, panel agrees

The evolution of the banking industry accelerated during the pandemic and bankers need to be prepared to keep up if they wish to be successful, concurred a panel of bankers and experts who addressed the Acquire or Be Acquired conference Monday in Phoenix.

“Five years of growth happened during the first year of the pandemic,” commented Sanjay Sakhrani of the investment banking firm Keefe, Bruyette & Woods. The banking industry made significant strides toward digitization in 2020 and 2021, but it has a long way to go to secure its future, he said.

Sakhrani encouraged bankers to focus on growth. “The capital markets are hungry for growth,” he commented. KBW’s Michael Perito agreed, commenting that investors are focused on growth. “Growth is a proxy for relevance in the future,” he said.

“It is imperative that bankers become fluent in the language of their customers,” said Dan Sheehan, board chair and CEO of Professional Bank, a $2.6 billion institution in Coral Gables, Fla. “Drive-thrus and branching seem like something out of the era of the horse and buggy. The preferences of customers are changing; the generational shift is real.”

Sakhrani encouraged bankers to build communities and give those communities digital banking options. “What does your community want?” he encouraged the audience to consider. “How are you solving for their problems? You have to be nimble and play to your strengths.”

Sheehan said his team at Professional Bank is focusing on “reducing friction for our customers.” He talked about using digital tools to enhance the personal experience customers have in the bank branch.

The panel agreed that banks need to pay attention to the digital payments system. It was noted, for example, that Venmo has four times the number of users of any of the big banks, including Bank of America and Wells Fargo. Sheehan said at Professional Bank he anticipates the way his employees interact with customers will change more in the next three years than it has in the last fifty years.