The world around us is in constant flux, and the last three years have made that clearer than ever. As the world changes, so does the technology we use to interact with it – a fact we highlighted during 2022’s Technology Leadership Conference. Wolf & Company brought together financial institution experts, executives, and thought leaders to discuss the recent transformations in banking and fintechs alike, and what the future might hold.
Wolf’s Scott Goodwin, Principal, kicked us off with an in-depth talk on Capitalizing on Crypto: Opportunities & Risks for Bankers. Scott provided a detailed breakdown of crypto terminology and how the blockchain functions, leading into an analysis of where the market stands now, and how bankers could take advantage of the growing momentum and interest in in crypto. Notably, Scott suggests that banks will need to adapt to younger generations’ interest in seeing crypto services, or else they may lose future customers.
“Crypto is in its infancy and the opportunities are going to be significant, but you can’t wait to act.”
– Scott Goodwin, Principal, Wolf & Company
Kate Megraw, CIO of Webster Five, and Traci Michel, COO of Metro Credit Union, headed up a panel moderated by Wolf’s Ryan Rodrigue, Principal, covering how IT (information technology) leaders are managing tech integration, people, and business processes in a rapidly changing environment. Both Kate and Traci pointed out that people management and the development of business processes will be two of the biggest factors in any organization’s success when it comes to IT.
“The technology isn’t the driver of change, it’s actually the business processes.”
– Kate Megraw, CIO, Webster Five
Attendees were treated to several other panels and sessions, including a discussion on Avoiding Costly Pitfalls in Your Fintech Relationships as well as a panel on How Open Banking is Changing the Landscape.
Ryan Rodrigue and Greg Woolf, CEO of FiVerity, provided some fascinating insight into a new collaborative effort against fraud in financial crime entitled Collaboration in the Fight Against Fraud. Ryan and Greg discussed how they came together for the FDIC/FinCEN tech sprint to work out an innovative new way to support digital identity verification. Notably, Ryan and Greg are heading up a pilot effort to incorporate an information sharing system that would allow banks to encrypt and provide fraud intelligence to one another, allowing for cross-referencing of potential fraudsters. The pilot is open to any interested financial institutions at www.fiverity.com/dfn-application.
“It’s a collaborative solution for a community problem. … The idea is to have a framework and an architecture, and to really invite the industry to build on it in any way that makes sense.”
– Ryan Rodrigue, Principal, Wolf & Company
Wolf & Company also highlighted the efforts of growing fintech innovators within the industry. Innovators at Posh Technologies, Quiltt, KlariVis, and Qualtik were in attendance, and gave overviews of their unique technologies and how they can service financial institutions.
As always, our goal at the Technology Leadership Conference was to bring experts together for a day of networking, thought leadership, and innovation. We were thrilled to see such high energy in the room this year as new connections were formed, and exciting ideas were discussed both amongst our panelists and our attendees. We’re looking forward to seeing everyone return in 2023!
