Brian Stone 0:03
Hello, and welcome to the buzz of bank automation news podcast. My name is Brian stone, and I’m the Associate Editor at Bank automation news. Joining me today is for Reetika Grewal, Executive Vice President and head of digital transformation at Wells Fargo. Reetika discusses what banks can do to improve customer experiences in the year ahead. emerging industry trends and what Wells Fargo has planned for 2023.Reetika Grewal 0:28
My focus is really on companies that are, you know, roughly 10 million in revenue all the way up in providing them that with the tools that they need a crop to run their business, and it may be, you know, access to data and the ability to move money via a portal or mobile or it may be API’s that are used to run their business or drive some process efficiencies and things like that. So thinking about that, right, so first, just thinking first about the portal space, right. So um, when you think about companies that range, with that giant range to solve for, like, we really spent a lot of time and getting ourselves sort of in the hearts and minds of our customers to make sure that we’re solving problems for them. And the problems really are around bringing together the products and services and insights that they need to run their business. And that and it’s really sort of with that consumer like experience. So when you think about sort of banking as a whole, it’s, it’s really around building those experiences in a really streamlined way that helps to drive self service as much as possible to help to bring together insights to help companies in this case, manage their business better. And, and, and, you know, and further, right, like, we want to make sure that we’re helping companies down that self service journey, and also to discover what products and services or tools that they’re not using to that will drive drive the efficiencies that they’re looking for. And I would say it’s kind of the same story on the with the API’s, right. And I think the trends around looking for ways to automate, drive automation into companies, processes and systems is going to persist right into 2023. And, you know, just looking and really trying to find opportunities to increase connectivity, increase management of you know, reconciliation is pulling experiences closer into their product is going to persist in, you know, we see within the the API space, a few different scenarios that end up playing out, which again, right, like I think 2023 is, is going to accelerate some of that, right, the idea of embedded payments, embedded finance, embedded banking, right like that. Our tools that we’ve been building, in conjunction with our, you know, our business partners is really, to help companies figure out how to leverage, you know, the infrastructure that we provide, in order for them to, you know, either streamlining some processes that they’ve got, right, like, so if you think about embedded banking, embedded finance in a couple of different scenarios, like, is it embedded in the tools that they’re using to run their business, aka an ERP? Or is it embedded in the product, they’re releasing out to their customers? Right, if they’re a company that’s got a consumer front end, how do we leverage those API’s to give them their customers a great experience? And then the other part of that is, right, like there’s this embedded thing. And then there’s really like, looking to API’s to drive like, just deep process inefficiencies, right? Is there an API that we can provide that will give them the ability to do reconciliation or something better, right, like when you thinking about sort of a business scope, those are some of the things that matter. And so we build across the different kinds of use cases. And again, like I think the momentum around those different examples I gave is, is gonna continue to pick up in 2023.Brian Stone 5:02
Open banking is a hot topic that we at Bank automation news have touched on this year and are going to obviously continue to cover heading into next year. Why do you think it’s important to transition to a horizontal architecture

Reetika Grewal 5:19
data, it is really the sort of the crux of open banking, right? It’s like being able to use data in a variety of ways and owning data and being able for customer to own their data. Right. And so, the one of the ways that we think about it is just sort of, to grounded in a little bit more of a practical example is we just, you know, launched a new portal experience called Wells Fargo Vantage. And within that experience, you know, we are pulling from, obviously, some of the products and services that we have internally, but also going out and leveraging partners. And right, this idea of open banking, and the ability to, you know, keep data, you know, where it needs to be, to enable experiences is, is what, you know, that horizontal approach will allow us to do, it’s really around solving for all the different use cases that a client may have, and pulling the right data in, to support it. So, you know, like, we talk about that a little bit as banking as a platform. And so, you know, we’re, we’re tracking all the regulations and to closely to see, you know, what the implications will be

Brian Stone 6:45
another hot topic that we covered a lot this year, specifically in our podcasts is customer experience, and what banks are doing to, you know, both augment and I guess, morph their customer experience to more of what their needs and or demands are, what do you see the next step being, as far as, you know, catering to those customers? Because, you know, there are reports being published all the time that say that customers are changing banks, if they don’t feel like, say, the mobile experience is where they want it to be. So what do you see sort of in that space moving forward?

Reetika Grewal 7:21
Ya know, this is a big, big part of how we are building our digital tools, right? So I joined the bank about a year and a half ago, and one of the first things that I set out for the team to do is to build a deep understanding of our clients. Right. So, you know, when you’re solving for a range of clients, as big as, as we have, right, if you think, you know, 10 million in revenue up to a trillion or whatever, in revenue, there’s a wide a wide variety, and how do you make sure that you’re thinking about your customers, their their needs, their pain points, what problems are you solving for them. And so we went on this, and it’s an ongoing book, a work around creating these personas, to represent the different types of clients. And then the one thing that is so fascinating about the commercial banking space is that these clients are so dynamic, so nothing is ever static. And so, you know, in doing that deep exploration, you know, it kind of led to this brand new platform that we announced called Wells Fargo Vantage in this blank, brand new, like architecture, to drive this platform, right. So it’s, it’s all kind of like new, new, new new product, new platform, all powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning from the get go, so that we could learn along with our clients deliver personalized experiences, and be mindful of their growth trajectory. So it’s, it’s very much the direction that we’re going right? Like, how do we create these consumer like experiences for our clients that are, you know, in the commercial side, at the end of the day, they are consumers, and they want, you know, easy navigation, transparency, you know, easy fulfillment, all those things, and it shouldn’t be different in the commercial space. So, you know, we’ve done you know, this, this launch of the Vantage portal is under a year, right? Like we got it built in under a year. And we built it in a really, you know, obviously, agile is one of them, right? Like we just it was agile from the get go. And we, you know, worked super closely with our partners and our technology team to build in a new way. And so we’ve used some technology called micro front ends that allow us to deliver kind of little widgets of content and layering on personalization on top of it so you can and sort of right size those widgets based on who is coming in and using your portal.

Brian Stone 10:08
So you talked about the deep dive that Wells Fargo had kind of done on their customers and how it was dynamic. What was maybe the most unexpected or surprising thing you learned while doing sort of that research?

Reetika Grewal 10:20
You know, I think, you know, I think we’re up to 19 personas right now. And so I think that the level of like, I think, last year, we built out probably 12. And we keep adding on it. And so I think that, you know, it’s just how do we get to that right level of focus on the different types of customers we have? That’s, that’s been very interesting. And then, right, like the other part of, you know, another part of my team, which is focused on the API side, like we built personas for API’s, right? Like those, it’s a different kind of clients, that comes to us, it’s, you know, a developer versus an accountant didn’t how do we make sure that we’re, you know, have them in our hearts and minds as we’re developing the right solutions for them to go in and use our or gateway tools. And so I think the the breadth of the personas is something that was probably surprising that you know, that we just we keep finding pockets where we we just need to go deeper.

Brian Stone 11:30
So I wanted to talk a little bit more. I know, you touched on Vantage, but banking as a platform, what are you kind of foreseeing that, I guess, next evolution being heading into next year?

Reetika Grewal 11:44
Yeah, yeah, I mean, for us, this vantage platform is really a way for us to pull in the sort of the best in class products and services in a much more streamlined way. So we can think about, right, like when we partner with companies fintechs or establish Tech’s or, you know, companies that we can kind of pull the best experiences forward. And we can do it in a much more quick way. So this platform that we launched really is allowing us to do that kind of as a service and say, like, how do we consume API’s, from external partners to deliver the right experiences to our customers. And so we’ve got kind of the the base of that built out now and you know, are looking for more partnership opportunities, and to really the ones that we have really kind of streamline them as well.

Brian Stone 12:45
What sort of emerging industry trends are you seeing, you know, moving forward into 2023?

Reetika Grewal 12:52
A couple a couple of things, I’d say, one is Client Experience matters, and it matters more and more every day. And and I think that, you know, historically, consumer has been driving a lot of that work. And, you know, 2023 is really just an even deeper dive into the commercial space, and the corporate and investment banking space and the small business data space is, you know, like, how do we deliver those great kinds of products and services to them to really again, like help them run their business at the end of the day, we’re there to support them. I think that embedded finance, I know, there’s been a lot of conversation about it already. But I think, you know, taking that in expanding some of the use cases, is going to be a big part of 2023, looking at how to, you know, contextualize different products and services, in other experiences. You know, like, I talked about our API gateway, so like, leveraging that to drive some of those embedded finance experiences. And, yeah, I mean, I think the last part of it is, is probably around mobile. I mean, I think mobile has been less, less. It’s obviously used in the commercial space, but probably less than, you know, just even our own volumes, like the majority of the experiences are driven out of our main portal, but mobile is going to pick up in 2023, in terms of one of the major tools that our companies are using to drive their business forward. Last thing I would say is just right, the talk a little bit more about like the artificial intelligence aspect of it. Right is just the making sure that you’re embedding our artificial intelligence and machine learning from the get go as opposed to something that’s kind of trailing along means, you know that you You have the opportunity to think about that technology in every use case. And so, you know, when we think about Wells Fargo Vantage, and the fact that it was sort of new platform, new technology, all built on a foundation of artificial intelligence and machine learning, we’re, you know, excited about like all the future builds that we can bring to our clients. You know, with that in mind, pulling together insights for their business insights into the market, you know, etc, to help them to help them focus on you know, what they love, which is, you know, running their business, and giving them being sort of that true digital partner they need.

Brian Stone 15:45
You’ve been listening to the buzz of bank automation news podcast, please follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn. And as a reminder, you can rate this podcast on your platform of choice, be sure to visit us at Bank automation news.com

Brian Stone 0:03
Hello, and welcome to the buzz of bank automation news podcast. My name is Brian stone, and I’m the Associate Editor at Bank automation news. Joining me today is for Reetika Grewal, Executive Vice President and head of digital transformation at Wells Fargo. Reetika discusses what banks can do to improve customer experiences in the year ahead. emerging industry trends and what Wells Fargo has planned for 2023.Reetika Grewal 0:28
My focus is really on companies that are, you know, roughly 10 million in revenue all the way up in providing them that with the tools that they need a crop to run their business, and it may be, you know, access to data and the ability to move money via a portal or mobile or it may be API’s that are used to run their business or drive some process efficiencies and things like that. So thinking about that, right, so first, just thinking first about the portal space, right. So um, when you think about companies that range, with that giant range to solve for, like, we really spent a lot of time and getting ourselves sort of in the hearts and minds of our customers to make sure that we’re solving problems for them. And the problems really are around bringing together the products and services and insights that they need to run their business. And that and it’s really sort of with that consumer like experience. So when you think about sort of banking as a whole, it’s, it’s really around building those experiences in a really streamlined way that helps to drive self service as much as possible to help to bring together insights to help companies in this case, manage their business better. And, and, and, you know, and further, right, like, we want to make sure that we’re helping companies down that self service journey, and also to discover what products and services or tools that they’re not using to that will drive drive the efficiencies that they’re looking for. And I would say it’s kind of the same story on the with the API’s, right. And I think the trends around looking for ways to automate, drive automation into companies, processes and systems is going to persist right into 2023. And, you know, just looking and really trying to find opportunities to increase connectivity, increase management of you know, reconciliation is pulling experiences closer into their product is going to persist in, you know, we see within the the API space, a few different scenarios that end up playing out, which again, right, like I think 2023 is, is going to accelerate some of that, right, the idea of embedded payments, embedded finance, embedded banking, right like that. Our tools that we’ve been building, in conjunction with our, you know, our business partners is really, to help companies figure out how to leverage, you know, the infrastructure that we provide, in order for them to, you know, either streamlining some processes that they’ve got, right, like, so if you think about embedded banking, embedded finance in a couple of different scenarios, like, is it embedded in the tools that they’re using to run their business, aka an ERP? Or is it embedded in the product, they’re releasing out to their customers? Right, if they’re a company that’s got a consumer front end, how do we leverage those API’s to give them their customers a great experience? And then the other part of that is, right, like there’s this embedded thing. And then there’s really like, looking to API’s to drive like, just deep process inefficiencies, right? Is there an API that we can provide that will give them the ability to do reconciliation or something better, right, like when you thinking about sort of a business scope, those are some of the things that matter. And so we build across the different kinds of use cases. And again, like I think the momentum around those different examples I gave is, is gonna continue to pick up in 2023.Brian Stone 5:02
Open banking is a hot topic that we at Bank automation news have touched on this year and are going to obviously continue to cover heading into next year. Why do you think it’s important to transition to a horizontal architecture

Reetika Grewal 5:19
data, it is really the sort of the crux of open banking, right? It’s like being able to use data in a variety of ways and owning data and being able for customer to own their data. Right. And so, the one of the ways that we think about it is just sort of, to grounded in a little bit more of a practical example is we just, you know, launched a new portal experience called Wells Fargo Vantage. And within that experience, you know, we are pulling from, obviously, some of the products and services that we have internally, but also going out and leveraging partners. And right, this idea of open banking, and the ability to, you know, keep data, you know, where it needs to be, to enable experiences is, is what, you know, that horizontal approach will allow us to do, it’s really around solving for all the different use cases that a client may have, and pulling the right data in, to support it. So, you know, like, we talk about that a little bit as banking as a platform. And so, you know, we’re, we’re tracking all the regulations and to closely to see, you know, what the implications will be

Brian Stone 6:45
another hot topic that we covered a lot this year, specifically in our podcasts is customer experience, and what banks are doing to, you know, both augment and I guess, morph their customer experience to more of what their needs and or demands are, what do you see the next step being, as far as, you know, catering to those customers? Because, you know, there are reports being published all the time that say that customers are changing banks, if they don’t feel like, say, the mobile experience is where they want it to be. So what do you see sort of in that space moving forward?

Reetika Grewal 7:21
Ya know, this is a big, big part of how we are building our digital tools, right? So I joined the bank about a year and a half ago, and one of the first things that I set out for the team to do is to build a deep understanding of our clients. Right. So, you know, when you’re solving for a range of clients, as big as, as we have, right, if you think, you know, 10 million in revenue up to a trillion or whatever, in revenue, there’s a wide a wide variety, and how do you make sure that you’re thinking about your customers, their their needs, their pain points, what problems are you solving for them. And so we went on this, and it’s an ongoing book, a work around creating these personas, to represent the different types of clients. And then the one thing that is so fascinating about the commercial banking space is that these clients are so dynamic, so nothing is ever static. And so, you know, in doing that deep exploration, you know, it kind of led to this brand new platform that we announced called Wells Fargo Vantage in this blank, brand new, like architecture, to drive this platform, right. So it’s, it’s all kind of like new, new, new new product, new platform, all powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning from the get go, so that we could learn along with our clients deliver personalized experiences, and be mindful of their growth trajectory. So it’s, it’s very much the direction that we’re going right? Like, how do we create these consumer like experiences for our clients that are, you know, in the commercial side, at the end of the day, they are consumers, and they want, you know, easy navigation, transparency, you know, easy fulfillment, all those things, and it shouldn’t be different in the commercial space. So, you know, we’ve done you know, this, this launch of the Vantage portal is under a year, right? Like we got it built in under a year. And we built it in a really, you know, obviously, agile is one of them, right? Like we just it was agile from the get go. And we, you know, worked super closely with our partners and our technology team to build in a new way. And so we’ve used some technology called micro front ends that allow us to deliver kind of little widgets of content and layering on personalization on top of it so you can and sort of right size those widgets based on who is coming in and using your portal.

Brian Stone 10:08
So you talked about the deep dive that Wells Fargo had kind of done on their customers and how it was dynamic. What was maybe the most unexpected or surprising thing you learned while doing sort of that research?

Reetika Grewal 10:20
You know, I think, you know, I think we’re up to 19 personas right now. And so I think that the level of like, I think, last year, we built out probably 12. And we keep adding on it. And so I think that, you know, it’s just how do we get to that right level of focus on the different types of customers we have? That’s, that’s been very interesting. And then, right, like the other part of, you know, another part of my team, which is focused on the API side, like we built personas for API’s, right? Like those, it’s a different kind of clients, that comes to us, it’s, you know, a developer versus an accountant didn’t how do we make sure that we’re, you know, have them in our hearts and minds as we’re developing the right solutions for them to go in and use our or gateway tools. And so I think the the breadth of the personas is something that was probably surprising that you know, that we just we keep finding pockets where we we just need to go deeper.

Brian Stone 11:30
So I wanted to talk a little bit more. I know, you touched on Vantage, but banking as a platform, what are you kind of foreseeing that, I guess, next evolution being heading into next year?

Reetika Grewal 11:44
Yeah, yeah, I mean, for us, this vantage platform is really a way for us to pull in the sort of the best in class products and services in a much more streamlined way. So we can think about, right, like when we partner with companies fintechs or establish Tech’s or, you know, companies that we can kind of pull the best experiences forward. And we can do it in a much more quick way. So this platform that we launched really is allowing us to do that kind of as a service and say, like, how do we consume API’s, from external partners to deliver the right experiences to our customers. And so we’ve got kind of the the base of that built out now and you know, are looking for more partnership opportunities, and to really the ones that we have really kind of streamline them as well.

Brian Stone 12:45
What sort of emerging industry trends are you seeing, you know, moving forward into 2023?

Reetika Grewal 12:52
A couple a couple of things, I’d say, one is Client Experience matters, and it matters more and more every day. And and I think that, you know, historically, consumer has been driving a lot of that work. And, you know, 2023 is really just an even deeper dive into the commercial space, and the corporate and investment banking space and the small business data space is, you know, like, how do we deliver those great kinds of products and services to them to really again, like help them run their business at the end of the day, we’re there to support them. I think that embedded finance, I know, there’s been a lot of conversation about it already. But I think, you know, taking that in expanding some of the use cases, is going to be a big part of 2023, looking at how to, you know, contextualize different products and services, in other experiences. You know, like, I talked about our API gateway, so like, leveraging that to drive some of those embedded finance experiences. And, yeah, I mean, I think the last part of it is, is probably around mobile. I mean, I think mobile has been less, less. It’s obviously used in the commercial space, but probably less than, you know, just even our own volumes, like the majority of the experiences are driven out of our main portal, but mobile is going to pick up in 2023, in terms of one of the major tools that our companies are using to drive their business forward. Last thing I would say is just right, the talk a little bit more about like the artificial intelligence aspect of it. Right is just the making sure that you’re embedding our artificial intelligence and machine learning from the get go as opposed to something that’s kind of trailing along means, you know that you You have the opportunity to think about that technology in every use case. And so, you know, when we think about Wells Fargo Vantage, and the fact that it was sort of new platform, new technology, all built on a foundation of artificial intelligence and machine learning, we’re, you know, excited about like all the future builds that we can bring to our clients. You know, with that in mind, pulling together insights for their business insights into the market, you know, etc, to help them to help them focus on you know, what they love, which is, you know, running their business, and giving them being sort of that true digital partner they need.

Brian Stone 15:45
You’ve been listening to the buzz of bank automation news podcast, please follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn. And as a reminder, you can rate this podcast on your platform of choice, be sure to visit us at Bank automation news.com