Banks Pressing to Serve Gen ‘I Want It Now’
Advantage, core banking systems providers.
The need for real-time applications has reached some of the smaller financial institutions in the US, and that is driving all sorts of changes, both at the IT vendors and the banks.
In a wide-ranging conversation with Bank Innovation, Tom McBride, president and general manager of Cleartouch Solutions, a fast-growing unit within Fiserv, said that this hunger for real-time applications is forcing banks to seek out new solutions — although invariably they want them attached to their core banking system.
“Institutions looked at their core systems … and consumer demand for ‘I want it now,'” and that has led to the shift, he said.
Cleartouch, which offers end-to-end IT outsourcing mainly to small- and mid-sized banks, is pressing to offer those “extensions” around the Fiserv core for a wide range of banking functions. Among those functions McBride cited are:
- Lending
- Data warehouse
- Business analytics
- Retail
- Internet banking
- Bill payment
- EFT
- ATM
- Card services
- Anti fraud
- E-statements
The trend deserves notice. These consumer-driven demands are forcing wholesale IT changes at the deepest levels for banks and their vendor-partners. We can only imagine the long-term ramifications of this.
