10 Most Innovative CEOs in Banking 2017 Page 2
4. Jim Riccitelli and Thomas Sponholtz, Unison
Designing a new financial category for anything is a chore: before Jim Riccitelli and Thomas Sponholtz started Unison, one might have said starting a new one in real estate was an impossibility. Riccitelli and Sponholtz, who founded the company in 2004, splashed more openly onto the financial stage (literally) in recent years with their “home ownership” product; a new way for customers to gain a mortgage and simultaneously a new way investors can invest in real estate.
The biggest challenge for Unison right now is brand recognition, according to Riccitelli, who told Bank Innovation at Finovate that Unison “is something that is relatively new to them and some people have never heard of it at all before this. Riccitelli and Sponholtz are using their recent momentum to drive the company forward, expanding to 16 additional states this year, to 29 states total including the District of Columbia.
5. Andrew Cecere (and Richard Davis), U.S. Bank
U.S. Bank has had an innovative year, thanks in part both to Richard Davis–the bank’s current chairman, who served as its CEO until mid-2017–and the newer guard, Andrew Cecere, who officially became CEO in April of this year.
The bank’s innovation efforts went on seamlessly before, during, and after the switch; Cecere noted that in its retail segment, the bank is “doing very well in terms of small business as well as retail core customer growth” on its 2Q earnings call. Both Davis and Cecere kept fintech innovation moving forward. Like Citi, its efforts are headed by a particular team for innovation marshaled under Dominic Venturo; the team focused on artificial intelligence and mobile banking this year. Most recently, the bank has announced an Alexa integration, joining a select group of banks that presently allow customers to bank via voice.
6. Dan Schulman, PayPal
If seeing PayPal’s Dan Schulman on a list of banking innovators is no longer noteworthy, it’s at least consistent: under Schulman, the payment processor has continued the financial innovation for which it is now famous in 2017. The company announced new partnerships, new features, new innovation labs, and new acquisitions this year, all pretty good signs that Schulman is not likely to slow PayPal’s pace of innovation in the near future. Nor did Schulman take the arrival of Zelle, the banks’ answer to the company’s dominant P2P app Venmo, quietly: as Schulman stated, the company is now also partnering with banks, including Citi and Chase, to “drive more choice, flexibility and value for our joint customers.”
7. Adam Dell, Clarity Money
With PFM apps being one of the most saturated areas in fintech, growing an app’s userbase can be a tricky challenge–for most people, but not for Adam Dell. Dell’s app, is focused on being a financial advocate for the customer, meaning it won’t push or sell particular financial products to its users.
It had 100,000 users two days after its launch in January of this year. Dell stuck to the theory he purported days after his launch, that “If you think about it, consumers really don’t have a lot of leverage; what they really crave is a partner helping them through [their finances].” Dell kept that focus throughout the year, moving Clarity forward through partnershisp with Apple and fintechs like Acorns (which allows customers to create and view an Acorns investment account via the app, should they choose to). The app now has 500,000 users, and it’s not even a year old.
