State of the Lending Industry: From 2023 Triumphs to 2024 Trends

Welcome and Housekeeping  

Becky Frost 

01:32 – 01:34 

Alright. 

Jessica Fongemie 

01:34 – 05:20 

Hello, everyone. Thanks for thank you for joining us today for our webinar, the state of the lending industry from 2023 triumphs to 2024 trends. 

Just give everybody a few minutes to get settled, and then we’ll go ahead and get started. Alright, everyone. 

Thank you again for joining us. I think we’ll go ahead and we’ll jump right in. 

Thank you again. So first, going to introduce, the folks we have on the call here today. 

My name is Jess Fongemie. I lead our content team. 

As part of the Meridian Link marketing team, and I’ll be the moderator for today’s event. Our presenters for today are Becky Frost, VP of Marketing And Corporate Communications, and Laura Castello, director of product marketing. 

Before we get started with the webinar presentation, I just want to share a few housekeeping notes for everyone. So today’s session will be recorded. 

So if you object, please disconnect at this time. We encourage everyone to submit questions throughout the webinar. 

There’s a q and a op in the webinar dashboard that you’ll see, we’ll try to answer as many of those questions as we can at the end of the webinar. You’ll also find a number of downloads available to you in the dashboard. 

Please download as many of those as you’d like they’ll complement the discussion that we’re going to have here today. And then we want this presentation to be interactive. 

So please go ahead and take part in the polls that we’re going to be posting throughout the presentation. We’re looking forward to seeing everyone’s thoughts and priorities. 

And then you’re at the end of the webinar, you’ll have the opportunity to easily request more information about specific topics that we cover, during today’s session. And then last but not least, coming out of today, after the webinar, you’ll be receiving an email with a link to view the webinar recording on demand. 

And then be able to share that with your colleague or rewatch this at your leisure. And then as a publicly traded company, we share this disclaimer about forward looking statements. 

And then we’re going to jump into today’s agenda. So for the webinar, we’ll be sharing some highlights on the challenges and triumphs of 2023. 

We’ll be highlighting the top priorities for 20 4 that we are hearing from our customers and others including, the results of both our customer and consumer surveys that we’ve conducted over the past few months, and then we’ll be sharing some real stories of success from our customers. So with that being said, I’m going to hand it over to Becky and Laura to go over our year end review. 

2023 in Review  

Becky Frost 

05:20 – 06:42 

Thank you so much, Jess. And again, welcome, everyone. 

Thank you for joining us today. I don’t know about you, but 2023 was an epic year. 

Let’s remind ourselves of some of the highlights. First of all, on the pop culture side, it sure gave, and it gave a lot. 

In pop culture, we saw Barbenheimer over the summer, record breaking music tours that were hailed as saving the economy. Sports legends, crushing records, and a lot of entertainment options. 

Meanwhile, in the financial services world, It’s a little different and a little less entertaining for us living through it together. We were constantly advised about headwinds, and we often felt like this guy on the right here. 

But what I want to point out about both of these images is that the sun shines in both. And in fact, we’re here today to talk through the trends the priorities and how we move forward and thrive together in 2024. 

We’ll also dive into the data and examine our key themes from 2023 that you are customers as well as a national sample of consumers told us were important. Laura, as someone who is always in touch with our customers and just copiously pours through industry research, what’s it about to you? 

Laura Costello 

06:42 – 07:29 

Thanks, Becky. So it won’t be a surprise to any of you that in 2023, we had a whole bunch of challenges that we faced as an I found that with when I was talking to our customers and they would share the issues that they’re they were facing or any of the big headlines that we were seeing across the year, they all seem to fall under these 4 major categories. 

The first being consumer struggles economic and rate headwinds, increased competition, and then compliance fraud and risk, which is always a challenge. So when it comes to consumer struggles, Consumer Financial Health was at a record low. 

We’ll be getting into this a little bit more when we talk about 2024 priorities and how you all are dealing with that. But, Becky, you were seeing notes about that in the media as well. 

Yep. 

Economic Headwinds and Competition 

Becky Frost 

07:29 – 07:38 

That exactly. That aligns with our research as well as media coverage throughout the year. 

Consumers for really feeling the pinch. 

Laura Costello 

07:38 – 08:19 

And it’s not a surprise. Right? Like, we had all of these economic and rate headwinds with the higher interest rates and the mortgage interest rates, liquidity challenges, you know, that was causing a lot of problems for our institutions as well as our consumers. 

Increased competition is something that we continue hearing about, year after year. In last year, there were some new competitors that came on to the onto the field, you know, we have the buy now pay later use was really starting to, gain some traction And Apple was offering the high yield savings accounts that people were getting a lot more interested in. 

And that’s just to name a few. I’m sure you’re all facing different types of competition. 

Becky Frost 

08:19 – 08:37 

Those technology and fintech options, consumers are very interested in them, the media is interested in them, and certainly something that we want to keep our eye on so that we can make sure our customers and members are getting the experiences they like from their primary FI and not seeking it elsewhere. 

Laura Costello 

08:37 – 08:53 

For sure. And then, of course, compliance fraud and risk, there’s always a list of items that people are having challenges with both consumers and institutions But overall, there was an increase last year in total losses due to identity theft and fraud. 

But, you know, despite oh, sorry, Becky. 

Opportunities and Priorities in 2023 

Becky Frost 

08:53 – 09:24 

Oh, I was I was going to say this is always such a hot topic and when it happens to your your consumer, being there for them, being able to provide those resources or being there just to give them education about steps or what to do, how to, how to manage what they’re experiencing. And again, we’ll talk about this more in some of the survey work, but Being able to look to their F. 

I for information is something that trends high with consumers for 2024. 

Laura Costello 

09:24 – 11:54 

For sure. Yeah. 

And, you know, despite all of those challenges, which sounds like a lot is we’re talking about all of them at once. It gave us really new opportunities to better serve consumers. 

And when you’re looking at the priorities that you all had for 2023, A lot of those align with ways to better yourselves in order to be prepared to solve some of those challenges that consumers are having. So, We recently downloaded the digital banking report. 

I’m sure you’ve heard of them before. Their 2024 retail banking trends and priorities report came out, in January. 

If you haven’t downloaded it yet, I you definitely should. I keep finding new nuggets in there every time I take a look in there. 

It was created by serve surveying over 250 banking industry insiders from all different sizes of institutions, including banks and credit unions. And what you’re looking at here is the question when asked what the most important trends of 2023 were. 

What I found really interesting about this is they’re all they all kind of roll up to the overall idea of innovation and digital transformation there are, you know, some, obviously, the first one digital transformation. It is exactly what that is, but the others are all kind of little areas within digital transformation. 

And It’s not it shouldn’t be a surprise that that some of the answers would be there, but I actually was surprised that all of them fell under that category this year. But that’s really telling. 

And it actually aligns really well with what we’re going to be talking about with our 2024 focus. And before we jump into that, we’ll be sharing 4 customer stories of of how they triumphed in 2023 And if you’re interested in these, you can actually go to the docs tab in the, panel on the right, and you can download the full story. 

For each of these. So starting with a plus Federal Credit Union, they were working with 6 different loan origination systems. 

So you can only imagine having 6 different platforms. They’re not talking to each other. 

It get really confusing, causing lots of headaches for, for their staff and for their members. So they looked to Meridian Link and found Meridian Link 1 in our platform, which they were able to include consumer, mortgage, consulting insight, pull it all into one system, and ultimately making everything happen faster, being able to report better, really improving their experience for their members and doubling their instant approval rates. 

There’s a lot more details than the case study that, that I mentioned you can download. So please feel free to download that if you’re interested in learning more. 

Becky Frost 

11:54 – 12:57 

And what I love about that that story that you just shared, Laura, is that they didn’t start out, looking to solve all the problems that they’re solving today They started out like we’re going to talk about digital transformation as a journey. So they really started out with how do we improve the online lending and account opening experience for our members. 

And they started with a simple question. They worked with us and clearly at one point in time, they were working with multiple providers to be starting their digital transformation journey, but they’ve been able to really streamline and improve the member experience and boost their loan their lending rates because as we go and this is the one thing I want people to remember Digital transformation isn’t perfect, but don’t give up. 

Keep going because as we go, we improve and as we go, we enhance. So to improve and enhance your consumer experience, the most important thing is to get started. 

Laura Costello 

12:57 – 13:02 

Awesome. And now I think we’re ready for our first poll. 

Jessica Fongemie 

13:02 – 13:30 

Yes. Thanks, Laura. 

So we’ve heard about one customer and now we’d like to hear from you all. Let’s take a moment and respond to the quick poll about what your main priorities are in 2024. 

Laura Costello 

13:30 – 13:43 

I love watching the answers come in live, and None of them are surprising me as digital transformation is one of the top on the list. It completely aligns with what we were just talking about. 

Becky Frost 

13:43 – 14:24 

Agreed and making it as easy for consumers as possible. You know, the more our CEO likes to talk about how with he has 3 teenagers and gen zers who do everything on their phones. 

When they went back to school shopping, it didn’t occur to them to get in the car with dad and go to a store. They do everything on their phones these days. 

So making things as simple and as omnichannel as possible for our for members and customers is is certainly no surprise. And that’s a as a consumer myself too, it’s exciting to see that that is a priority. 

Laura Costello 

14:24 – 14:29 

For sure. So, Becky, do you want to jump into the 2024 priorities? 

2024 Priorities  

Becky Frost 

14:29 – 16:32 

Yep. Let’s go ahead and dig right in. 

Alright. So let’s talk about these priorities direct from customer feedback. 

So let me go ahead and give you a little bit of a flavor on where these predictions and priorities came from. Each year, we work with a leading consumer research firm to conduct surveys on topics that are important to you and the consumers that that go to financial institutions. 

We also have a chance to regularly survey our nearly 2000 financial institution customer base to learn what matters straight from you. And so late last year, we reached out to our customers to learn more about what’s important in the year ahead and now we find ourselves here. 

And these are some of the main categories, data driven personalization. Again, no surprise there. 

The digital first banking model. Digital lending is is still a priority in in that digital transformation. 

No surprises there. Consumer debt management. 

We’ll talk we’ll get more into that as well and what they expect from their FIs and support and then digital maturity and third party solutions. So like we said, digital maturity as you enhance and embark on your digital, transformation experiences, making sure that then you keep growing along the way. 

And that you are able to support these trends and meet your goals. So we’ll go into details on each of these four areas throughout this webinar. 

And I’d like to point out that there are downloads available for the audience. Laura, you mentioned earlier, Jessica, earlier that in the document section here, and then also our website is chock full of case studies from financial institutions just like you on challenges that they were facing and how they I don’t know about you, but I learned best and seeing how other people like me resolved an issue. 

So lots of great content for you there. But, Laura, I will I’ve talked enough, so kick it over to you to dive into these trends. 

Data-Driven Personalization  

Laura Costello 

16:32 – 19:13 

Personalization. I feel like I can talk about this with my eyes closed after all the work I’ve done, for the engaged product, for years. 

It’s near and dear to my heart. So, let me just jump here. 

So this is the 1st of our consumer survey results. And as Becky mentioned, when we want to understand what’s important to consumers, your members and customers, we work with a national research firm to gain insights and take action. 

Our commissioned consumer surveys have more than a 1000 respondents in our nationally representative sample size to give us important information that reflects the sentiments of your members and customers. So for this first section, they were responding about data driven personalization none of this is a surprise. 

37% of our respondents say that they prioritize receiving personalized account alerts. And 20% of respondents do not believe that their primary financial institution provides them with enough personalization in challenging financial situations. 

It’s something that we’ve been hearing time and time again. I actually think 20% is lower than what I’ve seen in the past. 

I’ve seen it, a much higher number previously. So that that could be a good sign that people are responding and getting better at this, which is which is great news and wouldn’t surprise me because it’s something we’ve been talking about for quite some time. 

And, like, like, I was just talking about the FIs are tuning in and taking action. So these are the results from our customer survey. 

We’ve got a few different areas here. Our customer is 43% of prioritizing a seamless omnichannel experience, which completely aligns with the results of how you were just answering our poll. 

25% are prioritizing enhanced mobile banking apps. And 25% are focusing on personalized financial services. 

So, clearly, this is something that all of you are aware of as something that is important. And in 24 are going to be prioritizing for your institution. 

Now we’re going to go into our next customer story. And this one is about Fed choice. 

Fed choice has been working with us for quite some time. They actually took advantage of of incorporating consumer with insight and engage in order to target customers who are delivering personalized communications to a broader audience. 

They were they were targeting members who had applied for a personal loan or a HELOC and hadn’t accepted for whatever reason. They were able to go back to those folks and actually got close to 2000 percent ROI. 

They’re one of our best customers. They continue to do new programs with us and know, when you see numbers like 2000 percent ROI, there’s a reason why they’re doing it. 

Becky Frost 

19:13 – 19:39 

And I love that actually one of the parts of my job is making sure that when we share these types of stories, we Laura and I have had multiple discussions about when we’re using insight and engage to deepen those personal relationships with consumers is this typical? And actually with when using these products together like this, that triple and quadruple ROI is something that we see time and time again. So it’s really exciting. 

Laura Costello 

19:39 – 19:55 

And I think it really talks to the fact that it is it is doing this personalized communications, which all of the arc that we’re hearing time and time. Again, consumers are interested in. 

So It just goes to show when you’re actually able to take advantage of data driven personalization, the results come very easily. 

Consumer Debt Management 

Becky Frost 

19:55 – 22:50 

Absolutely. And so let’s talk a little bit more about some results that consumers are looking for. 

Consumer debt management. So as someone who’s spent a large portion of my career in financial services, creating experiences that help consumer better understand and interact with their finances is of great personal importance. 

Customers. In fact, it has the power to change people’s lives in the trajectory of not only their families, but those around them. 

So thank you again for that. I’m, really excited to talk more about our survey results about consumer debt management. 

Okay. So when we when we surveyed, our, again, the survey that we just mentioned, the 2023 survey with more than a 1000 consumers, we talked about their financial habits over a 6 month period of time. 

And more than half of them said, 52% said they were concerned about debt. No surprises, but with the shifts in the economy over the last few years, it’s actually changed quite a bit. 

A third were most worried about credit card debt and a 5th, nearly 20% were concerned about their mortgages. And I’m sure that those numbers continue to change. 

We see an increased focus on what the Fed is doing. We see an increased focus on inflation rates. 

On job rates and on consumer credit card debt that they’re carrying. Because it all impacts what they do with their money. 

Spending and saving is also an issue. So, unfortunately, this is different than just a few years ago. 

Spending is up and saving is down. And the net of all of this is consumers are concerned, and they’re turning to their institutions to help them make sense of this environment. 

But the good news, I know I’ve just painted like the rain cloud that were on that that initial picture. But our customers are prepared. 

We are there to affect positive change in our in consumer’s lives. And in fact, with our customer survey, 32 percent for saw a pressing need to assist consumers with credit card debt and debt consolidation in 2024. 

Again, that personalization meeting your members where they are. And then 26% of our customer respondents said they were gearing up for an increased demand for new mortgages and home loan refinancing among amongst consumers. 

So that’s probably music to the mortgage team’s ears after the last few years. So institutions are ready to meet this moment and they are ready to act. 

And how we accomplish this together is very important. So, I’d like to turn it over to Laura to discuss the power of digital banking and what a digital banking and digital lending model can do for consumers. 

Evolving Role of Branches and Digital Transformation  

Laura Costello 

22:50 – 23:48 

Thanks, Becky. And we’re going to start with the evolving role of branches. 

I found this really super interesting. So, when we did our customer pull, 64% predicted or reduced role for physical branches in 2024. 

You know, that’s not really super surprising when you think about how many people are more doing their banking digitally and, you know, opening accounts online and all of that kind of thing. But it also made me think about the idea that people are still looking for personalized advice and, advice from their financial institutions, especially when you start talking to the younger generations like Millennials and Gen Z, They expect that you’re going to be providing them with advice that’s relevant to them, even when they don’t have to ask for it. 

So, you know, thinking about that, the branches may not necessarily be have the same role that they’ve had in history in terms of being a place for transactions, but they really can start becoming more of a of a space for advisory services. 

Becky Frost 

23:48 – 23:49 

So, you. 

Laura Costello 

23:49 – 24:15 

know, using the online and digital channels that everyone is working on building to have this omni channel experience and using those for the simple transactions of depositing, you know, direct dip not direct deposit, but depositing a check or opening an account, but when you really need to talk to someone and get some advice on situations, the branches could be a place where that is as much more of what they’re used for versus the typical, you know, tellers we’re opening, opening new accounts. 

Becky Frost 

24:15 – 24:38 

And as a as someone who goes into her bank, infrequently, but when I do go in having that really good experience and that really great conversation with either someone sitting at a desk about a specialty question or the teller who’s helping me with some simple needs, making sure that that’s a really good interaction keeps me loyal to my bank. 

Laura Costello 

24:38 – 25:45 

And that’s going to push us into our next customer triumph story, which is Generations Federal Credit Union. They were really, the they needed to make sure that they were, improving their application efficiencies. 

They that were not optimized. They had a ton of manual tasks, and they really needed a more efficient way to finalize their applications and meet the evolving needs of consumers. 

They already had been using Meridian Link Consumer for their lending, and they decided to add Meridian Link opening and portal for its operate So now they could also be opening new accounts through the same system. The beauty of that being that the systems are talking to each other, they really get a much better full sure of their of their members. 

They were able to actually shave an average of 35 to 45 minutes off of the time it previously took to open an account or finalize a loan. And they were leveraging auto decisioning. 

So they were able to actually originate new loans in under 5 minutes. Which was incredible from what they were experiencing prior to that. 

And now we’re going to jump into our next poll, I believe. 

Jessica Fongemie 

25:45 – 26:01 

Yes. Thank you, Laura. 

That does take us to our next poll. How far along are you in your digital transformation journey? Go ahead and respond in the poll and let us know. 

Becky Frost 

26:01 – 26:53 

And, Jessica, while people are responding, I love that you called it a journey. So many technology projects are the hardest step, of course, is getting started, but then it’s like I love when people have said it’s a it’s a marathon, not a sprint. 

I’m a runner and I don’t necessarily always enjoy every aspect of my marathon, but I still do it year over year because of not only the payoff at the end, but the things that you learn and see along the way. And I think that’s an important thing point out here is your digital transformation is a journey that you’ll learn along the way. 

And there’s maybe not there’s maybe a physical finish line for the implementation process, but you just keep learning and growing. Look at these boats. 

Laura Costello 

26:53 – 27:01 

Yeah. Yeah. 

And I love seeing the answers because I’m going to get into it a little bit when I get to my section here. So this is great. 

Awesome. 

Jessica Fongemie 

27:01 – 28:02 

So on the topic of digital transformation, people, institutions, often have the best of intentions when it comes to evolving with the times. In today’s environment, there’s really no question about it. 

Digital transformation is important, and it’s not a box to check. It’s not a one and done project, which is why truly transforming in the digital era presents a unique set of challenges. 

So according to Cornerstone Advisors, in 2023, less than 50% of financial institutions that planned for change in digital consumer loan origination or digital consumer account opening actually moved forward with that change. So we know transformation is necessary to better serve con consumers and getting there can certainly be difficult, but for those who make it, they can attest that it’s worth the effort. 

Becky Frost 

28:02 – 29:18 

It is, and I was calling this one’s for you. It’s a little under 4 hours, and my half is around 2 hours. 

So thanks for asking. The runners are going to stay and talk runners and goo and Gatorade at the end. 

That’s all I’m saying. But, yeah, Jessica, thank you so much. 

That’s right. If you want to meet customers where they are, especially today, it’s in the digital world. 

Providing omnichannel experiences is an important way in the mobile first world. I already talked about our CEO, I’ve got 2 sons myself for Gen Zers. 

And if I want a fast response from them, even if they’re at home, I need to send them a text. So, yeah, we might need to talk about my boundaries with screen time with my kids, but it makes sense then that today’s consumers have changed and that they want to have those omnichannel experiences as well. 

What used to be okay to take days now is expected to take minutes or even moments. In fact, from a payment survey, recent payment survey. 

70 8 percent of consumers said that they prefer managing their finances digitally. Frankly, I expect that number to grow year over year. 

So the question for us then remains, how can we create optimal digital experiences? So over to Laura to walk us through this important journey together. 

Laura Costello 

29:18 – 32:12 

And I love that you just gave me a log calling it a journey because it, you know, digital transformation is not a singular event. It’s a journey. 

And so what when we were having our poll just a little while ago, it was a little bit of a trick question where, you know, from my perspective, its digital transformation never will really be done. And more than 50% of you guys actually said that same thing. 

So I didn’t trick too many of you. But, you know, think about where we were 4 years ago at this time. 

It was February 2020. Like, the world was so different, and we had no idea what was about to happen. 

Think about how much has changed. And now think about where might we be 4 years from now. 

I hope there’s not going to be another pandemic. God forbid. 

But, you know, so much is changing so quickly that, you know, the whole idea of AI and all of these things are happening so fast that, you really have to be thinking about the fact that digital transformation is you you’ll be working on it now and you’ll be, you know, creating a plan and then things will be changing and you’ll shift. So it’s really not just one project that you’re checking the box for, but there’s different paths that you can take, different speeds that you can go on and constantly changing road map. 

As you’re moving forward. So I actually found this interesting as well, although not surprising based on the results that we just on your poll saying that you’ll never be done. 

When we talk about digital transformation, the idea of digital maturity always goes hand in hand with that. And with that, only 9% of financial institutions actually consider themselves digitally mature. 

Some of that, I think, would be because we all understand that digital transformation is a journey. It’s not just a check the box, but I also think a lot of that is because of the challenges everybody has to get going. 

And a big piece of what we’re seeing, both from talking to our customers and from the industry news, is that the financial institutions that are coming out on top are embracing digital maturity by integrating with 3rd party solutions. They understand that if they try to do everything themselves, there’s no way they’re going to move forward quickly because of all of these dueling priorities that you all know that you have. 

But by partnering with other, you know, trusted third party solutions, they’re able to move their priorities faster. And a big thing that we’re seeing too is, you know, consumer face innovation has been a priority. 

And it makes complete sense. That’s what’s going to impact how you look to your customers and members and your your potential customers and members. 

And it’s super important. But if you’re not also focusing on your back office updates and really setting yourself up with a solid foundation, you won’t be able to thrive in the coming years because you’ll be continuing to patch. 

So as you’re thinking about your digital transformation journey, try to remember that you it’s not just about what other people are seeing from the outside, but it’s how your processes and systems are happening on the. 

Becky Frost 

32:12 – 32:32 

I love that, Laura. And I know you’re going to share a story about that now. 

It’s such a great reminder not to try alone to be everything to everyone. To really do what we do best and then to take advantage of the our our networks around us or the technology available to reach your goals. 

Customer Success Story  

Laura Costello 

32:32 – 33:40 

Perfect. Yes. 

And here’s our our last customer triumph story, and this is what Space Coast Credit Union they were really working, again, very similar stories that I had said before, but manual decisioning and funding processes They had real rigid workflows that didn’t allow for custom con configuration, which make things really complicated as they’re trying to become more efficient and create the work flows that they need that are unique for their institution, and they really needed to improve the end to end member experience with less strain on staff. So they implemented the Meridian Link 1 platform, including consumer and insight. 

And the results are amazing. The instant approvals increased by 25%. 

They were decisioning almost all of their applications in 1 day or less, and they decreased the funding time by 1 to 2 days. Really strong stats, and we’re so happy to partner with them and continue to partner with them as they’re adding engaged now too, which will be super exciting as they start driving the data driven personalization with us as Sorry. 

Go ahead. 

Jessica Fongemie 

33:40 – 33:56 

No. It’s okay. 

I was just going to say when it comes to strategies for success, each of your institution’s needs are very unique. And so the plan you have should be tailored to those needs. 

So let’s go ahead and talk about, the important areas to get there. 

Laura Costello 

33:56 – 35:24 

Yeah. And, you know, we were talking just a minute ago about the digital transformation being a journey and all of the other pieces that we that we reviewed as well for priorities. 

Every institution is unique. I’m sure you’ve heard that all kinds of times. 

But the most important thing, in your first step when you’re looking at how you can improve and what you should prioritize in 2024 is to start by completing a real review of your current solutions and not just a thorough review, but an honest review. It can sometimes be hard to admit the things that you’re not doing as well as you’d like to be doing. 

But, you know, we all know. The only way you can improve is to know where you where you’re starting from. 

So completing that honest review, then start reviewing your processes, you know, that review is from the inside out. Right? Then you get to designing. 

You got to review your processes from the outside looking in. You know, you know, how it’s working from inside your institution. 

But what does that look like for a consumer who’s trying to open a loan or open an account? What are the challenges that are happening? Could you try to do it? I’m sure you probably have, but have you done it for a while? Try to try to open an account at your institution or have one of your children try to open an account at an institution and see what happens. And then you can start designing the ideal consumer journey. 

And then obviously after you’ve done all of that, there is going to be lots of areas to choose from to prioritize. So really taking some time to determine which are the most important for your financial institution, and then build your own plan for success. 

Becky Frost 

35:24 – 36:16 

I love that. Just like Jess said, everyone is different. 

Right? And the only way out is through, and we know we’ll always be evolving together, but starting with the honest assessment, then designing the ideal pathway and making those hard calls. Like, sometimes we want to be everything to everyone. 

So it’s prioritizing. It’s like what all of these case studies you’ve shared, Laura, they started with their priorities in mind. 

In order to get where they are today and they’re not done. I’m so excited to watch Space Coast, you know, having met with them and highlighted their go live on one of our solutions last year and now to see them going live on another solution is they check the box for one priority and they continue growing with us. 

I love to see that. 

Jessica Fongemie 

36:16 – 36:44 

Alright. So before we get into our Q and a from today’s session, we’re going to go ahead and launch our last poll, which will give you the opportunity to regress, request more information. 

And while you take a minute, to answer that question. I also just want to remind you that there are documents in the downloads, documents available for you to download, in the webinar dashboard as well. 

Laura Costello 

36:44 – 36:57 

Awesome. And if you do have any questions, please feel free to put them in the Q and A box on the dashboard. 

I’d actually like to ask Becky. So how regularly are we doing these, these kinds of surveys that we were just going through the results on? 

Becky Frost 

36:57 – 37:35 

So we work with a national survey firm on a quarterly basis. So as well, if you are ever working with your account executive and you are curious about something, go ahead and ask them, get that feedback over to us because we Again, our surveying consumers on a quarterly basis, we also post our results in our newsroom and our website. 

And, we do our customer surveys gosh. I mean, we have polls like this, which are very helpful, but we do our customer surveys a few times a year and great to see everyone get involved in those. 

Laura Costello 

37:35 – 37:40 

Awesome. 

Q&A 

Becky Frost 

37:40 – 38:24 

Alright. So it looks like the poll is, pretty much complete. 

Let’s go over to the chat. If they’re, yep, there are downloads available, And if any other questions come in, feel free to put your questions in the chat. 

Laura, we’ve talked about we’ve covered a lot of ground today. If they’re you put yourselves in the I know it won’t be hard for you because you’ve worked with community banks and credit unions for years. 

If you were, you know, like all of them saying it’s never going to be done, what would be your priority for 2024, if you had to pick, like, 1 of the 4 we talked about today. 

Laura Costello 

38:24 – 39:12 

I think that, you know, if my institution did not have a plan for digital maturity or digital transformation, kind of what I was just talking about at the end, that would be my priority. Right? Like, it’s easy to pick a certain tactic or a certain focus. 

But before you go through that entire process of really understanding what the goals of your institution are, what the gap are maybe what some easy wins are in in your digital transformation journey. You can’t really pick what the top priority is. 

So I would say if I were to do one thing, it would be to build that that plan for your digital transformation, do that assessment, and create that plan. And if you want to partner with an outside you know, partner or anyone to help you build that plan. 

There’s lots of opportunities out there. That would be my number one priority. 

Becky Frost 

39:12 – 40:03 

Yeah. It also reminds me of not to sound like a commercial at all, but, like, when teams choose to engage with our consulting team to get that help or to have those conversations. 

That’s certainly I mean, other options are available too, but sometimes even starting with that assessment that true and honest assessment of where you are is a great place. And remembering your internal stakeholders along the way, remembering you know, the various people who could give you sometimes the best feedback comes from unexpected areas. 

So not forgetting to talk to your front of house staff, not forgetting to talk to your developers, not forgetting to talk to a lot of different employees of the credit union or the bank to get their feedback in that assessment. I think is really helpful. 

Alright. I think we’ll go ahead if there are any additional questions people can. 

Laura Costello 

40:03 – 40:20 

I do see a question actually from a client? There’s a few actually that are coming in. So one of our is a Texas based bank client asking if we could connect them with other Texas based bank clients. 

So the answer is yes. Absolutely. 

We’ll make sure to follow up with you after with some contact information. 

Becky Frost 

40:20 – 40:25 

Oh, yeah. That’s great. 

Laura Costello 

40:25 – 40:44 

Yeah, I think that would be great. There’s a there’s a few product questions in there that I’m actually going to pass off and follow have your account executive follow-up with you on because I don’t want to provide you with the wrong answer. 

I have a guess, but the guess is not the right answer in this situation. So we’ll follow-up with you with the answers to your product questions. 

Becky Frost 

40:44 – 42:33 

Yep. And I see one last question here about the most important trend from 2024 that we should address I’m going to go from the PR hot take of what I think consumers will be seeing in the news, but then we can we can bring it back for other opinions. 

We are seeing the rise of news coverage of AI and banking and but we’re also seeing from survey coverage that consumers are not quite comfortable. There’s a lot of concerns about bias and AI. 

There are some concerns about just what AI is in general and how it’s being used. So I would say a trend to address maybe just with more educational materials available, financial educational materials available for your consumer base, whether it’s your members or your customers, is helping them really understand what if anything your organization is using from the AI perspective and maybe pointing to some industry research, whether it’s, you know, I shared that cornerstone advisor’s report photo of the gentleman standing in the ocean but whether it’s from Cornerstone’s advisors or the banking, report that Laura, you mentioned, there are many different industry reports that kind of help us dig in before we’re ready to have those conversations with with consumers. 

But really understanding the importance and how AI and banking is here to stay even if it’s nascent right now and we’re just maybe considering it or looking into it but being able to provide that detail to consumers so that they don’t swirl on what’s being used or was it what isn’t know that one’s a little forward facing. And, again, like I said, I work in PR predominantly, and so get to do those great customer surveys to share those insights. 

And consumer surveys, but I’d love to turn it over to the team to talk more maybe on a benefits level of some things that we should make sure that we address in 2024. 

Laura Costello 

42:33 – 43:30 

I mean, I think my answer would be especially at which we were talking about and not only not because I have spent so much time working with I think data driven personalization is one that is is key. And, obviously, from the responses we’ve had from our, surveys, institutions are prioritizing that, but that’s something where the need from consumers to have personalized communications and personalized advice and all of those things from their financial institution is only going to become stronger as time passes. 

And if you don’t have a plan on how to address that and how to get in the game, you’re going to start losing, losing out to your competition. And you might not always lose your complete relationship, but you you’ll lose parts of your relationship, and you won’t be growing your relationships. 

So there’s so many different opportunities out there to build a solid data driven personalization program at your institution, and you can get some quick wins with some, you know, quick easy fixes. So that would be my priority. 

Becky Frost 

43:30 – 46:15 

I love that. And I’m reminded of that astronomical ROI. 

That that we saw from the case study you shared, but really seeing that quick win is the understatement of the year but, yeah, data driven personalization is such an excellent topic and one that we will be covering at Meridian Link Live. That’s right, friends. 

It is on its way. You know, we’ve had a great time talking with you today about priorities and trends that impact our industry and help you deliver a better customer experience and we’d love to continue the conversation and see the magic that unfolds. 

One of my favorite things about attending our Meridian Link Live event every year is really seeing the connections that unfold like the person who asked about, hey. I want to talk to other FIs in Texas. 

This is a great event to meet up with people who are in your area to meet up with people nationally who maybe are meeting the same needs or serving the same consumer base as you and really learning and growing together. I love it when you get to network with colleagues and peers at our annual event, Meridian Link Live, And this year, the conference is being held from April 29th to May 2nd. 

I know I’ll be here before you know it. At the Gaylord Opryland Resort in Nashville, Tennessee, That’s right. 

We’re headed to Music City together. Our team cannot wait to welcome you in our live event. 

Again, I’ve talked about how insightful it is We have presentations. We’ve got excellent keynote speakers, training sessions, product showcases, little sneak peek at what’s to come, like I said, the strength of networking is really one of my favorite things to see unfold here and some world class entertainment. 

It is music city after all. So I’ve put the link up here, but we also have this in the document. 

We hope you take the time to register for Meridian Link Live today online. The hotel reservation link also becomes available. 

There’s lots of great information for you. And this event, one thing is every year I’ll just end where Tim actually our co founder started. 

He always focuses on how our customers make us better. He tells funny stories about when he founded our company 25 years ago. 

He’d get calls talking about this Tim guy and they wanted to talk to Tim’s boss because they had some feedback. And we’ll take it. 

He was the boss, so that made those convos a little a little funny. But, we loved your feedback. 

We got some great feedback last year about our event on what worked really well and what people wanted to see more of in 2024, and we’ve incorporated that to our show. So our growing agenda is live on our website, for Meridian Link Live, and we hope to see you in Nashville, Tennessee coming soon. 

And with that, I think thank you to everyone for joining today. And, Jess, over to you to close us. 

Jessica Fongemie 

46:15 – 46:37 

Perfect. Yes. 

Thank you everyone for your participation in today’s webinar. A special thanks to our presenters, Becky and Laura, and our producer Raven. 

Just as a reminder, you’ll receive an email with a link to the on demand recording of today’s session. So then with that being said, that concludes our webinar. 

Thanks again, everyone. 

Laura Costello 

46:37 – 46:38 

Thanks, everybody. 

Becky Frost 

46:38 – 46:39 

Thanks. Have a great day.