The Priorities for Banking as We Plan for 2027

Jim Marous (0:01)

It's time for a Planning Season Reality Check. Megan Pannier of Fiserv shares one theme from banks or credit unions more than any other, deposit growth. Yet with everyone competing for the same deposits, most plans still pursue new business from outside, rather than organic growth from relationships we already have.

Your bank or credit union can see your customer's financial picture much more fully, while most other providers only get a slice. And much of that data still isn't used. Megan told me a great story about her 16-year-old daughter who opened her first account at a bank that won't let anyone under 18 use Zelle. So her babysitting money went to Venmo, which delivered a debit card within two days and built a relationship before her bank's onboarding program even started. We discussed making acquisition, retentioning and deepening relationships a single strategy. Why your data only used to be directional? Why now is not the time to retreat? And the one question every CEO should ask before finalizing next year's plan.

Why would I bank with us? I hope you enjoy this conversation with Megan Pannier from Fiserv.

So welcome to the show, Megan. As the thumbnail and the titles on the podcast indicate, we're going to be talking a little bit about what organizations have to be ready for with regard to planning season. So you hear more from banks and credit unions than almost anybody I know, certainly more than I hear. What's the conversation that you keep on having this fall that should actually worry the community banks and the industry as a whole?

Megan Pannier (1:44)

Yeah, so I talk to banks and credit unions every day, and there's a theme that keeps coming up more and more, and that's deposit growth.

They're looking for that traditional growth, but the same playbook doesn't make sense, that it always has. They've always been focused on either acquisition or retention or relationship deepening, and they really need to look at that as a holistic effort versus those in different siloed programs.

They really need to be thinking about how to create primary relationships, say, versus just acquisition, something near and dear to our hearts that you know is a new account onboarding. And so a lot of folks, you know, we've been talking about that in the industry for 25 years, and I'd say I see today that a lot still aren't doing it well. And that's the most important thing you can do is you're bringing in new accounts, acquisition. You can't really stop once the account is open. It's really a continuum. And so you really need to be thinking about how do I continue to grow and balance that acquisition, retention and relationship deepening all at the same time as one cohesive strategy, because everyone is fighting for the same deposits today. And that's what we hear more and more is, how do I get that deposit growth? So it's really about fostering and nurturing and creating retention versus just trying to get those new deposits in the door.

Jim Marous (3:22)

So you say that and we've said it since we're working together at Zions Bank.

What gets in the way of between knowing what you're supposed to do and these organizations actually doing it? What are the excuses or what gets, what's the barrier to actually doing what we're saying every single podcast I do, every single presentation I do?

Megan Pannier (3:44)

Well, I'd say a big part of it is data for one. There's still a big data problem. Everybody's sitting on a ton of data, but they don't know how to mine it to actually make it useful. And so while you're bringing a new customer in, you may give them the first initial pieces that they need to get their relationship going, but you stop there because you're not looking at that data and having a strategy around how do you send them messaging that's relevant and make sense depending on what they've onboarded so far. And so I think data is huge and you really need to have a data strategy before you can build an effective onboarding program. And you also have siloed businesses as well, right? Everyone thinks their product is the most important, so it's fighting for primacy in just the messaging. And so bringing really all of the siloed business units together to have that comprehensive strategy on not what makes most sense for us to push from a product perspective, but what's going to make most sense to bring to the customer to really foster and nurture the relationship.

Jim Marous (4:55)

Is this something that frustrates you and your organization as well as a lot of the other players out there, that while data is a very good reason for not moving forward, we have more players now that can take data that may not be perfectly set up and does have silos, all these things, and actually make it work for them. I mean, we use that as an excuse when we're a financial institution, but the reality is there's never been more partners out there that are willing to say, I don't need everything looking perfect. I can do what you need to do.