The HORNE Banking team has been active lately, going to select conferences around the Southeast to gather insights about the current and future state of the banking industry. Most recently, I attended the Mississippi Young Bankers (MYB) Study Conference and Convention. In its 66th year, this event is a chance to learn and network with the future banking industry leaders.
Besides offering great fellowship and family time, this year’s conference brought together outstanding speakers. Among them were economist Dr. Donald Ratajczak, SEC network spokesman Greg McElroy, and Brad McMullan. Brad is CEO of bfac.com, a technology company that provides mobile marketing and communication solutions. In his talk, he hit home on two topics about where technology and the banking world are headed.
Mobile is the present and the future of business and banking. In consumer banking alone, mobile has changed habits significantly. As of 2015, 64% of the US adult population reported that they use a smartphone[1]. And approximately 73% of US adults 18 and older reported having a banking relationship.[2] In that same timeframe, 52% of smartphone owners with a bank account reported using mobile banking - and that number is expected to continue to climb.[3] As everything moves to a mobile platform, banks will engage or get left behind.
Text messaging will replace business email. Every day, around 23 billion text messages get sent – and 98% of them are read. That’s astonishing, particularly in light of the fact that only 20% of emails are read.[4] Banks already are beginning to find ways to adopt this form of communication both internally and externally with clients and customers.
With these future-facing pieces of information in mind, Brad recommended that banks should start spending more time and effort on their technology strategy, even if it means less time focused on their branching strategy. I tend to agree. A windshield view of the future of this industry reveals a digital highway – and banks need to be on it.
As always, the MYB conference was great! Our HORNE Banking team looks forward to watching these future leaders impact their banks, the industry, and their communities over many years to come!
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[1] US Smartphone Use 2015, Pew Internet, April 2015
[2] Consumers and Mobile Financial Services 2015, US Federal Reserve, March 2015
[3] Consumers and Mobile Financial Services 2015, US Federal Reserve, March 2015
[4] 19 Text Messaging Stats That Will Blow Your Mind, Teckst, October 2015