American Banker’s Digital Banking conference is the largest event of its kind in the industry. With a focus on innovation in consumer and commercial financial services, it attracts senior-level decision-makers from banks of all sizes—as well as the companies that serve them. SapientRazorfish attended this year’s event in Austin, Texas, both as speaker and audience member, capturing the latest trends and insights to share with our clients and teams.

1. Insights on Customers
and Culture
American Banker’s Digital Banking conference is the largest
event of its kind in the industry. With a focus on innovation in
consumer and commercial financial services, it attracts
senior-level decision-makers from banks of all sizes—as well
as the companies that serve them.
SapientRazorfish attended this year’s event in Austin, Texas, both
as speaker and audience member, capturing the latest trends and
insights to share with our clients and teams.
“You will be judged by a
customer’s last best experience.”
—MELISSA STEVENS , FIF TH THIRD BANK
“Omnichannel should be a (customer’s) choice, not a limitation.”
—ALEX CARRILES , BBVA COMPASS
“The hardest part of digital transformation
is getting alignment and buy in.”
— GARETH GASTON , U. S . BANK
“If we’re talking about fintech and banking as
two separate things in five years, we’ll have failed.”
—JEREMY BALKIN , HSBC
“Culture eats strategy for breakfast.”
—YOL ANDE PIAZZ A , CITI FINTECH
“Within the bank, for the digital team
it’s like the movie Meet the Parents.
We need to get into the circle of trust.”
— GARETH GASTON , U. S . BANK
CUSTOMER SERVICE AT THE CENTER
An undeniable recurring theme this year was customer experience. While past
years focused on omnichannel and new technologies, this event emphasized
contextualizing these ideas—and digital transformation as a whole—against
customer needs. In presentation after presentation, we heard leading bankers
express urgency around listening to customers and better meeting their needs
with meaningful, frictionless, and delightful experiences.
CULTURE AS A DRIVER
This last insightful quote from Melissa Stevens, and her compelling session as a
whole, drive home the point that impactful customer experiences come from within.
Banks need to not only employ digital tools, contend with legacy systems, update
processes, and comply with regulations; they must also shift institutional mindsets
across technology, marketing, organizational models, and individual employees.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
The conference hosted many banks and fintechs who proudly showed off their latest
digital offerings—from open APIs enabling more seamless integration with partner
services, to new levels of user-friendly details, and plenty of AI-enabled tools. But in
most cases, it all came back to customer focus, cultural shifts, and the role of fintechs
in both of these key tenets of change.
As experience continues to dominate the conversation, what happens behind the
scenes to enable it means little to customers—a sentiment expressed best in this quip:
As a longtime proponent of radical customer-centricity and an expert in the
technologies and experiences that drive it, SapientRazorfish was thrilled to
participate in such a valuable conversation.
GET IN TOUCH
To learn more about how we partner with financial services institutions
to enable digital transformation from the inside out, contact us today.
ABOUT SAPIENTRAZORFISH
SapientRazorfish is a new breed of transformation partner designed to help companies reimagine their
businesses for the connected world. SapientRazorfish partners with financial services organizations to
strategize, design and build differentiated, flexible, and compliant digital experiences that inspire
customers to reimagine their personal financial stories. With more than 12,000 people and 70 offices
around the globe, our capabilities span growth and business model strategy, new product and service
innovation, customer experience, enterprise digital transformation, IT modernization, omni-channel
commerce, precision marketing, change management, digital operations, digital innovation, data
strategy and advanced analytics.
sapientrazorfish.com · @SR_ · fb.com/sapientrazorfish
instagram.com/sapientrazorfish · SapientRazorfish
“We are in a race to save our customers time.”
—JEREMY BALKIN , HSBC
DIGITAL BANKING 2017
“Putting consumers at the center of
a PowerPoint slide does not actually
mean you are putting them first.”
—MELISSA STEVENS , FIF TH THIRD BANK
“I really think that instead of the next widget
or shiny object, that’s what the customer is
looking for…something simple and intuitive.”
—ANDY HERNANDEZ, REGIONS BANK
CI RCLE O F TR U ST
Digital
Team