The Writing's on the Wall - In Disappearing Ink
Attention, community bankers! The tectonic plates of banking technology are shifting, and if you're not paying attention, you might just find yourself doing an impromptu dance on the San Andreas Fault of financial services. The latest tremor? Our friends at the Big Three - Fiserv, FIS, and Jack Henry - are starting to play a high-stakes game of Jenga with their services, and guess who's left holding their breath as the tower teeters? That's right, it's you, the community banks and credit unions.
Fiserv has decided to kick off this party by beginning to ask their clients to ride into the sunset without Retail Online Banking (ROB) and Business Online Banking (BOB) services after December 2026. If you think that's a problem for future-you, think again. In the glacial world of core banking systems, 2026 is practically next Tuesday.
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Topics:
Contract Negotiations,
Fiserv,
Fidelity,
Jack Henry,
FIS,
Bank Tech Spending
Global independent investment banking advisory firm Evercore ISI interviews fintech expert Aaron Silva on all things banking. Listen now to Aaron's predictions for the banking industry:
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Topics:
Contract Negotiations,
community banks,
Fiserv,
Fidelity,
Jack Henry,
Vendor consolidation,
Credit Unions,
vendor merger,
M&A,
Fintech,
open banking
I think it may be true. Clint Eastwood has been secretly behind the physical design and layout of most banking and credit union events for years. This theory dawned on me this spring as I attended and spoke at many national and regional events all over the country. Until starting Paladin fs in 2008, I spent most of my career as your typical vendor selling IT services to bankers. Today, I spend all of my time representing bankers in difficult Core IT negotiations with their vendors (Fiserv, FIS, JHA, S1, Q2, etc). Back in the day, attending and exhibiting at events became almost obligatory if you wanted to "get noticed" or hoped for someone to buy your wares.Being stuck behind a booth in the exhibit hall next to three of your competitors with flashier pens, higher-priced golf putters is a difficult and thankless pursuit. The days are long laced with many hours of boredom while your targets attend breakout sessions or play golf. Then, two to three times a day, a stampede of bankers rushes past you to acquire coffee, food or alcohol strategically located at the other end of the hall - that reminded me of the famous 1977 Clint Eastwood movie, The Gauntlet.
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Topics:
Contract Negotiations,
Paladin Research,
community banks,
Fiserv,
Fidelity,
Jack Henry,
OSI,
Vendor consolidation,
Credit Unions,
bank events,
credit union events
In October we highlighted a clear and present danger resulting from the further consolidation of the Core IT vendors. Fewer vendors exist than ever before and the impact to your service level, legal rights and business options are even slimmer if the institution does not make restructuring your relationship and contract a strategic board-level matter. We teamed up with attorney Gary Findley to put on a national web seminar on this very topic that was widely attended by CEOs and CFOs of all sized institutions. With tremendous feedback we have scheduled an encore presentation on December 10th and 11th if you are interested in joining and hearing some proprietary legal and business strategies on how to manage and mitigate this major risks area please attend.
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Topics:
Contract Negotiations,
Paladin Research,
community banks,
Fiserv,
Fidelity,
Jack Henry,
OSI,
Vendor consolidation
Trekkie fans will understand the reference to the BORG and what it fees like when you don't have many choices. The assimilated Captain Picard provides this famous line, "...from this time forward you will service us." With the recent purchases of OSI by Fiserv and Harland by D+H many bankers believe the line could be rewritten, "...from this time forward ONLY we will service you...And you have nothing to say about it."
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Topics:
community banks,
Fiserv,
Fidelity,
Jack Henry,
OSI,
Vendor consolidation,
vendor merger
As a middle-aged man I ask this same question of myself all the time. Luckily, my wife is nice enough to not bring it up so often as she might otherwise like to - which is good since this is what makes her a great wife...she lies to me (about me). And of course I know what to say when she asks that question about how she looks in those new pants she just bought too.
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Topics:
Contract Negotiations,
Paladin Research,
community banks,
Fiserv,
Fidelity,
Jack Henry,
Credit Unions,
Editorial,
Paladin Success Stories
I was maybe only 5 or 6 years old when my father took me to the Cow Palace in San Mateo, California to watch Ali and George Foreman fight in what is known as The Rumble in The Jungle on closed circuit television broadcast on giant movie screens. I don't remember much of the fight except that I recall how surly the crowd was and all the smoking. My Dad was always, and still is, a big boxing fan and it was a favorite pastime listening to Howard Cosell describe Ali fights. I watched that fight many times in years since and grew ever more appreciative of just how masterful Ali really was in using the "Rope-a-Dope" to fool his opponents and snatch victory. In my book he is the greatest fighter of all time and like so many sports - there are lessons which can be carried into life and certainly into business.
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Topics:
Contract Negotiations,
Paladin Research,
community banks,
Fiserv,
Fidelity,
Jack Henry,
OSI,
Credit Unions
