Over the last couple of days, our breakout presenters engaged in a range of conversations – from winning primary financial institution status, to deploying emerging technologies to exceeding consumers’ expectations, and taking a proactive security approach to the changing fraud landscape. Check out the key highlights below to see what we covered at this year’s event!

Implementation Best Practices & Preparedness

This panel, featuring Chuck Lorenz from Premier Bank, Ashley Lee from REV FCU, and Trisa Wetzel from Engage fi, set the foundation for how a successful retail digital banking conversion should be executed. By standardizing the implementation process as much as possible, with a mix of proactive and responsive strategies in place, Alkami helps financial institutions mitigate risk for a successful digital banking conversion.

During this session, the panelists shared their tips and best practices that financial institutions should consider, when gearing up for a retail banking launch. Common themes arose regarding how proactive preparation, and consistent communication are key to ensuring a seamless launch experience, with as little disruption as possible to financial institution operations and the overall end user experience.

Workshop: Digital Banking Customizations Without Code

Alkami’s very own Senior Solution Consultant, Ed Cossentine led this session and showcased four different ways financial institutions can differentiate their digital banking solutions by leveraging intuitive customization tools within the Alkami Admin Platform. These include: customizing site text, Theme Builder, Navigation Builder, and Packages.

1. Site text is a searchable tool within our admin platform that allows our institutions to easily customize over 2,500 different areas within the platform. It also offers change management features that allow financial institutions to review what changes have been made, who made them, and the ability to roll the changes back if needed.
2. Theme Builder allows our institutions to create customized unique themes for different segments of their user base.
3. Navigation Builder allows our institutions to control how the navigation is displayed to their users as well as create custom landing pages. 
4. Packages allow our institutions to provide unique experiences to a specific segment of users.

Transforming Online Banking into the Primary Digital Sales Channel

Chad Rogers from Connexus Credit Union and Liam Petraska from NASA Federal Credit Union took the stage alongside Alkami’s Senior Product Manager, David Hanna, to discuss the transformation of online banking into a primary digital sales channel. Together, they addressed industry trends emphasizing the importance of delivering relevant content to consumers at the right place at the right time to boost conversions. 

Utilizing the cardholder journey as a case study, NASA FCU illustrated how Alkami’s digital banking solutions can assist in account holder onboarding, engagement, and growth. Connexus CU spoke to how they differentiated their digital banking platform leveraging Alkami’s software development kit to meet their institution’s specific operational and member needs. Both financial institutions connected over using digital banking as a vehicle to achieve their business goals.

Revolutionizing Digital Service with Personalized Financial Wellness & Customer Service

Courtney Mrsny, director of client sales at Alkami, introduces the next transformation of financial wellness and customer service. Aiming to surpass consumer expectations for 24/7 digital service, this presentation revealed strategies for personalizing traditional service channels, drawing inspiration from industry perspectives including Kelly Mobley at Vantage West Credit Union, Kassandra Martin at Direct Federal Credit Union, and Chris Fraenza at SavvyMoney. In this session, attendees learned important strategies to enhance engagement and financial literacy, improve satisfaction, and foster trust and loyalty with account holders.

Winning the Next Generation of Account Holders with a Best-in-Class User Experience

Financial institutions, neobanks, and megabanks are in a race to win the banking relationship with Generation Z and Millenials. But what will it take to establish and cultivate that hard-earned relationship? Stewart Watterson, strategic advisor at Datos Insights, and Ty Griffin, senior director of UX/UI at Alkami conducted an eye-opening session that explored the key trends financial institutions need to be aware of to win this next generation of account holders.

Best Practices Panel for Safe, Secure and Seamless Faster Payments

This client panel, featuring Veridian Credit Union, Advantis Credit Union, and Alacriti offered attendees Certified Treasury Professional recertification credit by the Association for Financial Professionals and explored how the faster payments landscape has rapidly evolved over the past year, particularly with the expanding adoption of RTP® from The Clearing House and the FedNow Service. Colin Eagan from Veridian Credit Union and Nicole White from Advantis Credit Union shared their firsthand discoveries and learnings since implementing support for faster payments at their financial institutions. In particular, Colin shared key data that revealed that 50% of Veridian Credit Union’s instant payment traffic is occurring outside of traditional business hours, which shows that consumers are increasingly relying on 24/7 access to real-time money movement.

In addition, payments expert Mark Majeske from Alacriti discussed how to facilitate reliable, secure and seamless faster payments by considering important fraud mitigation strategies. This was a valuable panel for financial institutions of all sizes that are considering supporting payments on the Zelle, Visa Direct, RTP®, FedNow and other faster payment rails, and how to maintain operational efficiency from an FI management perspective while doing so.

Combating the Latest Security & Fraud Trends

In this session on the evolving landscape of security and fraud, industry professionals highlighted the prominence of voice artificial intelligence (AI) scams among the top three fraud trends, alongside payments fraud involving Automated Clearing House (ACH), instant payments, and checks. Experts Special Agent Jason Boswell from the United States Secret Service and Mark Majeske from Alacriti shared insights into how fraudsters are increasingly exploiting voice AI and instant payment channels, as well as leveraging open banking to gather data for malicious purposes. The discussion emphasized the necessity of proactive fraud prevention solutions, integrating AI and machine learning, and employing a layered approach combining transaction monitoring, device analysis, and individual analysis to create defense in-depth. 

Mark and Special Agent Boswell also underscored the importance of educating both internal staff and account holders to fortify awareness and prevention. Looking ahead, the potential of AI to swiftly detect patterns and anomalies, alongside a broader use of consortium data and a shift towards digital transactions, was identified as pivotal in advancing the fight against fraud and enhancing security measures across financial institutions.

Digital Banking Built to Defend Against Fraud

During the panel discussion, experts from various financial institutions shared insights on combating prevalent fraud types like multi-factor authentication (MFA) challenges, account takeovers (ATO), and unauthorized member-to-member transfers, utilizing technology and digital channels, such as temporary one-time password (TOTP) for high-risk international users and monitoring high-risk business clients. John Symcox, senior vice president, chief innovation officer at First Fidelity Bank highlighted the importance of Positive Pay in educating and protecting businesses, while Gilbert Young, vice president, information security officer at ORNL Federal Credit Union emphasized tackling phishing through comprehensive training for both users and internal staff. 

Communication strategies for identifying and mitigating risk factors include collaborating with law enforcement as discussed by Elizabeth Bailey, fraud manager at ABNB Federal Credit Union and using tools like Salesforce and facial recognition according to our other experts. The panelists also expressed concerns over future threats such as voice AI scams, credential validation exposures, and the challenges of omnichannel fraud, indicating a need for continuous evolution in fraud prevention and security measures.

Want to be a part of the co:laboration? Save the date for Alkami Co:lab 2025. We’re headed to Nashville, y’all! 

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