Independent Banker - April 2017 - 49

firms are strategic in their approach, traditional banks are
not necessarily innovating, she says.
" Fintech companies are very intentional with design
and knowing who they are appealing to, " she says. " The
language is user-friendly and relatable. It's developed by
millennials who understand the population. "
Opinions, unfiltered
Some banks, such as $480 million-asset Centric Bank in
Harrisburg, Pa., are working to change that. Last year,
the bank instituted a 16-person millennial advisory board
in partnership with the Harrisburg Young Professionals
(HYP), a local organization with 2,500 members.
The idea came to CEO Patti Husic after she spoke at
HYP's inaugural CEO breakfast series. Hoping to tap into
the enthusiasm of the people she met there, she reached
out to HYP's executive director, Derek Whitesel, 28. The
bank would glean insights from millennial members,
while, in exchange for a two-year commitment, those
members could build their resumes, network with the
bank's board and use their voices to help create change.
Millennial bankers are also on Centric's board.
One of the biggest takeaways so far came when a board
member with a video production company filmed Centric's
online account-opening process to share with the board.
One millennial's dream app
There's an app for everything in a millennial's life, but
sometimes all those apps get exhausting.
Just ask Tonya Rapley, the 32-year-old millennial money
advisor and founder of MyFabFinance.com. She and her
peers use a bunch of different apps to track elements of
their financial life-often linking their bank accounts and
credit cards-but the list can be unwieldy. Rapley would
love to see a financial institution put them all together
into one app. Elements would include:
»Savings. Instead of just stashing cash in an account,
some institutions offer savings buckets where customers
can allot that cash into buckets for a trip to
Europe or saving to quit their jobs. But it can be hard
to remember to save, so they also use apps like Digit,
which analyzes bank account spending on a daily
basis and moves money to savings if the customer
can afford it that day.
»Account monitoring. USAA has an account where
independentbanker.org
customers can set spending
goals by category and get
regular feedback on where they
can improve. But to figure out
the breakdown, millennials might
download another app to tell them how
much money should be allotted to rent, entertainment
and other expenses based on their salary.
Tonya Rapley
» Investing. Acorns is an app that lets customers invest
small sums using their smartphones by connecting bank
accounts, credit cards and debit cards. Stash Invest
is another app that facilitates investing and provides
investment recommendations. No trip to the bank is
required.
" The first bank able to fold all those services into
a checking and savings account will be the preferred
bank, " Rapley predicts. " It shows they understand
our lifestyle. "
-Kelly Pike
ICBA IndependentBanker 49
It took him almost three-and-a-half minutes to figure out
where on the website he could open an account-and he
said he would have quit looking for it after 20 seconds if
he weren't doing it for
the project.
But it was more than
an inconvenience. He
interpreted it as a message
from the bank:
" We don't want you to
bank this way. "
It got worse from
One person on the
millennial advisory
board asked if the
[bank's] software,
which came from
one of the big coreprocessing
vendors,
was from the 1980s.
there. One person on
the millennial advisory
board asked if the software,
which came from
one of the big coreprocessing
vendors, was from the 1980s. People laughed
when given the option to put $5 million in the account.
They were puzzled why they had to enter the routing and
account numbers from their checks-which not everyone
had-instead of their debit card number.
When they got to the end of the process,
they were dumbfounded when they
learned they'd have to print out the
http://www.qmags.com/clickthrough.asp?url=http://MyFabFinance.com&id=20215&adid=P49E1 http://www.qmags.com/clickthrough.asp?url=www.independentbanker.org&id=20215&adid=P49E2
Independent Banker - April 2017

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