FinXTech Intel 2023 report final 2 - Flipbook - Page 13
A Sampling of Bank-Centric
Fintech Venture Capital Funds
Conferences that court both bankers and fintech attendees — including Bank Director’s
annual Experience FinXTech event — can be a low-stakes way for bankers to increase their
knowledge about emerging technologies and meet companies. Fintech conferences were
“absolutely enlightening” to the management team at nbkc bank, the $1 billion bank unit of
Leawood, Kansas-based Ameri-National Corp., CFO Eric Garretson said in an interview with
the executive search firm Travillian.
“We could get into it and meet founders, hear what their issues were, how they wanted to
work with a bank, and what their issues were working with banks,” he said. The bank’s team
was willing to collaborate with early stage start-ups, and the conferences were a good place
to meet them.
These different avenues should give bank executives a sense of the breadth of offerings. It’s
up to the bank to whittle that list down to a handful of promising companies in the universe
and then proceed to due diligence. Behringer recommends banks cut off their search when
For more on due
diligence, head to
page page 14.
they find three promising partners before proceeding further.
But this can be a tricky task for banks, he adds. It can be tempting for bankers to consider
sophisticated, all-inclusive technology solutions when a narrower platform may be both more
appropriate for the institution’s current technology stack and capabilities, and better suited
to the specific task or problem executives are trying to solve. Buying the more-sophisticated
product might increase the risk that bank’s investment doesn’t pay off because “it’s just too
complex, it’s burdensome and it’s created more problems,” Behringer says.
To avoid wasting time and money, Behringer recommends bank technology executives have
honest discussions around, and assessments of, the institution’s technology stack. They should
continuously ask how this product would fit with the institution’s existing strategy, approach
and capabilities, and pursue options that are a good fit with the bank.
To find the
section “What
Happens If
Something Goes
Wrong?” skip to
page 23.
Kiah Lau Haslett is managing editor of Bank Director.
FINDING FINTECHS: HOW DO YOU DECIDE? | 11