2017 Digital Bankers of the Year
June 8, 2017 10:00 PM
vege - stock.adobe.com
These bankers are pushing their organizations forward by tying innovation to customer satisfaction, by prioritizing account originations via online and mobile channels and, most boldly, by opening their systems to third parties. The following is a recap of the 2017 slate of honorees picked by the tech journalists at American Banker, led by Digital Banker of the Year Michelle Moore of Bank of America and including four finalists.
Michelle Moore
Head of digital banking
Bank of America, Charlotte, N.C.
$2.23 trillion in assets
Michelle Moore may not have known much about digital technology when her bosses at Bank of America asked her to oversee it, but they seemed to have selected her for a different trait: Her unwavering devotion to customer satisfaction.
With her overseeing digital channels, the bank has experienced major improvements in customer-focused surveys, like J.D. Power. Her colleagues say they have come to expect questions from Moore about how any innovation will fit into customers’ lives.
Additionally, Moore has pushed the bank from an “also ran” in the quality of its digital channels to a formative competitor. Next up, she is hoping to pull the bank ahead by being one of the first to introduce a digital personal assistant.
Read full profilehere , as well as a Q&A with Moore here .
Head of digital banking
Bank of America, Charlotte, N.C.
$2.23 trillion in assets
Michelle Moore may not have known much about digital technology when her bosses at Bank of America asked her to oversee it, but they seemed to have selected her for a different trait: Her unwavering devotion to customer satisfaction.
With her overseeing digital channels, the bank has experienced major improvements in customer-focused surveys, like J.D. Power. Her colleagues say they have come to expect questions from Moore about how any innovation will fit into customers’ lives.
Additionally, Moore has pushed the bank from an “also ran” in the quality of its digital channels to a formative competitor. Next up, she is hoping to pull the bank ahead by being one of the first to introduce a digital personal assistant.
Read full profile
Aayaz Pira
Senior vice president of digital
Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Toronto
$380 billion in assets
Aayaz Pira expanded his digital team from 50 people to 250 last year - and kept them very busy.
Two important innovations went live. An app called Hello Home allows customers to apply for a mortgage - only meeting with humans at the closing. And natural-language understanding allows users of the bank's mobile app to start the process of paying a bill by saying, "Pay a bill."
His impressive list of accomplishments also includes launching a digital innovation hub called Live Labs. It puts traditional bankers together with digital and tech team members and young interns, and asks them to rethink customer experience for all parts of the business.
But perhaps most importantly, Pira persuaded CIBC's top executives to invest heavily in digital channels by painting a picture of what the bank, its reputation and its profitability could look like as a result of that support.
Read full profilehere .
Senior vice president of digital
Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Toronto
$380 billion in assets
Aayaz Pira expanded his digital team from 50 people to 250 last year - and kept them very busy.
Two important innovations went live. An app called Hello Home allows customers to apply for a mortgage - only meeting with humans at the closing. And natural-language understanding allows users of the bank's mobile app to start the process of paying a bill by saying, "Pay a bill."
His impressive list of accomplishments also includes launching a digital innovation hub called Live Labs. It puts traditional bankers together with digital and tech team members and young interns, and asks them to rethink customer experience for all parts of the business.
But perhaps most importantly, Pira persuaded CIBC's top executives to invest heavily in digital channels by painting a picture of what the bank, its reputation and its profitability could look like as a result of that support.
Read full profile
Gary Tramontina
Andy Hernandez
Head of e-business
Regions Bank, Birmingham, Ala.
$126 billion in assets
Regions Bank has spent the past few years building a digital user experience team that incorporates people from outside the banking industry - including content strategists and motion graphic designers.
As the head of this team, Andy Hernandez plays a key role in driving digital innovation at the bank.
Last year the team wholly redesigned Regions' website and among the new features is an "intelligence engine" that provides product recommendations to customers based on information they provide. The team also helped migrate Regions to a new content management system, converting more than 3,000 web pages to a more responsive, mobile-friendly design.
The results so far include an 8% increase in visits to Regions.com and a higher position in Google search rankings.
Read full profilehere .
Head of e-business
Regions Bank, Birmingham, Ala.
$126 billion in assets
Regions Bank has spent the past few years building a digital user experience team that incorporates people from outside the banking industry - including content strategists and motion graphic designers.
As the head of this team, Andy Hernandez plays a key role in driving digital innovation at the bank.
Last year the team wholly redesigned Regions' website and among the new features is an "intelligence engine" that provides product recommendations to customers based on information they provide. The team also helped migrate Regions to a new content management system, converting more than 3,000 web pages to a more responsive, mobile-friendly design.
The results so far include an 8% increase in visits to Regions.com and a higher position in Google search rankings.
Read full profile
CHRISTOPHER APPOLDT
Alice Milligan
Chief customer and digital experience officer
Global cards unit of Citigroup, New York
$1.7 trillion in assets
To Alice Milligan, customer satisfaction is not merely a "soft area" of financial services but one that can drive real economic benefit. After all, she says, "people who are happy spend more."
To make Citi customers happy, she oversaw the launch of 86 new digital features in 2016, including the ability to lock and unlock a credit card, track a replacement card and file a dispute from within the bank's mobile app.
Last year global downloads of Citi's app jumped 66% and the number of active mobile users increased 43% compared with the year before
One of the next innovations: a mobile experience tailored to each user based on that person's typical behavior when using the app. Bots and a messaging platform are also in the works
Already about 85% of the services available to Citi card customers through any channel are available on the mobile app. By the end of 2017, Milligan said, her 400-person team will make it 100%.
Read full profilehere .
Chief customer and digital experience officer
Global cards unit of Citigroup, New York
$1.7 trillion in assets
To Alice Milligan, customer satisfaction is not merely a "soft area" of financial services but one that can drive real economic benefit. After all, she says, "people who are happy spend more."
To make Citi customers happy, she oversaw the launch of 86 new digital features in 2016, including the ability to lock and unlock a credit card, track a replacement card and file a dispute from within the bank's mobile app.
Last year global downloads of Citi's app jumped 66% and the number of active mobile users increased 43% compared with the year before
One of the next innovations: a mobile experience tailored to each user based on that person's typical behavior when using the app. Bots and a messaging platform are also in the works
Already about 85% of the services available to Citi card customers through any channel are available on the mobile app. By the end of 2017, Milligan said, her 400-person team will make it 100%.
Read full profile
Brett Pitts
Head of digital for virtual channels
Wells Fargo, San Francisco
$1.9 trillion in assets
For more than a decade, banks have bemoaned the risky practice of customers sharing the login credentials for their accounts to use popular apps like Mint or Quicken.
Now Brett Pitts and his team are on a quest to give Wells Fargo customers a safer alternative. In the last 12 months, the bank has struck partnerships with three tech companies that will help facilitate a new way for customers to share their financial data with third-party apps.
The effort to move from screen scraping to application programming interface puts Wells at the forefront of an innovation that is going to influence digital banking across the industry - from online lenders to money-management apps and beyond.
As Pitts sees it, the longer journey is nothing short of championing digital advancements that will benefit the customer.
“This is the future," Pitts said.
Read full profilehere .
Head of digital for virtual channels
Wells Fargo, San Francisco
$1.9 trillion in assets
For more than a decade, banks have bemoaned the risky practice of customers sharing the login credentials for their accounts to use popular apps like Mint or Quicken.
Now Brett Pitts and his team are on a quest to give Wells Fargo customers a safer alternative. In the last 12 months, the bank has struck partnerships with three tech companies that will help facilitate a new way for customers to share their financial data with third-party apps.
The effort to move from screen scraping to application programming interface puts Wells at the forefront of an innovation that is going to influence digital banking across the industry - from online lenders to money-management apps and beyond.
As Pitts sees it, the longer journey is nothing short of championing digital advancements that will benefit the customer.
“This is the future," Pitts said.
Read full profile
