Banking on Innovation: The Key to a Future-Ready Financial Institution 

Transcript

Virginia Heyburn (00:01.496)
Hello and welcome back to another episode of FinTech Unleashed, where we break down the most exciting topics in financial services technology. Thank you so much for listening in today and a huge thank you to our guest. Today I'm joined by Jason Beckman. Jason is the Executive Vice President of Technology and Operations at M-Prize Bank in Wichita, Kansas. And I really love what M-Prize Bank is doing to position itself at the forefront of innovation on behalf of its customers.

Jason is here to tell you all about that and importantly, where he sees our industry going over the next few years. So we're going to dive into some of the hottest topics reshaping the financial services industry. We'll talk about artificial intelligence, blockchain, machine learning, banking as a service, all the most popular technology strategies. And we'll also explore how financial institutions can tap into fintech partnerships, how they can navigate these regulatory shifts and also

Take a proactive approach to managing risks, such an important aspect of what all of us do day in and day out. It's so much to cover. So let's get right to it.

Virginia Heyburn (01:14.806)
Jason, welcome to the EngageFI FinTech Unleashed podcast.

Jason Beckmann (01:19.607)
Well, thank you for having me, Virginia. It's wonderful to see you again.

Virginia Heyburn (01:22.868)
It's wonderful to see you. Now tell us about yourself, your background, and also about M-Price Bank.

Jason Beckmann (01:29.057)
Sure, thank you for that. So as you mentioned, I'm the head of technology and operations here at M-Price Bank. I've been with the bank about four years and that comes after a 23 year career in aerospace and defense, working with both the government and the commercial part of the aviation industry, heavily focused on technology and certain product development, intellectual property and running manufacturing facilities for aircraft manufacturing.

Long background before banking been with the bank about four years here at M prize Bank. We are a privately held family-owned third generation Bank were approximately two and a half billion assets in size were based in Wichita, Kansas and there's 500 strong across nine states now for us and we've partnered with engage fi and a couple of opportunities over the last two years primarily to help us navigate the

maze of vendor agreements and large complex contracting with some of our strategic partnerships that we use here at the bank. So happy to be representing the team and joining you this afternoon.

Virginia Heyburn (02:37.006)
Super, thank you, thank you so much. Innovation is just really such a big topic right now, Jason. I've been in this business for 30 years. It's always so hard to believe that it's been so long. But it really does feel like a major inflection point in our industry right now. It feels like some of our industry's sacred cows are about to be put out to pasture if we think about maybe interchange, certain technologies that we've been holding onto for a long time.

And I'm curious, your point of view, what are the most significant technology advancements that are reshaping our industry right now?

Jason Beckmann (03:14.391)
Yeah, that's a big, big question and broad topic. We could probably spend the entire time on that. There's a couple things that come to mind for me, Virginia, and I'll start with pace. So when you think about technology advancements, everybody likes to hone in on one or two individual things that have really taken shape. think some of it is the accumulation of hundreds of micro advancements that have been done at a very rapid pace. I think about things that have taken place in payments.

digital cards, immediate unsecured consumer loans, modular software coding that makes it easier to develop solutions in our industry. All those add up to a big fundamental shift in consumer behavior and what they expect from us. And so it's really not one thing necessarily, but it's an accumulation of all those. Now with that said, there's two or three kind of really big things that have made advancements that are reshaping. AI is obviously...

Kind of the buzzword bingo that sets at the front of everybody's mind. And while it's been around for some time and we've recognized it either as machine learning or other types of AI, the pace that it's been thrust into mainstream banking over the last six to 12 months, and now the iterations of the capabilities that are measured in hours and days instead of weeks and months, that is really transforming and reshaping how we think about banking. And that's probably the slowest it's ever going to move.

the pace that we're moving at now. And I think about it in spaces of cybersecurity as well as customer facing and delivery channels as well. That's certainly one that is currently reshaping industry. think blockchain distributed ledger technology is on the forefront. You think about cross border payments. So my mind goes to settlement times and transaction costs, smart contracts that are automated and seamless to the end customer.

digital identity verification for enhanced know your customer processes, and even the enablement of digital currencies that are in the press all the time right now. So I think some of those type of things are really reshaping. I think there's a quantum computing one that maybe if we have some time, we can talk a little bit more about that. That's probably closer than we realize as well and standing on kind of the mainstream store stuff.

Virginia Heyburn (05:33.506)
Yeah, let's talk about that right now. Quantum computing. mean, you had mentioned the speed of innovation. This is huge. Tell us more about what quantum computing means to banking.

Jason Beckmann (05:44.287)
Yeah, so it's big. It's definitely not 10 years out. It's probably not five years out. And I go and reflect on the magnitude of data and the rate that that data is increasing. You hear the term big data a lot, and it's really becoming incumbent on institutions to figure out how do we ingest and manage and report and leverage big data in meaningful ways. And to me, it goes beyond what the common perception of quantum computing is. Most people will think

Well, I use that algorithm to solve complex computational problems, which is true, but I'm really talking about going beyond that and solving the infrastructure and energy challenge that are created by all this data. It's creating a massive footprint that's rapidly outpacing the infrastructure. And so I think about if you can leverage quantum computing and take an algorithm that could find a solution using less data or fewer iterations of data.

that reduces the need to constantly shuffle data across systems and platforms and possibly drawing down the footprint and enabling more processing where the data resides. It's those type of things that as data becomes more front and center in banking industry, really where quantum computing can step in in both ways, problem solving and kind of reduce the footprint and help put an infrastructure in place that allows it to scale.

Virginia Heyburn (07:04.171)
And Jason, as I listen, I'm wondering for all the community bankers out there, is this something that they really need to be proficient in or is this something where they're going to lean heavily on their vendors to help them figure this out?

Jason Beckmann (07:18.379)
It will probably be both and it will, the balance will shift over time. A lot of community banks and smaller institutions will probably need to partner in some of this space, very similar to AI and how institutions are bringing AI in. There's going to be external partners and fintechs that do it really well, that can allow you to build a muscle around it very quickly. However, over time, I think...

Data is something that every institution is going to have to learn to deal with and build some capability around because it's going to be so prevalent, particularly as you think about open banking and what may or may not happen in that space. So I would say you partner early, you learn to get it in and build the muscle around it. But over time, banks will need to understand and have capabilities built around data. And that's where things like AI and quantum computing, I think, fill in the holes.

Virginia Heyburn (08:11.374)
Well, and the why behind all of this, I mean, there are many, many whys, but I think almost daily about this whole notion that we need to provide a personal banker in the pocket of every single customer, this hyper-personalization. It's simply not possible without faster computing power. It's not possible without artificial intelligence. Let's go deeper into AI and tell me how you think about

the role of artificial intelligence in our industry, particularly in the community bank space, because sometimes in conversations with community banks, they're just not quite there yet, and it feels like they need to be.

Jason Beckmann (08:50.773)
Yeah, that's a good point. And I think about artificial intelligence in particular, kind of in two main ways. I think about deep vertical artificial intelligence in that use and then broad, more generalized AI. And I'll talk a little bit about that. So deep vertical AI, think point solutions that leverage something like machine learning, take a data set and pull on that data and construct it in a way that allows you to learn off of it and have it

iterate on itself with supervised or unsupervised learning. We think about that and how can we embed that into bank processes, things like marketing and customer segmentation, consumer behaviors or product predictions. So think about a customer where we may be able to use their behavioral data and insight that they have with us and be able to predict,

they would benefit from a checking product, for example, or they would benefit from a savings product and be able to offer that to them real time in the moment that they asked. So we think about AI that way as enhancing a system of what we provide. We also think about AI as enhancing the performance of the team, as well as that customer experience.

taking that AI out of a small vertical point solution and pushing it broadly to every team member across the bank and every customer that we interface with on a daily basis and structuring use cases around how we can make that better. How can we change the way we think about a process and do it in bank operations? How can we think about and change the delivery that we provide to a customer experience, whether that's self-help services with chat bots on a website or engaging

them in product changes within their portfolio based off of what we see and how we can leverage AI. So I think about generative AI and agentive AI is stepping into the life of the team as well as the customer, whereas the vertical AI is really more of how we improve the system behind the curtain.

Virginia Heyburn (10:54.698)
Mm-hmm and it gets to sort of my comment in the beginning when we first started talking about sacred cows, right? Because we have processes in banking and over a period of time we've automated those processes. I don't know that we've always done a great job of taking a look at whether or not that process is the correct one in the first place. And so with AI and with some of these newer technologies, it's almost as if a manufacturing mindset is coming into banking where we take the process and

Jason Beckmann (11:01.751)
Hmm.

Virginia Heyburn (11:24.546)
We either deconstruct it completely or just get rid of it and start anew. And then with these newer technologies, artificial intelligence capabilities, certainly data-centric hyper-personalized service capabilities, this is really a fundamental rethink and reshaping of our industry that's going to be taking place before our very eyes.

Jason Beckmann (11:45.323)
You nailed it. mean, most people will default to how do I make a legacy process more efficient and more effective, maybe even optimize it. What AI really allows you to do a step back altogether and think about the processes and problems in entire new ways. How can it be solved differently? What outcome do I want and how do I get there by leveraging AI that may lead to a complete rework.

of how you define and deliver a product or process or service to a customer. And that's really the power of AI, not just automating what we do today, but thinking about it completely different and how we solve it.

Virginia Heyburn (12:21.858)
And that's where we get nervous in the banking industry, right? Because we are so compliance focused and compliance heavy and compliance proficient. We're really good at it. But with AI now coming to the fore and with this AI first mindset, probably with everything we do from this point forward, with respect to technology, with respect to innovation, with respect to new process, new product, how should banks be thinking about the ethics of technology? It's a big concern in our industry.

Jason Beckmann (12:50.697)
It is a huge concern and it's one we talk about on a regular basis. And I think about it in this way, Virginia, I think about it as a can, should lens. Can you do something and should you do something? And stopping to ask yourself the question, there's always going to be the need and the responsibility in our industry to maintain things like PCI compliance or information security as part of safety and soundness that AI can solve.

but there's also always going to be the human element of what's the ethical application. It's particularly important with data because in today's technology, know, the storage and the retention and usability of data is often unseen by the end customer. So it becomes a matter of doing what's right when no one is looking with the technology that you apply against that data and then ensuring you have full transparency back with the individual customer so that they have that comfort and trust.

and their bank partner in a digital age. So we think about the can, should lens. We also hire for it here. One of the things we do at M-Prize is it's imperative to us to have that values alignment and that we hire team members and teammates that create the right conditions for innovation, but a culture that does it in the right way so that it builds on that in customer safety and soundness is forefront of what we do with AI. So I think you think about it through a decision-making lens.

You hire for it and then you have to demand that ethical standard and demand that behavior. Cause at the end of the day, technology insertion only works if it's backed by the right culture. And for us, know, at M-Prize we work to prove you can build a high performance tech forward bank with cutting edge technology without cutting corners, burning people out or stifling creativity. Right? We talk about that as future proofing our business.

And that's all built under the construct of handling technology and assertion in an ethical way.

Virginia Heyburn (14:47.694)
And where does regulation come into play? my question is, should ethics, the ethics of technology, the ethics of AI is one example of that. Should that be regulatory driven or should that really come from culture within the financial institution?

Jason Beckmann (15:03.489)
There's probably aspects that would require both. I think that's always a risk in our industry because the pace that technology moves at sometimes outpaces the regulatory environment's ability to adapt and keep up with it. And anytime you get into that gray space or there's a little bit of a disconnect, you have to rely and lean back on the safety and soundness that is the base of a regulated industry. And those broad kind of default table stakes

you're just cognizant of at all times. Those don't move. So even if within there, there's some gray space and nuances, we lean heavily on our culture to do what's right and put customer focus first and keeping them at the forefront for safety and soundness. So I think it's a little bit of both, but that's always going to be a challenge for the regulatory bodies in our industry is to keep pace with the rapid evolution of technology. I don't know that that challenge ever goes away.

Virginia Heyburn (15:59.35)
And we can't wait for the regulators to catch up with this pace of innovation. There's an argument that may not even be possible considering how fast we're moving. And so there is this, I think the onus is on the financial industry, the individual institutions to really manage this in a very effective way because the other options do nothing to be fearful of these new technologies.

And that's simply not an option. I just feel like that's a recipe for being completely off the map.

Jason Beckmann (16:30.903)
Yeah, I actually think it lets our consumers down. If we don't try to keep pace and find a way to compete in a safe and sound manner and to enable a consumer's financial well-being, they're going to look for an experience. And unfortunately, there are cases out there of financial services that are provided that aren't in a regulated environment that don't have the safety and soundness and may not have their best interest in mind. And so we want to charge as fast as we can.

in a thoughtful and responsible way to keep pace with what their needs are, even if we don't have a level in of detail from a regulator.

Virginia Heyburn (17:10.412)
Yes, and there are plenty of fintechs, you say, fintech banks that are out there providing really interesting experiences. And we see the uptake. We see that market share is growing exponentially. If you look at the number of deposit accounts opened in the past 12 months, it's above 50 % in favor of the fintechs. So consumers are going there, particularly younger consumers. It's changing the competitive landscape significantly. How do you view the rise of these digital-only banks?

Jason Beckmann (17:38.837)
Yeah, it's interesting when I think about digital-only banks. First, I wish it was only digital-only banks. I think there's digital-only banks and there's big tech companies that are outside of financial services and industry altogether. But I think the embedded fintechs, whether they're fintechs brand names that have embedded finance within them or whether they're true digital-only banks,

They're disrupting the consumer and the small business base is pretty heavily. And I think they have been for some time. I think the impact of digital only banks has actually been hitting the industry for five plus years. But I'd argue that most financial institutions didn't recognize that delivery channel was disintermediating their customer base at the time. So by that, mean, think about the slow slide down a financial institution's stack. You you may be top of wallet.

And then all of a sudden somebody takes 10 % of their automated direct deposit and funnels at somewhere else. What they're really doing is they're diverting it to a second account and testing a digital only delivery experience. And how's that feel and how's that work? Then over time that may become the primary and a legacy account may become a secondary. And so you've moved down wallet, you still have the account open. There's still funding coming in and out of there. So the optics of it look healthy.

but what's really happening is you're being disintermediated under the surface. By the time you realize what's happened, that accounts probably stagnant or being closed. So, unfortunately, I think the influence of digital only deliveries made its mark by the time most devis noticed. That's why we think it's super important to provide a personalized and relevant experience, regardless of the channel. We want the same experience for customers through our digital delivery channels as we do standing in person.

with one of our associates at a branch. And we've really focused on that. So I think the disruption has already been there. It may not be as widely known, but some of the data that you mentioned on the volume of accounts that are open through non-traditional banks or digital-only banks is only going to continue to rise. I really think it equates to what Uber did to the taxicab industry. The taxicab industry knew Uber was around for some time, but by the time it took off like a brush fire, it was too late.

Jason Beckmann (20:02.367)
And so that's why we saw, you know, four or five years ago, it's time to make a move and get into those digital delivery channels and create a personalized and relevant experience as soon as possible so that it's more of an omni-channel view for our customer. And then they can engage with us in the way that makes the most sense.

Virginia Heyburn (20:20.01)
And it's interesting, right? You mentioned the taxis and Uber. Now the Uber drivers, they're concerned because Waymo is bursting onto the scene and consumers are getting more comfortable with that. In the beginning, most people would have said, I'm never doing that. And then you see people doing it and you step into the car yourself. It doesn't take very long.

Jason Beckmann (20:26.965)
Right?

Jason Beckmann (20:38.647)
It does not. And I think that's such a challenge for us. to me, it's a fascinating part of our industry is we're at a central part of a person's life. And we would say nobody likes to bank, but they love what banking can do for them. And so once you understand that the trick is to meet them where they are, how they want to be met.

and embed yourself seamlessly into their life so they don't have to stop life and step out to the side to go do a bank transaction but can have it be part of their life. It helps you think competitively a little bit differently because you look at technology outside of banking earlier and start to think about how can that be applied in our space and in our industry. And that helps us kind of lean on the front foot and stay out in front of that a little bit.

Virginia Heyburn (21:26.082)
and that embedding into consumers' lives, that's not going to happen, I think, on the backs of financial institutions alone. They're going to have to partner. They're going to have to partner with fintechs in order to achieve that kind of an experience. when I think about fintech partnerships, so much has happened over the last three to five years. More and more banks are starting to get into that. What are you guys doing in this space?

Jason Beckmann (21:53.557)
Yeah, so we are a very big believer of partnering with fintechs to compete. I think there's a couple of things that we think about as we partner with them. We partner with fintechs in a couple ways. One, our core bank. So our franchise bank and how we deliver products and services to our end consumers, that is a key partnership realm for us. Fintechs do things in every aspect of financial services.

They do it narrowly with deep and fast experience. And they're going to be experts in things that are newer to a traditional financial institution. We've chosen Embrace It. So we're going to take things in our established franchise and leverage partnerships for infrastructure transformation, customer facing products and services, things like our online banking and mobile experience. We've done things in the payment space. We've done things with our lending platforms.

we partner with FinTechs for credit and underwriting processes and a number of other areas in our core bank because it creates a better digital experience for the end consumer. That's been a huge point of leverage in us going back to just before the pandemic. So late 2019, early 2020, we really leaned in in that space. We also as part of our enterprise embedded business and banking as a service, we have robust partnership model in that space as well. So as you think about

processors and program manager relationships that have been born out of the banking as a service. That's been an important enabler for us to get to market and not just a fast way, but in a responsible way where we can build solutions and product on proven capabilities and partners and not have to invent everything ourselves. That helps us leverage what's best in class and it helps us also then focus on what we do well.

and to take advantage and exploit the capabilities that we have internally. For example, we have very robust data capabilities in-house, and we're able to focus and bring that to bear as we think about BSA and AML and compliance and risk management and understanding the customer as part of the overall experience in that partnership ecosystem. So fintech partnerships have been a very important part of our business for some time.

Virginia Heyburn (24:10.562)
You mentioned banking as a service and of course that's been a very big topic in the past year or so with some of these high profile, let's call them failures in the banking as a service space. So a lot of the banks that I talk to now, Jason, they're just concerned about getting into it. They want to stay as far away as possible. How do you see the future of banking as a service evolving in light of these challenges that we've faced?

Jason Beckmann (24:36.073)
Yeah, well, the way we think about it, Virginia, is a level of thoughtfulness. So we would say measure twice and cut once. Do the process work early. Find the right talent and skills early. Be really clear and crisp on where you delegate that precious authority, when to do that and how to do that versus when and how to keep that with yourself directly.

So we tried to design our infrastructure for safety and soundness. And I would encourage an institution that's thinking about banking as a service to do all that work upfront. Because the inclination will be how quickly can I get there and just jump? And that hasn't always worked out well in this space. So if you put the work in upfront and you build out the processes and the talent, you understand your structure for program management, and then you design for scale too.

as you're designing that infrastructure and you're building it, not just for safety and soundness, but for scale, because for a lot of institutions, get into embedded finance and banking as a service in this place, the scale can get on top of you very quickly. So for us, it's all those things. And then when we get into execution, it's remembering what we do well. What do we do well as an institution? We're excellent at compliance, BSA, AML, we're crystal clear on responsibilities that protect the customer and having

good robust delineation and contracts with our partners, all those things. So we love to move quickly. We like to be an early adopter, but that doesn't mean doing it at the thought of the cost of thoughtfulness, right? To us, it's, or me, it's the difference between velocity and speed. One has a much better sense of why it's moving and where it's going. And we like to fall in that side and that camp of velocity.

Virginia Heyburn (26:19.405)
Yeah.

Virginia Heyburn (26:27.116)
I like the way you said that. You mentioned compliance and I agree with you. mean, this is something that nobody wants more compliance, but we are just so good at it as an industry. But is anything missing? What regulatory changes do you think might be necessary to support a more resilient banking as a service ecosystem?

Jason Beckmann (26:44.893)
Yeah, there's a couple things that come to mind. think anybody would say we value simplified, efficient, clear and consistent regulations. Those will always be helpful. And I'll touch on a couple of those in just a second. But I also think there's opportunities in the bank and FinTech engagement model as well, in addition to the regulatory changes. So

A couple things I think about related to that are partnership clarity, like I mentioned a little bit earlier, and having a really robust kind of bank and fintech oversight and accountability model. So for us, partnership clarity is really clear roles and responsibilities, particularly in the program manager space. the bank fintech oversight and accountability is really, do you have a good third-party risk management framework in the first place? Do you have a good sense of shared accountability to that framework?

are the policies and procedures in place that clearly outline that, and then beefing up some of the contractual standards. Now, a little bit provocative, I also think there's potentially a little bit more regulatory parity that might be out there in the future. And in some cases, thinking about some of the larger, more complicated agreements in fintechs operating under embedded arrangements in certain verticals, they may benefit from some more direct oversight in some cases.

I don't know that industry will ever get there. It's probably a challenge out in front of us to think about. So all that said, I think a little bit more unified banking as a service regulatory framework. Really things that I think are helpful are centralized reporting standards. Also think about regulatory framework that enables those in the embedded space to adapt more quickly. We talked a little bit earlier about the pace of innovation.

and having a regulatory framework that doesn't get disconnected from the technology advancements. That can be over constraining for not only banks to be competitive, but to also ensure that that end customer is supported in the best way possible. We don't ever want that pace of adaptation or ability to move to be constrained because we don't want to leave those customers without an option or having them chasing experience that's not founded with that best interest at heart.

Jason Beckmann (29:05.269)
I think just having a really unified framework that's clear and simplified and concise that we can all work to, and then really focusing on your bank partnership and clarity with those fintechs and partners that you have in the ecosystem would be helpful.

Virginia Heyburn (29:20.942)
And foundational technologies are really important. I think it's easy to lose sight of what needs to get put in from an infrastructure perspective. Just good old-fashioned technology, plumbing, if you will. And I see open banking and API-driven interoperability as essential for all of the things that we've been talking about here today. You want data. You need to have the big data. You've got to have the artificial intelligence to reimagine your experiences. You want to be able to offer

product and service in real time when the customer needs it and wants it in the device of their choice, right then, right there, not tomorrow. And then also these partnerships. Open banking is essential. And with Open Banking 1033 regulation now being off the table, right, I worry a little bit, no, I worry a lot about community financial institutions, community banks.

feeling like they're off the hook from a technology perspective, not realizing what they're giving up. Now, what does it mean to smaller financial institutions that open banking 1033 regulation is now essentially gutted?

Jason Beckmann (30:33.141)
Yeah, I can tell you here at M-Prize, we do not think that. We do not take that for granted and think we're off the hook in any way, shape or form, nor would we ever want to be off that hook. Just because the CFPB is working to repeal and kind of vacate their 1033 rule, we don't think the progression toward open banking goes away at all. We think about 1033 as a regulation-driven requirement.

But more importantly, we see strategically open banking as a financial services and fintech market driven concept. That's going to continue 1033 or not. And that's going to continue to be a competitive threat or an opportunity. However, you want to look at it for smaller financial institutions, particularly from a technology experience and customer expectations standpoint.

over time. You think about all the API enabled products and technology that's in our space today that create this more seamless access to financial data and banking functions. And consumers are starting to understand and want and have the desire to control, authorize and restrict third parties to either act or not act on their behalf based off their financial data. That underlying customer need we believe is going to continue.

So I'd actually argue that smaller institutions need to move more quickly and aggressively without a phased rollout expectation of 1033 in place. So they can actually proactively avoid the disintermediation from the big tech company or a larger institution that's continuing to push for that open banking structure and infrastructure.

Virginia Heyburn (32:18.956)
And how do banks prepare for that culturally? It's one thing to prepare technologically, but the culture is going to have to shift to accommodate the amount of change and the pace of change, the generational change that's coming banks way.

Jason Beckmann (32:33.941)
Yeah, you can talk it and train it. And in some cases, I think you do need to infuse it and inject it. And that can be injected in a number of ways. Culturally, you can expect it as part of the hiring process and the talent needs. You can expect it from a performance standpoint. It's also helpful to have some non-banking perspective and some tech background perspective brought into an institution.

And whether an institution does that directly or through a consulting relationship, I don't know that that matters as much, but we do see intense value in people with technology backgrounds or that came from outside of banking coming in to really talk about how data may have been used in their industry and how it is more centralized to the industry. I think it's always been central to the bank, banking industry and financial services, but I think the role the consumer plays

and it is rapidly changing. And so having some of that perspective brought into our team has been very nice over the last four five years to really help change our focus around it. And we set off on a journey in 2020 to build an in-house data and AI capability. And now we've got a dozen of some of the smartest people in industry that work in that space for us to help us stay out in front with either products and services.

operational, know, bank operations processes, things that we're working on to really be data driven.

Virginia Heyburn (34:03.052)
Yet strategy's never been more important, has it?

Jason Beckmann (34:05.759)
No, no, it's probably the most important thing and it has to evolve more quickly than it has historically. You're not making 10-year decisions from a strategy standpoint. You're making decisions based off the clarity that you have from a technological standpoint, which is probably 18 to 24 months, and then a little bit of forecasting or prediction on top of that. But you can't sit back and make a decision and write it.

peers anymore strategically, you have to be adept and flexible to evolve because the customer base is evolving more rapidly than it

Virginia Heyburn (34:41.666)
Yeah, good point. Jason, we're coming to the end of our time. Is there anything that you want to add that you think that our listeners should hear from you today?

Jason Beckmann (34:51.423)
No, I would just say that it's helpful to embrace technology. We've really worked hard at M-Prize to not look past technology and really ingrain it as part of our customer experience. And when you look through the lens of how can I make this the most personalized and relevant experience for my customer? How can I do that consistently and do that at scale? You get over the fear.

of technology insertion, you get over the fear of leaning forward and trying new things because you realize you're always going to have the customer at the forefront of that and you're going to have their best interests at heart. And when you solve problems that way, technology gets a lot less scary. That's tough for smaller institutions to kind of conquer that hurdle because it does require an investment. It requires an investment of talent. It requires an investment of the technology itself. It requires an investment of time and resources.

for the business, but that's the world we live in. And I don't think that ever gets any easier from now. It's hard to predict 10 years in the future, but 20 years ago, you could be more stable because the pace of change wasn't so irrational like it is today. So we just try to embrace it and enjoy it as we go. And our goal is to really future-proof the business here at M-Prize and make sure that we're thinking tech forward.

Virginia Heyburn (36:15.544)
Well, that's exactly what you're doing. We've learned so much from you today, Jason. Thanks for joining me on today's episode.

Jason Beckmann (36:22.643)
Absolutely, Virginia. Thank you so much for having me.

Virginia Heyburn (36:25.932)
And I also want to thank you, our listeners, for choosing EngageFI as your source of information for banking technology services. As always, please be sure to look out for the next episode of FinTech Unleashed by following EngageFI on LinkedIn. Until next time, have a great rest of your day.