Charles Potts: Turning Strategy Into Success With the Right Tech
By Charles Potts, ICBA’s executive vice president and chief innovation officer.
In the current economic environment, your bank’s strategy is worth its weight in gold. Coming out of a little bit of rate malaise and deposit liquidity challenges, today’s environment delivers much more potential. In fact, the next couple of years provide the opportunity for banks to grow through their technological investments.
When it comes to broadscale business growth, community banks typically have three buttons they can push: 1) reduce costs, 2) increase revenue and profits, and 3) become more efficient and effective.
Technology can help bankers achieve all three goals, but it’s your strategy that will guide you to the right technological solutions to achieve your vision. For instance, if you’re looking to acquire new accounts, consider how your digital transformation initiatives can support you in delivering a more seamless, frictionless customer experience. How can technology help you create a consistent environment across channels, including digital, mobile, ATM, call centers and more?
If you’re striving to reduce costs and make your bank more efficient and effective, explore how artificial intelligence (AI) can provide that support. How can AI shore up back-office operations, simplify risk monitoring and even ease customer interactions?
We are in an era where technology complements community banking more than ever before. So, embrace how new partners and solutions can help your bank’s business vision become a reality.
But to reap those rewards, community bankers must start from a firm foundation. You have to step back and look holistically at your place in the market landscape. Who are you competing against? Where is deposit leakage happening?
Answering these questions requires another technology foundation: strong data. To get the information you need, you have to be able to analyze customer insights to make smart decisions. A data-centric approach will allow you to uncover the holes in your offerings, whether they are payroll, brokerage/wealth management, peer-to-peer, payments apps or something else. You will be able to determine where your bank customers are moving money, identify a short list of features, and target solutions you can bolt into your existing product suite to respond to those needs.
Resources exist to cull that data and drive decisioning. Take a look at ICBA’s ThinkTECH Accelerator alumni (icba.org/innovation) and Preferred Service Providers (solutions.icba.org) in the data space. Many of them are already primed to help you realize your strategic next steps for technological investments.
Because in today’s landscape, technology matters. Your bank’s strategy may very well be your golden ticket, but it’s your technology stack that will provide the Midas touch. With the right, data-backed strategy in place, community banks can ensure that all that technologically glitters really does turn into customer gold.
Potts will be speaking at WBA’s Innovation Showcase on September 22, 2025, in Wisconsin Dells.
