Banking Transformed with Jim Marous

Evergreen Podcasts
Evergreen Podcasts
  • 4.6 (85)
  • Business
  • Semiweekly

Are you prepared to embrace change, take risks and disrupt yourself in response to the digital disruption in banking? If not, this podcast is for you. Hosted by top 5 banking and fintech influencer, Jim Marous, Banking Transformed highlights the leadership and cultural challenges facing the banking industry. Featuring interviews with some of the top minds in business, this podcast explores how financial institutions can prepare for the future of banking.

  1. 15h ago

    Why Being a Better Bank Isn’t Enough, with Laura Ries

    Banks and credit unions must stand out by picking one rival to position against, according to author Laura Ries. This Flashback Friday episode features my 2025 conversation with Laura Ries, author of The Strategic Enemy: How to Build and Position a Brand Worth Fighting For. Ries says consumers are surrounded by nearly indistinguishable offers, and that a bank or credit union claiming to be better will not be believed because self-reported claims lack credibility. She explains why a friend’s recommendation, a Reddit thread or a podcast mention carries more weight than advertising, and why repetition of one narrow idea builds a position in the customer’s mind. We cover how a bank or credit union can choose its foe. For a regional bank, Ries frames the choice as the big national players or the online fintechs, whichever creates the greatest contrast. She also covers visual hammers, including the Wells Fargo stagecoach and the Chase shape, why a bank in a blue category should consider red, purple or green, how names like SunTrust and Truist compare, and how PNC’s “brilliantly boring” theme turns a perceived negative into a positive. Ries also explains why a legacy brand may need a second brand, citing Kodak and Toyota’s Lexus, and how employees can live a brand promise through simple, repeated phrases such as Avis’s “We try harder” and Chick-fil-A’s “It’s my pleasure.” She closes with DUDE Wipes, a narrow brand with a clear foe in dry toilet paper, and advice for a regional bank CEO on choosing the foe that creates the strongest contrast. Recorded in 2025, the brands and campaigns discussed are as they stood then. Hosted by Jim Marous. Subscribe to Banking Transformed for new episodes multiple times each week.

  2. 2d ago

    Acorns and the Saving Habit Banks Can Build

    A bank or credit union can make regular saving as easy to start and keep going as Acorns does. Acorns says its customers have invested more than $7.3 billion from spare change alone. Acorns isn't a bank, yet customers have invested more than $7.3 billion through it from spare change alone. Jim Marous has used an Acorns account since 2018 and says his existing banks never asked to help him build a savings plan, despite regular transfers to Acorns several times a month. Bank of America introduced a round-up program in 2005, seven years before Acorns was formed, and as far as Marous can tell, most banks and credit unions still haven't made regular saving as easy as it can be. Marous walks through what Acorns gets right in the order a customer experiences it: a first step of a few cents, a commitment through a paycheck split and Money Manager, and visible progress along the way. Acorns charges $4, $8 or $12 a month, and Marous leaves the fee as a decision for each bank and credit union. He explains what makes customers trust automation enough to leave it on, including knowing how much will move and when, and he points to Ally's Surprise Savings as an example. Marous offers three questions for any savings tool: how many customers turn it on, how many are still contributing six months later, and how much their balances have grown. He notes that a transfer inside one institution creates no new deposit, so retention, additional money, and engagement are the outcomes to measure, and he suggests starting with customers who already send regular amounts to Acorns, Robinhood, or Ally. He cites Chime's automatic 10% transfer from direct deposits and Casco Federal Credit Union's partner-built investing as proof the pieces already exist. About: Banking Transformed is hosted by Jim Marous, a top five banking industry influencer and Co-Publisher of The Financial Brand. Banking Insights episodes deliver the most important strategic ideas in under ten minutes, for the executive who wants the takeaway without the deep dive. Subscribe to the Digital Banking Report at digitalbankingreport.com.

  3. 3d ago

    Brett King on Bank 5.0 and the Rise of AI Agents

    Brett King says the primary financial relationship will belong to an AI agent. Brett King, author of Bank 5.0, returns to Banking Transformed to explain why he believes the banking system of the future will be built for AI agents before it is built for people. He and Jim Marous start with the restrictions JPMorgan, Bank of America and Citi have placed on agent access to customer accounts, and why Brett sees them as the earliest stage of a larger change. Jim adds what he heard at Sibos and Money20/20, where the talk moved from know your customer to know your agent. Brett describes how a customer's agent will research credit, ask only for amount, duration, monthly payment, cost and penalties, and eventually take over the decision. Jim asks whether a primary financial institution can exist once the customer delegates the choice. Brett says the primary relationship will belong to the agent, which pushes cost-to-income ratio, with Nubank and WeBank as the benchmarks, ahead of deposit and loan margin as the measure that matters. The conversation then turns to know-your-agent identity, the regulatory infrastructure Brett proposes in the book, and why he ranks the US well behind Singapore and China on readiness. Jim asks who is furthest ahead and furthest behind among the partners that have to work together. Brett closes with his prediction that banks unable to connect to the new infrastructure will be acquired by the mid-2030s, and with how a personal AI money coach could widen access to financial education. About Brett King: Brett is a futurist, the founder of Moven and the author of Bank 5.0 and the Bank X.0 series. He hosts Breaking Banks and The Futurists. Hosted by Jim Marous. Subscribe to Banking Transformed for new episodes multiple times each week.

  4. 4d ago

    Banking Websites Must Be Built for AI Search

    Get the 2026 State of Financial Marketing report, sponsored by Vericast: https://www.digitalbankingreport.com/trends/2026-state-of-financial-marketing/?IV61 A bank or credit union product page that states who the account is for, what it costs and how to avoid the fee gives a customer, or an AI tool helping her, something to compare. Deloitte found that 58% of customers who use gen AI have already used it to research banking products. Customers still trust their bank's own website more than any other source when they research a product, with 79% saying so in Deloitte's survey of almost 2,600 U.S. banking customers. At the same time, 58% of customers who use gen AI have used it to research banking products. A product page now serves a person and an AI tool at once, and many pages were written like the brochures that used to sit in every branch. In this Banking Insights episode, Jim Marous follows a freelancer paid in lumps through two versions of the same checking account page. The generic page says flexible banking and low fees, so she cannot tell what the account costs or how to avoid the fee. The more useful page states the fee, how to waive it without a payroll direct deposit and how to reach a person, so she can compare the terms with her income. The episode separates transparency, fit and proof, and explains why clearer copy can reveal an advantage but cannot create one. It lays out four checks for three product pages, looks at what a site that asks a few questions up front could do next, and ends with an exercise for leadership: each executive writes down who each product is for and why it fits, then the team compares the answers. About: Banking Transformed is hosted by Jim Marous, top five banking industry influencer and Co-Publisher of The Financial Brand. Banking Insights episodes deliver the most important strategic ideas in under ten minutes, for the executive who wants the takeaway without the deep dive. Subscribe to the Digital Banking Report at digitalbankingreport.com.

    Banking Websites Must Be Built for AI Search

  5. Oct 30

    Stablecoin Threats to Banking

    Dr. Lamont Black explains how stablecoins could cost banks and credit unions interchange, data and deposits. This Flashback Friday revisits one of our most popular interviews, recorded in January 2026 with Dr. Lamont Black, a former Federal Reserve economist and finance professor at DePaul University. Dr. Black placed the shift in 2027, once the GENIUS Act takes effect. Since then, the OCC finalized its stablecoin rule on October 21, 2026, and the Act takes effect January 18, 2027. Other regulatory work remains, but banks and credit unions now have a date to prepare for. Dr. Black says interchange loss could reach 5, 10 or 20% in 2027, starting slowly and then building quickly like Apple Pay and Samsung Pay. Merchants like Amazon could accept a stablecoin for about 1% when a card costs closer to 3%, and he suggests checking how much interchange your institution collects on Amazon Prime Day, which he calls material for many institutions. The risk extends to transaction data and to deposits, as customers sweep spending money from checking accounts into stablecoin balances. He also discusses where to start. Dr. Black explains why a wallet that works with existing stablecoins like USDC is a better first experiment than issuing your own coin, which he does not necessarily recommend for most smaller institutions. He recommends education at the board and executive level, then an internal working group across payments, deposits and IT, and argues that small is nimble because you do not have to be big to play in this space. Hosted by Jim Marous. Subscribe to Banking Transformed for new episodes multiple times each week.

    Stablecoin Threats to Banking

  6. Oct 29

    Is Your Bank Ready for Stablecoins and AI Agents?

    A Coinbase-commissioned study by The Block Research found that 7 of the 10 largest U.S. banks have tested stablecoins or tokenized deposits for settlement, and the other 3 have signaled plans to follow. The same study found that 73% of screened stablecoin transfer volume over a 12-month period took place outside U.S. banking hours. For a bank or credit union, those numbers raise a direct question about what stablecoin payments mean for deposits and interchange revenue, and how long an institution can wait. Recorded at Money 20/20 in Las Vegas, this conversation is with Pavel Kashuba, Strategic Leader at CoinsPaid Solutions, which runs the back office of stablecoin payments. Pavel explains that cross-border settlement, replacing correspondent banking, is the biggest use among financial institutions today, and why he believes they can do much more. He also describes how differing regulatory definitions across countries slow adoption, and why legacy operations hold progress back, which is why CoinsPaid invests in educating the people who work with the technology every day. Pavel expects AI agents to partner with particular blockchains and to choose which blockchain and token a payment runs on. He says the biggest institutions already have strategic plans, with some hiring people and building software while others sit and wait, and he sees waiting as a strategy too. Jim compares the moment to instant payments, when a group of the largest banks in the country had nobody ready on day one, and asks what every bank or credit union should do today. About Pavel Kashuba: Strategic Leader at CoinsPaid Solutions, which runs the back office of stablecoin payments. Hosted by Jim Marous. Subscribe to Banking Transformed for new episodes multiple times each week.

    Is Your Bank Ready for Stablecoins and AI Agents?

  7. Oct 28

    Inside U.S. Bank’s Innovation Culture

    Download the Innovation in Retail Banking report: https://www.digitalbankingreport.com/trends/innovation-in-retail-banking-2025/?IV60 U.S. Bank gets customer improvements from idea to launch by tying the work to business priorities, bringing risk in early and setting success measures before work starts, and banks and credit unions of any size can copy the method. Jim Marous is often asked which U.S. banking organization has the most impressive innovation culture, and he never hesitates to say U.S. Bank. Anyone who has changed banks knows the autopayments are what take the time. This Banking Insights episode looks at how U.S. Bank chooses which customer problems to solve and organizes itself to deliver. Two recent announcements, Protect 360 and Payment Switch, came 12 days apart, and Keynova and American Banker have recognized the results. Drawing on his interviews with Dom Venturo, senior executive vice president and chief AI, data and innovation officer, and Don Relyea, Chief Innovation Officer, Jim explains the operating details. Work is tied to business priorities, risk partners get involved while ideas are still taking shape, success criteria are set before work starts, and a clear handoff moves a proven idea to the line of business that will own it. Dom says about 80% of what a new product needs can come from existing tools. Jim also covers what a smaller bank or credit union can take from this. That includes questioning every step customers are asked to complete, putting providers and risk in the first meeting, learning what existing providers already support, and telling employees and customers when something launches. Jim also explains why the recognition U.S. Bank collects goes mostly to improvements customers can see and use, and how the bank tells people what it builds. The episode closes with one question every institution can use to find its next improvement. About: Banking Transformed is hosted by Jim Marous, top five banking industry influencer and Co-Publisher of The Financial Brand. Banking Insights episodes deliver the most important strategic ideas in under ten minutes, for the executive who wants the takeaway without the deep dive. Subscribe to the Digital Banking Report at digitalbankingreport.com.

    Inside U.S. Bank’s Innovation Culture

  8. Oct 27

    Why Easy Banking May Beat Delighting Customers

    Financial institutions should make it easy to do business with them their first priority. One community bank got account opening to 2 minutes and 13 seconds and increased conversion rates to almost 70%. Derek Corcoran spent 25 years working on customer experience in financial services, including time as chief experience officer at Temenos. His new book, Designing for Need, argues that the industry copied its playbook from businesses selling things people enjoy. Banking is something people need to do, and the best version of a need-to-do experience gives the customer their time back. He makes the case with a community bank that opened accounts in 2 minutes and 13 seconds and a London branch where customers spent 55 minutes anyway. Jim pushes back. He has spent years arguing that customers want us to know them, understand them and help improve their financial wellness, which sounds like the opposite of an institution designing itself to disappear. Derek's answer is the notice that arrives before an overdraft and the sweep from savings that quietly prevents it, an institution responding to what is happening in the customer's life in real time. They also talk about embedded banking, and why Derek treats AI as a tool that follows strategy. Derek says banks under $10 billion held about 15% of industry assets and distributed 45% of PPP funds, and that friends of his who moved to a community bank were back at a national bank within a year. They get into intentional friction, with a customer who said a $600,000 mortgage should feel serious, the question of when you last opened an account at your own institution, and the marketing promise Bankwest and DBS make that Derek can't find an American institution making. Hosted by Jim Marous. Subscribe to Banking Transformed for new episodes multiple times each week.

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4.6
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About

Are you prepared to embrace change, take risks and disrupt yourself in response to the digital disruption in banking? If not, this podcast is for you. Hosted by top 5 banking and fintech influencer, Jim Marous, Banking Transformed highlights the leadership and cultural challenges facing the banking industry. Featuring interviews with some of the top minds in business, this podcast explores how financial institutions can prepare for the future of banking.

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