Sunday, February 3, 2019


Collaboration and Outsourcing – The time has Come


A Three-Part Series.  Part One- Why Outsource? 
For many financial institutions, resources are the main limitation for the offering or products and services.   While traditional products such as business loans, commercial real estate, mortgages and consumer loans remain the mainstay of the offerings by financial institutions, the competition for customers in these areas remains fierce.   According to the FDIC, community banks and smaller  institutions have found that the  traditional model for income has experience some positive growth in the past two years, but this growth continues to be strained by  the number fintech companies that have begun to “disrupt” the financial services industry.   Fintech, regtech and other software companies continue to make inroads in the traditional community bank and credit union customer base.
“Researchers have projected that fintech could be responsible for a reduction of between 10% and 40% of bank revenue by 2025. It’s estimated that between 15% and 25% percent of U.S. banks could be gone by 2020 as a result of consolidation brought about largely by the rise of fintech and increased regulations on banks.[1]
Opportunities Abound in Other Areas
As competition for customers  in the traditional banking products continues  to increase, the need for innovation that will increase overall non-interest income becomes more important.   While there are other opportunities available, financial institutions often find themselves unable to attempt new things based upon limited  resources such as training, software and experience.   Despite the fact that there may be some difficulties, the returns on the investment in these products is worth the effort.    For example,
“McKinsey, a consultancy, analyzed the impact of fintech on retail banks from an opportunity standpoint. It determined that progressive banks can increase revenues from innovative new offers and business models by 5%; increase revenues from new products and distinctive digital sales by 10%; and lower operational costs through automation, digitization and transaction migration by 30%. This would result in a total potential net profit opportunity of +45 percent. [2]
In addition to the innovations in fintech and in the software’s overall effectiveness in general, often overlooked markets such as the remittance market remain a  strong source of potential income.
o   Global remittances have grown to a record level of $613-billion in 2017, a 7% increase from $573-billion in 2016, according to the World Bank.
o   Payments to low- and middle-income countries rose at a high percentage: up 8.5% to $466-billion last year, from $429-billion the year before, according to the World Bank’s Migration and Development Brief.[3]
“Operation chokepoint”- the rather infamous program brought heavy scrutiny on money services business in general and remittances specifically has now ended.  However, the fear of regulatory concerns still remains with many financial institutions.  As a result, this huge market with its potential for large amounts of noninterest income fees remains largely untapped. 
Outsourcing   
With the proper understanding of how a money remitter (’MSB’) works and combined with outsource resources to properly monitor transactions, MSBs present an outstanding opportunity for noninterest income.  
There are ways for institutions to address this concern and that is what the interagency guidance on third party resources is intended to address.  According to the recent guidance published by the FFIEC
Collaborative arrangements involve two or more banks with the objective of participating in a common activity or pooling resources to achieve a common goal. Banks use collaborative arrangements to pool human, technology, or other resources to reduce costs, increase operational efficiencies and leverage specialized experience [4]
This is not to say that you should offer products that you don’t understand.  On the other hand, under the right circumstances,  financial institutions can offer  full range of products using the services of a third party
By using the collaborations not only with other financial institutions, but with fintech firms, regulatory tech firms and specialized consulting firms the possibilities for growth and additional products increases dramatically.  
In part two we will discuss the risk assessments process  
James DeFrantz is the Principal of Virtual Compliance Management Services LLC.  He can be reached directly at JDeFrantz@VCM4you.com


[1] How the Rise of Fintech Could Affect Your Bank  Josh Beard  The Whitlock Company
[2] Ibid
[3]Global Remittances Reach $613 Billion Says World Bank  Toby Shapshak  Forbes Magazine May 2018


[4] Interagency Statement on Sharing Bank Secrecy Act Resources  October 3, 2018

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