Transforming Banking with Real-Time Engagement

Jim Marous (00:05):

Welcome to another episode of Banking Transformed, the podcast that dives deep into the trends, innovations, and strategies shaping the future of banking. I'm your host, Jim Marous, owner, and CEO of the Digital Banking Report, and co-publisher of The Financial Brand.

Jim Marous (00:20):

In today's fast-paced digital world, consumers expect their banks to provide personalized, seamless experiences that cater to their unique needs and preferences at the time of those needs. To meet these expectations, banks must embrace innovative technology that enable real time, event-driven engagement above just experiences.

Jim Marous (00:43):

In this episode of Banking Transformed, we are excited to welcome Maria Echeverria, VP of Business Development at Latinia, a leading provider of real-time engagement solutions for the banking industry.

Jim Marous (00:54):

We explore the challenges and opportunities banks facing to delivering hyper-personalized experiences, the role of event-driven architectures in enabling this transformation and the future of customer engagement in banking.

Jim Marous (01:07):

We also discuss where organizations must start in this personalization journey. Event-driven personalization is no longer a luxury, but a necessity for banks and credit unions looking to thrive in the digital age.

Jim Marous (01:22):

By leveraging advanced technologies and customer data, banks and credit unions can create hyper-personalized experiences that not only meet but exceed customer expectations. However, this transformation is not without challenges from ensuring data security and privacy to adopting existing processes and infrastructure.

Jim Marous (01:42):

So, Maria, could you provide a little bit of a summary about your career path and also an overview of Latinia and the core solutions you offer to banks and finance institutions in the U.S. and in Canada?

Maria Echeverria (01:55):

Thank you, Jim, for having me here. We're super excited because we find that through you, we can provide a good message, a value message to a lot of institutions. But let me begin with talking about myself. Sometimes it's not easy to do, because I find that where there's true value is when I know more about the customers than when I talk about myself.

Maria Echeverria (02:19):

But I have an experience, I've been working for technology companies for over 20 years, but it's interesting because I actually started in the banking industry. I used to work at a private bank, attending and serving customers when it came to promoting their investment strategies.

Maria Echeverria (02:44):

And during that time, I was able also to participate in certain technological implementations, which is what triggered the interest that I have right now when it comes to merging the financial industry and technology.

Maria Echeverria (02:58):

And when I started my career, I understood how important it is to get to know your customers and what truly makes a difference, which is providing a personalized experience. And since then, I decided to focus on solutions that improve the customer experience.

Maria Echeverria (03:19):

So, I've been working for companies like Oracle and Equifax, precisely in solutions that are addressing the front end of the customer, serving customers. And recently, I started working with Latinia, which I got to know in one of those processes when I was serving banks.

Maria Echeverria (03:45):

And they needed a solution that was able to analyze real-time customer transactional data. And even though I have been working with all of these other technology companies, we weren't unable to find a solution that could do this in a very specialized way, cost efficient and easy to implement.

Maria Echeverria (04:07):

So, competing with Latinia, I got to know them, and then I was invited to join their team as an ambassador now to the U.S. and Canada sharing the experience that we have and the knowledge that we have gained in the last 20 years implementing our solution in parts of Europe primarily, and then Latin America.

Maria Echeverria (04:34):

But yeah, and to respond to your answer specifically, we have two solutions. One is a real-time decisions engine, which is the one that analyzes all the customer transaction. And then we have the critical notifications gateway, which enables us to be able to notify customers in real time when they need it the most.

Jim Marous (04:55):

It's interesting, Maria, we all are talking the financial services industry about developing customized, personalized solutions that are seamless, that make it so that we can, if this, then that. If you do certain things almost like a GPS system where every action you take gives you a different solution to the problem, but we don't seem to get it right.

Jim Marous (05:19):

We talk about it really well, but we don't seem to get over that hurdle of actually knowing our customers and developing a communications engagement from actions to take place.

Jim Marous (05:32):

You visit banks and credit unions on a regular basis, what is the biggest challenge that financial institutions face today in meeting these expectations of being able to talk to the consumer on a one-to-one basis?

Maria Echeverria (05:48):

There are two challenges. Two main challenges, and I'm going to separate them because one has to do with culture and mindset. And one of the things that we have seen is that the way that traditional banks and credit unions have been approaching banking is in a very reactive way.

Maria Echeverria (06:09):

They have been focusing more on meeting regulation requirements, on competing in certain products and obviously cost. Let's put it this way, providing cost benefits to their customers but they have forgotten about differentiating themselves with truly addressing the service and the customer experience.

Maria Echeverria (06:36):

So, in that mentality for them, it's really hard to understand how to implement new solutions, how to innovate, how to change their paradigms, and the way they approach things. And for that, it requires leaders within the institutions, credit unions and banks that bring a fresh new view and that are able to communicate a vision of the future that these institutions have to adjust to.

Maria Echeverria (07:08):

Because they want to be sustainable business throughout time and in order to do that, you have to change, adapt, and innovate a world that we are using a lot in this industry, but we haven't actually seen innovation.

Maria Echeverria (07:22):

And then there's the other challenge that I'm seeing that is more of a technical challenge. And it's when we see the infrastructure in the way that credit unions and banks have approached their technology adoptions, and it's in a very also reactive way, because they had a need, for specific need for one solution.

Maria Echeverria (07:45):

They implement one solution, and then they have a core system that is completely different from that solution. They're not integrated, and then they put another solution for something else. And it's almost like trying to cover up holes in a pot where the water is draining, and they're not connected. They're like easy band aids.

Maria Echeverria (08:07):

And these solutions are not connected, so they have silos of information, and they cannot … to put it this way, they don't have the capabilities to leverage on data which is critical to address these personalized experiences, because you want to know who your customer is and what they're doing, and also to do it in real time, which is when the customer needs it the most.

Maria Echeverria (08:34):

So, to solve that, because obviously we can address the problems, but we have to suggest solutions, to solve that, we really need to start having spaces like this, like yourself, sharing knowledge so that these institutions start changing their culture.

Maria Echeverria (08:50):

And in the other end, well, they should start leveraging on partnerships and companies that actually know how to do certain solutions. So, and focus on banking, but leave the technology to the technology companies to try to see how to integrate all the systems and enable the capabilities in the right way.

Jim Marous (09:15):

So, your company uses what they call event-driven architecture. What role does this play in the overall transformation of building a better customer experience, but more importantly, better engagement, which is key when you're looking at personalized solutions.

Maria Echeverria (09:33):

In order to engage customers, well, first we're going to start by saying that there are no two customers that are alike. This is something that we always talk to and promote when we talk to our consumers. And even the same customer is different every day.

Maria Echeverria (09:45):

And we tend to forget that because the traditional way of approaching personalization has been done taking some customer data that we have, profiling it, creating lookalike models and saying, "Oh, if this person behaves this way, this other person behaves this way, and this is how they're going to behave through time."

Maria Echeverria (10:07):

But we're living in times when life happens, and we're constantly changing behaviors as customers, as consumers. And in those changing behaviors, there are always opportunities for an institution in this case, banks, or financial institutions to advise, to help me, to inform me and to offer me something that I need.

Maria Echeverria (10:30):

So, our architecture in Latinia, the solution that we have enables us to be listening, and it's kind of like a hearing aid, let me put that metaphor. In listening to all of those transactions, but this is key, we don't store, we just listen.

Maria Echeverria (10:49):

And once we listen and there's a rule that is met, or a criteria where we know that we can solve a problem, we can inform, we can advise, and we can offer a product or service to a customer. And when we hear that, that’s when we trigger a communication to engage with that customer. And that happens at the right moment and key through the right channel.

Maria Echeverria (11:19):

For example, Jim, right now we're talking about engagement, but right now, do you think if your bank send you a communication, you will be engaged? Of course, not because you're talking, you're going about your life, you're doing your podcast, it won't have the exact same value.

Maria Echeverria (11:36):

But if you leave your office right now, and you are using one of the products that you have with your banks, let's think, oh, you're taking the next trip where you're going and you're using your credit card at the airport, and immediately you get a notice, "Hey, Jim, we noticed you're at the airport, would you require this service, let's say insurance, or don't forget to activate your benefits when you go, or if it's international, don't forget to — this is the emergency phone for the bank in case you need anything."

Maria Echeverria (12:10):

So, when we are able to use that real time event infrastructure that we have in Latinia, we can provide institutions a niche implementation to be able to offer these delightful experiences.

Jim Marous (12:28):

So, you have this solution that really is based on some great digital transfer of insights and data to make it so that you can do event driven personalization and even personalization on a broader scale. How does your organization believe finance institutions should balance the human and the digital interaction?

Jim Marous (12:51):

So, while you're prompting, when do you determine when a human should be involved as opposed to simply something that's driven by a digital trigger?

Maria Echeverria (13:03):

Well, that is very tied. It's tied directly to the strategy of the institution. We do know, we have gathered a lot of information throughout, over our 20 years of working with leading institutions in Europe and in LATAM, and now in the U.S., where we are starting.

Maria Echeverria (13:21):

But we find that in every project does have an element of personalization. No bank is alike completely. So, in that sense, we have been able to sit with the customer and understand, okay, where's your strategy? What do you want to accomplish? What are your pain points that you're trying to address by personalizing certain activities with your customers? And tell me, how do you want to engage?

Maria Echeverria (13:52):

And then when we’re able to have those conversations with the institutions, and we truly understand the DNA of the institution, we say, "Okay, I'm going to think about right now, a project that we recently did."

Maria Echeverria (14:07):

The banks were confused. They didn't know where they could implement our solutions up to one point, and where they should keep being personalized because it was more of a traditional kind of community bank where they didn't understand that vision, that clear the vision.

Maria Echeverria (14:24):

And at that moment, we were able to look at the key, for example, complaints that customer had that could be easily resolved with an automated process. But at the same time, there were key interactions that could not especially enforce certain segments of customers that cannot be substituted completely with technology.

Maria Echeverria (14:50):

So, that exercise has to be done. I wish I could give you a recipe and tell you this is how you have to, but it's more of how we can come with that strategy, because that's what is going to make a credit union and a bank differentiate from the rest.

Jim Marous (15:05):

Your company is not new to the world but is fairly new or more recent in North America. What differences, if any, have you seen in serving North American banks and credit unions compared to other organizations across the globe?

Maria Echeverria (15:23):

Well, we find the pain points tend to be similar. Very similar, because at the end of the day, financial institutions, banks and credit unions have very similar products, very similar processes regulations. There's an element of differentiation, and I'm going to talk about it briefly, but let me go back to the way they work.

Maria Echeverria (15:47):

They're very similar. They're addressed the same pain points, but in Europe and in LATAM, I think that they have to focus a lot more on having exceptional customer experiences because of how aggressive the competition is.

Maria Echeverria (16:08):

And also, because of how cost driven, cost sensitive the institutions are. There's smaller markets, there are a lot of financial institutions, and they are continuously acquiring and cannibalizing each other and fighting for customers.

Maria Echeverria (16:31):

And also, there are industries that they have reached a certain growth and maturity potential. So, the only way to grow is going and stealing customers from each other. I find that happens here in the U.S., but to some extent, because the market is very well distributed.

Maria Echeverria (16:51):

Right now, what we've seen is some consolidation of institutions, and in that consolidation, they're still going to have a little bit of market share, but they haven't had that pressure that we have seen in this other region. So, they're always looking on how to provide super exceptional customer experiences.

Maria Echeverria (17:08):

And then, I was saying about regulation, because also regulation tends to be a lot more strict in this countries. Just to provide a couple of examples, well, in Europe, the data privacy regulations are very strict. There are ways to handle customer information.

Maria Echeverria (17:29):

For example, one of the things that our solution has is that we don't store customer data, it stays at the bank. We're just listening to the transactions and all the information, but we don't store that data.

Maria Echeverria (17:46):

And also, another example of regulation is in countries like El Salvador, the president goes, and he decides to create a new law where all the digital transactions have to be informed in real time to the customer by law.

Maria Echeverria (18:05):

Every single transaction that happens in their app and their web banking has to be notified. So, that creates a lot of pressure for these institutions to innovate and to implement new technologies.

Jim Marous (18:18):

So, you've referenced security and privacy, but you also have, as you said, regulatory concerns. So, how do you as a company ensure security and privacy? You mentioned that you don't take the data yourselves, but how do you also keep on top of regulatory concerns in different regions?

Maria Echeverria (18:41):

Well, one of the advantages of our company and our solution is that this is the only thing we do. We just provide real time notifications. So, we're super specialized and if we're not on top of the game, we're not doing our game.

Maria Echeverria (19:01):

So, we live by the promise of providing our customers a future proof solution that is already prepared for what's coming when it comes to regulation. And how do we do that? Well, we do a lot of research. We’re constantly in communication with our customers.

Maria Echeverria (19:22):

For example, we have a customer base, and we have almost, and I say almost because I think there's just one case, but almost a hundred percent retention rate and we are currently working with our customers. We started working with them 20 years ago, and we're still working. Why? Because once they start one project, they decide that our solution is great for another project, and they move on, and they continue to move on.

Maria Echeverria (19:47):

So, when we have boots in the ground with our customers, our consultants are listening to what are their needs and their worries about regulation. And that's how we tend to adapt our solution to comply with the strict standards worldwide, in this case where we have operations.

Jim Marous (20:05):

So, you're actually providing brand new technology and implementing new technologies, a lot of times at finance institutions often requires significant changes to the existing processes and infrastructure to financial institutions.

Jim Marous (20:20):

What do you do to work with financial institutions to ensure a smooth and successful transformation or transition when adopting your solution?

Maria Echeverria (20:32):

We understand the human behavior, let's put it this way. At the end of the day, organizations, banks and credit unions we're human. So, we have to address, first of all, our limitations when it comes to capabilities to implement and do things correctly and in a timely manner and at the same time, also infrastructure capabilities. Because we need the tools, and we need the people to have a successful implementation.

Maria Echeverria (21:02):

And when we're doing those evaluations with them before we start anything, we realize that some of these institutions are trying to be very ambitious when establishing their goals, and they sometimes they're super optimistic.

Maria Echeverria (21:24):

So, as consultants, because we try to work hand in hand, holding the hand of the institution, we try to tell them, "Let's set up a quick goal, a quick win, something that's going to motivate us, and actually something that's going to enable us to take a real good business case to the rest of the institution and roll it the way that you want to roll it."

Maria Echeverria (21:47):

So, we tend to be the voice of reason in a way, telling them, "Let's not do everything all at once. Let's try to do it with quick wins." So, we go with the pain that there's something every banker knows when it comes to engaging customers, there's something that's really hurting them, that they haven't been able to do it right. And we start with that pain, and we work our way up and our way throughout the institution.

Maria Echeverria (22:14):

And we're experts. This is something that my CRO always tell us, “We have to be experts that say no.” Sometimes they want to do this mega implementation, but we know that's going to take five years. It's not going to go through and they're going to hate us at the end. And we don't want that because we know we can truly add value.

Jim Marous (22:35):

So, you do sell your solution in a composable way. So, if somebody's saying they're wanting to grow checking accounts for instance, or if they're trying to grow loans, you can take your solution and actually say, "We'll make it more manageable. You can bite off more than you can chew."

Jim Marous (22:52):

It doesn't work very well, but you can sell a composable solution, as you referenced, get the lowest hanging fruit, and actually implement it that way.

Maria Echeverria (23:00):

Yeah, definitely. We certainly do that and that's the best approach.

Jim Marous (23:06):

And when you're working with organizations, can you work with any size organization or is there an asset range you really kind of key into? Is it only for the big firms?

Maria Echeverria (23:17):

Well, historically, we have worked mainly with big firms, bigger banks. And the reason has been more of a company strategic approach. Let's go with the top five tier banks and let's try to work with them and then probably the rest are going to join.

Maria Echeverria (23:33):

But right now, I think in the U.S. and Canada, we're following a different approach. And basically, it's more targeted towards banks that truly, really need our solution. So, what we're going to have is a conversation with those that are interested and really honestly assess, “Do you need this? Are we going to add value? And do you have the capabilities to adopt our solution?”

Maria Echeverria (24:01):

For example, if a bank calls us, but that bank doesn't have systems that provide information in real time, there's nothing we can do, we cannot value. But if there's a bank that is ready in a certain degree of maturity or is thinking of adopting a new core system that is going to provide information in real time, "Hey, let's work together.” We're going to be that piece of the puzzle that is going to provide the communications for you in a personalized or hyper personalized way.

Jim Marous (24:33):

So, actually, in a lot of cases, what you're doing is you're finding those organizations that are ready to buy your services and really have the strategies in place to implement against your solutions as opposed to simply the biggest ones.

Jim Marous (24:49):

Which, it's interesting, when we were at our event in Las Vegas a couple weeks ago, I told organizations, spend your time with those organizations that are ready to play as opposed to simply the biggest fish in the pond.

Jim Marous (25:03):

Because the reality is you can sell a whole lot more and make better partnerships with those organizations that are ready for you. And just like you said, we try to find the organizations that are ready to do what we have a solution for as opposed to sometimes pushing the rock uphill. We use the analogy quite a bit.

Jim Marous (25:22):

So, when you are looking at what's going on in the marketplace today, obviously fintech firms and neobanks and even tech companies really are good at a lot of this stuff.

Jim Marous (25:34):

Do you find it difficult or where do you find it the most difficult, I should say, when you're selling your solution internally to a financial institution where it becomes the biggest push point where you're saying, "You know what, they just are having a hard time embracing the way we're trying to do this for them." Where do you go?

Maria Echeverria (25:57):

I would say that we find sometimes at the very strategic level that the leaders, they know that this is what the institution has to go, it has to do to change and implement. But when we start moving down the organization and targeting all the different functional areas within a bank or credit union, we start finding some, what's the word? Some resistance.

Maria Echeverria (26:32):

And the resistance is because we either find that it's too hard to change the process, we're trying to roll out a new solution, but there has to be communication and training programs that are going to be set in place for the group of people that are going to be managing these solutions to do their work correctly. Because even though we're implementing technology, there's still a big human factor in it.

Maria Echeverria (27:04):

So, the biggest push is to be able to manage those groups of people and actually know that those group of people that are going to be rolling out this new solution are committed and understand and takes us to the first question has the mindset to do it.

Maria Echeverria (27:21):

Because I was talking, and this is a story, I was talking to the CEO of a bank in Latin and he told me, "I am waiting to roll out this solution when I hire the next person that's going to guide it, but I need somebody that's not a banker."

Maria Echeverria (27:40):

And I was like, “That's interesting. Why?” He's like, "Because the banker mindset is so fixed and so rigid that to change it, I need somebody from a fintech or somebody from a neobank or somebody that has already changed the paradigm and it's agile and is doing things differently."

Maria Echeverria (27:58):

So, this is not to say that the traditional way of banking is a bad way, no. It's just that we have to change the way we do things, and this is like everything in life. We want to accomplish a goal, sometimes we have to get over ourselves first to accomplish our goal.

Maria Echeverria (28:16):

Change our neural connections, change our way of thinking, change our perception, be open to new ideas. And that's where we find the biggest challenge. Because the solution to implement is easy. I show the numbers, they see the business case, there's an ROI, there's a benefit. We are going to roll it over in such time but when you get the human factor in, that's when we start finding fractions.

Jim Marous (28:39):

So, you talk about ROI, I was just going to go there. So, when you're working with organizations, and you mentioned ROI and I as a marketer usually don't like that, but I came up with a finance degree. So, I usually like to prove my point with numbers.

Jim Marous (28:55):

How do your solutions compare to what most organizations had from a business as usual, where obviously it's going to get more because you have personalization, you have event triggers, things of this nature, but what kind of numbers are we talking about? What comparables?

Maria Echeverria (29:09):

Sure. Well, in the recent implementations, what we've seen, one of the first, first few benefits of the many benefits actually, one of the many benefits that we've seen in this ROI is because it takes us back to the traditional approach of attending serving customers, assesses them, engaging.

Maria Echeverria (29:37):

Because banks tend to have all these multiple solutions which they all have to pay support and maintenance for, and they have many solutions, they're sometimes not integrated. And one is for marketing automation. And that solution sends a lot of marketing campaigns, tons of messages.

Maria Echeverria (29:57):

So, their cost related to the channel, email, SMS, there's cost related to the infrastructure, to the support and even if they have software as a service to renewal costs. And then there's other solutions too that they have implemented. So, in this whole mix, an ecosystem of solutions, there are a lot of costs.

Maria Echeverria (30:21):

Most of the time we come, and we say, "Okay, this solution, we can substitute this, we can substitute." So, we do the new architecture plan, we do it in cloud infrastructure. So, they tend to take away a lot of database cost and a lot of other technical costs that I'm not going to go into right now because it will take us forever. But when we do the math and you take Latinia, you see immediately the benefits.

Maria Echeverria (30:54):

And a bank recently, I saw this, it was evident that we're using a lot of SMS notifications for specific promotions. And we said, "Are these critical? No. Why are you using push notifications? Let's use SMS instead for the critical, just for the critical, and for the marketing, one push notifications."

Maria Echeverria (31:16):

So, we are able to optimize that and actually lessen less notifications because you're doing it in a not personalized approach in real time, but you're actually just sending batches of information to all your customers because you think you know them.

Maria Echeverria (31:32):

So, once we start seeing all those different ways of approaching, we bring the cost down of SMS, we use push, which has no cost. So, just in that simple math, we start producing benefits for the customer. So, there's tons of infrastructure, technical costs that we can reduce and then other expenses.

Maria Echeverria (31:56):

Not counting the benefits and the benefits we have the increased customer satisfaction, which in turn results into purchasing of more products, acquiring more products, because they got the message at the right time when they need it the most. So, they said, "Oh, there's a benefit for this credit card, I actually want it."

Maria Echeverria (32:15):

Or there's this other solution that the insurance or even service that the bank is trying to promote to benefit. And that's when you start seeing the increasing revenue, new revenue streams that are coming in and that's where we get the positive ROI.

Jim Marous (32:37):

So, last question, I'm wondering, there's a lot going on in the industry right now. There's changes in marketing, there's changes into technologies, there's changes in the way we deploy these technologies. What do you see from your perspectives, the most promising trends, or technologies in the future when you're looking at personalized banking experiences? What excites you about the future?

Maria Echeverria (33:01):

Well, definitely, we've seen a lot of things. I mean, this is one of the wonders about technology that is constantly changing, and new things are coming up. But what I have to say is, personally, I'm amazed at the potential that AI is going to enable when it comes to personalized interactions.

Maria Echeverria (33:24):

And just to provide an example, at Latinia, we're right now developing a new solution, which is called ... well, we still actually cannot reveal the name yet. Let's leave it that way. But this new solution is going to help take our current solution to the next level.

Maria Echeverria (33:43):

Because right now what we do is, once again, we analyze transactional data in real time. We're able to guarantee notifications that are going to add value, promote, solve issues, service customers through the best channel that they needed the most when they need it the most, because we have the information to be able to readdress all this in real time.

Maria Echeverria (34:05):

And we do this based on the banks strategies that in turn have created business rules. So, we have the business rule, and we say, "When this rule is met, trigger this notification." But with AI, AI is going to do that thought process for us.

Maria Echeverria (34:23):

So, the banker is no longer going to say, "Oh, let's send a notification whenever this customer reaches actually a minimum in their deposit and they can have issues paying their bank loan, for example." So, the banker has to think about that, and they have to go design the rule and then we trigger it.

Maria Echeverria (34:46):

AI is going to do that. AI is going to analyze all the behavior, it's going to say, “This is the best way to recommend. This is the best way to solve, and this is the best way to talk and engage to your customers.”

Maria Echeverria (34:57):

And that is amazing because we're really going to truly have a bank that is going to be walking hand by hand with the customer throughout their daily lives. Because this takes me to the other thing. Most of the banks and credit unions right now are investing a lot of resources in their digital strategy.

Maria Echeverria (35:16):

So, they're pumping millions. And you see it, and when you become friends with the bankers, they tell you, "Oh, I'm investing so and so, and this change of the user experience on my web banking and I'm changing this my app to make it nicer for the customer."

Maria Echeverria (35:34):

But how much time do the actual customer spend using these applications? And it's like less than 1% of their time, maybe throughout the day. Even if they're digitals and talk about the non-natives, non-digital natives.

Maria Echeverria (35:51):

So, banks need to have tons of information that they can leverage. If there's an industry that knows customers is the banking industry. They know what they're spending, where they're going, where they're traveling, if somebody got sick, and it takes me to a personal situation that I'm going through right now.

Maria Echeverria (36:12):

Imagine the bank knows if I'm spending money right now at a hospital, they can offer me something. They can be there with me. They can accompany me. So, we have all this information, all this information that is there and not being used.

Maria Echeverria (36:28):

AI can gather that and say, "Hey, we know Jim really well. This is the right moment when Jim needs us the most." And that's why I find amazing because banks, they don't not only hold the money, I mean, what is the money at the end of the day?

Maria Echeverria (36:46):

Is an energy, is an exchange currency, whatever, but it's dreams of the people, is plans of the people, is projects, is their future. So, to know all that we can do with technology to create a better future for the people, it's just mind blowing. It's amazing.

Jim Marous (37:05):

Well, and also, AI's going to give you this ability to test so quickly. It's going to be able to test all kinds of things that right now are quick, but this thing makes it quicker. Maria, thank you so much for being on the show today. I really appreciate your time and the passion for what you're bringing to the marketplace.

Jim Marous (37:22):

It's obvious that what excites you is the ability to actually address customer's concerns at the time they have them in a way that is very composable and very doable by virtually any size finance institution if they're dedicated to actually doing what you're putting forward. So, thank you so much for your time.

[Music Playing]

Maria Echeverria (37:45):

Thank you for having us.

Jim Marous (37:47):

Thanks for listening to Banking Transformed, the top podcast in retail banking and the winner of three international awards for podcast excellence. We appreciate your support. If you enjoy what we're doing, please take some time to show some love in the form of a review.

Jim Marous (38:02):

On that note, thanks to K. Payette for a recent review. They wrote, "Jim's guests are smart and insightful, so the conversations are always robust and leave you thinking about how you can change or challenge your financial institution's thinking. Episodes are easy to get through and well worth your time." Thank you, a lot, for that review.

Jim Marous (38:22):

This has been a production of Evergreen Podcasts. A special thank you to our senior producer, Leah Haslage, audio engineer, Chris Fafalios and video producer, Will Pritts.