ABA Banking Journal
No Result
View All Result
  • Topics
    • Ag Banking
    • Commercial Lending
    • Community Banking
    • Compliance and Risk
    • Cybersecurity
    • Economy
    • Human Resources
    • Insurance
    • Legal
    • Mortgage
    • Mutual Funds
    • Payments
    • Policy
    • Retail and Marketing
    • Tax and Accounting
    • Technology
    • Wealth Management
  • Newsbytes
  • Podcasts
  • Magazine
    • Subscribe
    • Advertise
    • Magazine Archive
    • Newsletter Archive
    • Podcast Archive
    • Sponsored Content Archive
SUBSCRIBE
ABA Banking Journal
  • Topics
    • Ag Banking
    • Commercial Lending
    • Community Banking
    • Compliance and Risk
    • Cybersecurity
    • Economy
    • Human Resources
    • Insurance
    • Legal
    • Mortgage
    • Mutual Funds
    • Payments
    • Policy
    • Retail and Marketing
    • Tax and Accounting
    • Technology
    • Wealth Management
  • Newsbytes
  • Podcasts
  • Magazine
    • Subscribe
    • Advertise
    • Magazine Archive
    • Newsletter Archive
    • Podcast Archive
    • Sponsored Content Archive
No Result
View All Result
No Result
View All Result
ADVERTISEMENT
Home Retail and Marketing

Do You Know Who Your Competitors Really Are?

July 31, 2018
Reading Time: 4 mins read

By Kathleen Craig

For years now, we’ve all heard the warnings that the end of days is coming for banks. So far, though, the “Amazon moment” in banking has not been right around the corner. That said, no one would deny that change is happening in our industry at a pace we have not yet seen.

Consumer and business expectations have changed. And these changes are raising the expectations of the way they want to interact with all companies they work with—which includes their bank.

And while it still seems unlikely that the Amazon moment is happening in banking (yet), there are very strong companies trying to chip away at pieces of your business a bit at a time.

Who are they?

If you do not yet know, you need to get up to speed. Just five years ago, the competitive audit for my own bank was divided into national, regional, community and credit union competitors.

That no longer works.

Today, there also has to be a column for fintech companies. While you may not see them in your market physically, they are there on social media and digital platforms. With hyper-targeted advertising, user adoption is growing every day by leaps and bounds—without physical locations.

  • Personal Loans – Prosper and Upstart are making personal loans increasingly easy to apply for, obtain and manage with alternative credit data. In fact, Upstart has improved its model’s ability to identify creditworthy consumers. Its original model would have approved only 35 million Americans for a loan; its current model would approve more than 100 million.
  • Consumer Deposits – SoFi, Chime, Digit and Qapital are working to grow their market share of consumer deposits. Earlier this year, Digit announced it had helped their customers save $500,000,000.
  • Wealth Management – Companies like Robinhood, Betterment and Wealthfront are targeting your wealth management and investment services. Betterment has over $9.1 billion in assets under management. It took the firm less than eight years to build its portfolio to this size.
  • Mortgage Lending – Quicken’s Rocket Mortgage is competing for your mortgage business. In early 2017, close to one year after Rocket Mortgage launched, it became the largest fintech lender, announcing it had funded $7 billion in total closed loans volume. In just 11 months Rocket Mortgage’s closed volume alone would already rank as a top-30 national mortgage lender, among the nearly 50,000 banks, credit unions, brokers and mortgage companies in the United States.

Are you actively using at least one of these fintech companies? Have you enrolled or applied for a loan?

What you don’t know could hurt you.

Business banking was an area where many banks thought they were safe. But do you realize there are companies actively targeting your small business customers on social media?

As a business owner, I am targeted daily by fintech firms like Kabbage, OnDeck, Fundera and others offering me business loans and other services on my LinkedIn and Facebook feeds.

Personally, you may not love social media. You may not want to apply for a loan online or through an app. But it is important to try it out anyway so that you understand exactly what your customers have access to.

As I pointed out in The Fear of Bankers Is Real, fintech companies have raised significant capital and are seeing adoption rates that require our attention.

Challenge yourself to change your mindset.

You’re no longer competing just with other banks and credit unions. Competitors are coming at you from all sides. You will need your entire team—from the front line to the board of directors—to stay alert, keeping your bank aware and ready to move forward to compete.

The fintech companies mentioned above are by no means a comprehensive list. So—if you have not already—take these quick and easy steps to start your journey toward fintech expertise.

  • Survey your team (including your front line!). What fintech companies have advertised to them lately? What was the messaging? What are the ads?
  • Survey your business customers. What fintech companies have advertised to them lately?
  • Challenge your leadership team. Ask them to download and use a new fintech app every week. Try out all the different ones. Apply for loans you may not need to experience the workflow and ease of use.
  • Use this knowledge to challenge your technology vendors. You’ll be in a much better position, then, to build your product and technology roadmaps.

Kathleen Craig is the Founder & CEO of HT Mobile Apps (HTMA). Kathleen has been in banking for over a decade, prior to founding her company she led consumer eServices leader at a community bank in Michigan. Kathleen’s specific focus in digital channel strategy gives her insight into the latest FinTech and banking trends. HTMA now serves community banks ranging from $30 million to over $15 billion in asset size over 16 states. Email: [email protected]. Twitter. LinkedIn.

Kathleen was a featured speaker at the ABA Bank Marketing Conference.

ADVERTISEMENT
Tags: Business developmentCompetitionFintech
ShareTweetPin

Related Posts

How customer primacy drives value in 2025

How customer primacy drives value in 2025

Retail and Marketing
July 17, 2025

Shifting consumer behavior and increased competition redefine what it means for banks, but the payoff can be great.

ABA urges FCC to combat illegal call spoofing

ABA urges FCC to impose call authentication requirement for non-IP networks, mandate IP transition

Compliance and Risk
July 16, 2025

ABA joined six trade associations in urging the FCC to adopt a proposal to create a new call authentication requirement designed to limit criminal access to the U.S. calling network.

Capturing These Three Data Types Can Transform Your Fraud Monitoring

ABA Fraudcast: How the ABA Foundation helps banks protect their customers

Compliance and Risk
July 16, 2025

As more older Americans are major targets for criminals, Safe Banking for Seniors is an effective program to inform and defend against targeted scams.

Director’s Briefing: How a Maryland bank’s CEO is prioritizing strategy and governance

Director’s Briefing: How a Maryland bank’s CEO is prioritizing strategy and governance

Directors Briefing
July 14, 2025

Why deliberately separating CEO and board chair roles is a good idea. And the value of strategic planning ahead of a major asset threshold.

How to Hyper-Segment Your Customer Communications without Losing Control

Marketing Money Podcast: The 30-month plan to future-proof bank marketing

Retail and Marketing
July 11, 2025

How aligning marketing with executive and business-line goals can make a massive impact.

Using Artificial Intelligence to Make Sense of Mountains of Data

Three myths about AI in banking

Technology
July 3, 2025

Common myths and misperceptions might confuse about what to expect and misdirect investment and efforts.

NEWSBYTES

House passes bills on stablecoins, digital assets, CBDCs

July 17, 2025

Business inventories hold steady in May

July 17, 2025

Mortgage rates rise

July 17, 2025

SPONSORED CONTENT

Navigating Disruption in Ag Lending – Why Tariffs Are Just the Tip of the Iceberg

Navigating Disruption in Ag Lending – Why Tariffs Are Just the Tip of the Iceberg

July 1, 2025
AI Compliance and Regulation: What Financial Institutions Need to Know

Unlocking Deposit Growth: How Financial Institutions Can Activate Data for Precision Cross-Sell

June 1, 2025
Choosing the Right Account Opening Platform: 10 Key Considerations for Long-Term Success

Choosing the Right Account Opening Platform: 10 Key Considerations for Long-Term Success

April 25, 2025
Outsourcing: Getting to Go/No-Go

Outsourcing: Getting to Go/No-Go

April 5, 2025

PODCASTS

The future of careers in risk and compliance

July 17, 2025

Breaking down the bank-related provisions in the big budget bill

July 10, 2025

Podcast: Inside ABA’s new Treasury Check Verification System API

June 25, 2025
ADVERTISEMENT

American Bankers Association
1333 New Hampshire Ave NW
Washington, DC 20036
1-800-BANKERS (800-226-5377)
www.aba.com
About ABA
Privacy Policy
Contact ABA

ABA Banking Journal
About ABA Banking Journal
Media Kit
Advertising
Subscribe

© 2025 American Bankers Association. All rights reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Topics
    • Ag Banking
    • Commercial Lending
    • Community Banking
    • Compliance and Risk
    • Cybersecurity
    • Economy
    • Human Resources
    • Insurance
    • Legal
    • Mortgage
    • Mutual Funds
    • Payments
    • Policy
    • Retail and Marketing
    • Tax and Accounting
    • Technology
    • Wealth Management
  • Newsbytes
  • Podcasts
  • Magazine
    • Subscribe
    • Advertise
    • Magazine Archive
    • Newsletter Archive
    • Podcast Archive
    • Sponsored Content Archive

© 2025 American Bankers Association. All rights reserved.