A recent revealed that, as opposed to what you might have thought, they don’t have their heads completely in the sand. They were asked about the rise of fintech startups and the effect these companies can have on the traditional banking system. The bankers see that their business is ripe for disruption, as 70% of them said that they see Fintech making “a significant impact on banking.”
Unfortunately, once you dig a little deeper, it appears that they are not as forward thinking as it may seem. They are more like captains of a ship who can see an iceberg in the distance, but rather than change course, think “eh, I’ll probably be retired by the time we hit that. Not my problem.”
This doomed attitude is evident with the way they answered the question about what they saw as traditional banking's biggest strengths. “Stability” and “Customer Loyalty.” In my opinion, their customers are only loyal because they haven’t been exposed to the better fintech options yet. Customers were loyal to Walkmen until the iPod came along, too. Brick and Mortar banks are some of the most loathed institutions as a whole, so it’s going to take some real innovations, not a reliance on customer loyalty, for them to compete in this new era of banking.
I don’t see things ending well for the Bank of America's (NYSE: BAC) and Wells Fargo's (NYSE: WFC) unless they radically alter the way they do business.