Alex Sion, President and Managing Director of MovenBank, talks about the future of financial services.  MovenBank is seeking to provide customers with an entirely digital banking experience.  MovenBank is currently in Beta.  Sion says that the future of “banking is going to become less about product innovation and more about innovation for the client experience.”

I had the privilege of listening to Brett King, MovenBank’s CEO and founder, talk at the ABA Marketing Conference this last September.  While I didn’t agree with everything he said, Brett provided a much needed wakeup call to banks that are behind the times.  King seemed to understand that banks are slow to change and that time was NOT on their side. King went on to say that in 1995 the average customer visited the bank 2-3 times per month.  In 2011 it was 2-3 times per YEAR!  Going to the bank is no longer defined by walking into a branch, bu rather using the bank’s services including the ATM.

In a prior post I quoted Rob Poyhard (professor of business administration at the University of South Carolina’s Darla Moore School of Business) saying that “In today’s world, we are all interconnected. Companies that are thinking about this proactively are the ones that are probably going to have an advantage in leveraging this technology. I’d be surprised if the first few companies that get in there don’t have a lasting competitive advantage.”

So if you are one of the banks that are “behind the times,” don’t panic yet.  You still have time to get in the new marketing game.  I recommend a sound written strategy of what, how and when.  What is your strategy?  How are you going to implement it and when is this going to be put into action?  You don’t need to take a giant leap into this lifeline of social media, just try baby steps like Bill Murray tries to do in the movie, What about Bob?  While a giant leap could just make you frustrated and cause interuption to an otherwise calming experience.