Banking Transformed with Jim Marous

Banks and credit unions have never known more about their customers. So why does so much of banking still feel impersonal?

In this episode, David Acevedo, Vice President at Abrigo, joins Jim Marous to examine the gap between what an institution knows about a customer and what it actually does about it.

They get into why more customer data has not led to better personal service, what separates the banks and credit unions that build lasting relationships from those that do not, and how to move from customer data to customer action at the front line.

The conversation also covers the real advantage community banks and credit unions hold over the largest institutions, where AI strengthens the human relationship instead of replacing it, the most common and most expensive mistakes banks make when they try to get closer to their customers, and the one move David would tell any executive to make first.

Hosted by Jim Marous, co-publisher of The Financial Brand and owner of the Digital Banking Report. New episodes of Banking Transformed are published multiple times each week. Subscribe so you never miss one.

We can have all the trust in the world, but still lose the moment.

Consumers aren’t asking many of their first financial questions in a bank branch anymore. They’re asking them on YouTube, social media, Reddit, podcasts, and increasingly through AI. New eMarketer research shows nearly 40% of adults under 45 now research banking products on social platforms, compared with about 10% of adults over 45. Financial institutions remain among the most trusted sources of financial guidance, yet many are missing from the platforms where consumers begin researching mortgages, savings accounts, investing, debt, budgeting, and everyday financial decisions.

In this Banking Insights episode, Jim Marous explains why YouTube has become banking’s new front door, why attention now precedes trust, and how banks and credit unions can combine credibility with engaging financial education to reach consumers before someone else shapes the conversation.

Drawing on new consumer research and his own experience transforming his YouTube strategy, Jim explains why YouTube rewards watch time, why Google and AI increasingly surface clear, credible content, and how financial institutions can build discoverable expertise without becoming social media influencers. An audit of 150 financial videos with more than 100,000 views each found three quarters of the people giving advice never stated a credential.

If banks and credit unions want to become the primary financial relationship, they need to be present where the first financial question is asked.

Hosted by Jim Marous, internationally recognized banking strategist, co-publisher of The Financial Brand, owner of the Digital Banking Report, and host of the Banking Transformed podcast.

The five biggest U.S. banks just cleared more than $49 billion in a single quarter, and most coverage treated it as a record profits story. The more important signal sits underneath.

In this Banking Insights episode, Jim Marous digs into what the Q2 2026 megabank earnings mean for banks and credit unions that will never match a Wall Street technology budget, and why that gap is about to matter far less than it used to. The cost of using these tools is collapsing, so owning AI stops being an advantage and readiness becomes the moat.

Two of the largest bank CEOs, Jamie Dimon and BNY's Robin Vince, said as much on their calls, from two directions.

The institutions that build the inner workings now, clean data, fixed processes, clear ownership, and the guardrails set in advance, will absorb each new tool faster than the last. The catch is that the window rewards the few willing to move before it feels safe.

What if the biggest myth in banking is that customers don’t need branches anymore?

Because every time Bank of America opens a new financial center, digital sales in that market jump by 50 percent. Physical presence isn’t competing with digital — it’s accelerating it.

Now, Bank of America is putting $750 million behind a bet the rest of the industry walked away from too soon, opening 150 new financial centers across 60 markets by 2027 at more than $5 million per location. Bold? Yes. Contradictory? Maybe. But the timing suggests something deeper: after shrinking from 6,000 branches to about 3,700, they now believe the future isn’t fewer branches… it’s smarter ones.

These next-generation centers aren’t transaction factories. They’re advisory hubs staffed by 12,000 relationship bankers, designed to anchor communities and handle the conversations digital can’t — at least not yet.

My guest on the Banking Transformed podcast, Will Smayda, leads this transformation. He’ll explain why Bank of America is expanding while others retreat and what these new financial centers reveal about how clients actually want to bank.

So, here’s the question we all need to wrestle with: Is this the future of the branch — or the most expensive contradiction in banking?

A charter can take your products. It can't take your relationships — unless you let it.

In the first half of 2026, two dozen companies lined up to become banks, nearly matching last year's total, but almost none of these filings mean the same thing.

In this Banking Insights episode, Jim Marous hands financial institutions a decoder ring: the type of charter a company chooses tells you exactly which part of the business it's coming for, from stablecoin settlement to the whole customer relationship to the point of purchase.

Using Circle, Nubank, Klarna, and Mission Lane as illustrations, Jim explains why the regulatory door swung open, why the charter is the least valuable thing these companies are actually buying, and the three moves every bank and credit union must make now to remain the primary financial institution a charter can never grant.

Hosted by Jim Marous. Subscribe to Banking Transformed for new episodes multiple times each week.