Banking Transformed with Jim Marous

With over $2 trillion in deposits already lost to digital banks and fintechs, incremental banking improvements are no longer a strategy; they’re a liability.

Today, I'm joined by Benjamin Conant, Chief Product Officer at Alkami and Co-founder of MANTL, to discuss insights from their new 2026 Banking Predictions Report and what it reveals about why banks and credit unions are quietly falling behind.

The discussion focuses on unifying systems that have operated in silos for decades, turning branches into profit engines, finally making AI deliver results, and consolidating vendors who can create solutions at speed and scale.

Institutions that endure the next three years won't be the ones making minor updates to failing systems. They'll be the ones willing to take bold actions and operate with the urgency and resilience that the future demands.

This isn’t a debate about following trends. It’s about how you execute.

Your Gen Z strategy is putting your organization’s growth at risk.

New research from Primax, shows that only 12 percent of Gen Z consider a community or regional bank their primary financial institution. Will these Gen Z consumers move their parents' relationship out of your institution?

By 2035, Gen Z will be the largest and wealthiest generation in history. And 72 percent say they face financial challenges unlike those of any other generation. They're seeking a financial partner who understands their reality far beyond a simple transaction.

The bottom line is that customer loyalty is thin, opening accounts at new institutions is easy, and growth is no longer guaranteed.

Today on Banking Transformed, I'm joined by Carrie Stapp, Vice President of Marketing at Primax. We're unpacking what the Banking in Focus research report reveals about what's broken in how banks approach Gen Z – and what you need to fix now before future growth moves elsewhere.

This episode of Banking Transformed is sponsored by Primax

Primax provides banks with payment processing services and an expansive array of value-added technology and solutions. Primax’s customizable solutions, including risk management, mobile and online card management, data and analytics, loyalty programs, marketing, strategic consulting, delinquency management and contact center services, help banks profitably grow their portfolios and deliver an unparalleled experience to their accountholders. With a longstanding commitment to service excellence, Primax has been designing and providing support services for banks throughout the U.S. and the Caribbean for over 40 years. For more information, visit www.primax.us.

Banking executives know their industry is being disrupted. What they don't know is how much of their balance sheet they've already lost control of.

According to Accenture, more than $200 trillion in global bank deposits and loans are now at risk, and that threat isn’t coming from another bank. It’s coming from stablecoins, AI agents that can automatically optimize finances, and platforms that can quickly move cash, often outside the traditional banking system.

Today's guest is Mike Abbott from Accenture. His team's new report on the top banking trends for 2026 reveals some uncomfortable truths. Seventy percent of IT spending still goes to maintaining outdated systems. Margin compression could reduce US bank pre-tax income by 22%. And many of those loyal customers who've stayed with their bank for seven years? The research calls them "lazy loyalists."

The real question for banking leaders isn’t whether this shift is happening, but how much of the balance sheet they’ll still control when it does. Mike joins us to discuss how banks can respond to threats moving faster than their modernization efforts.

Banks have spent billions building digital customer experiences. But most are doing it on top of back-office infrastructure built for a different era. That gap has quietly become one of the biggest drags on growth, pricing power, and profitability in banking.

Today's competitive edge isn't just about what customers see upfront. It's about how efficiently a bank operates, how smartly it prices on an individual basis, and how quickly it can turn data into action. That's why modernizing the back office has moved from an IT discussion to a strategic imperative.

I'm joined on the Banking Transformed podcast by Richard Ullenius and Brandon Sailors from CSG International to discuss what modernization truly means, how banks can progress without tearing everything down, and how smarter infrastructure is becoming the key to efficiency, engagement, pricing, and risk management.

This episode of Banking Transformed is sponsored by CSG

CSG delivers banking and financial services solutions to help banks reimagine pricing, billing and customer engagement across retail, commercial and institutional banking. By unifying smart pricing, customer and transaction data and accurate, flexible billing, CSG enables banks to modernize complex, multi-product relationships without rip-and-replace. As a result, banks can reduce risk and complexity, protect margins and power trusted, real-time experiences that drive growth.

https://www.csgi.com/industry/financial-services/

From Walmart and Amazon to banks and credit unions, stablecoins are accelerating a banking reset that is already reshaping how payments move.

In this episode of Banking Transformed, I’m joined by Dr. Lamont Black, Associate Professor of Finance at DePaul University. We will break down why stablecoins represent a fundamental shift in financial infrastructure, not another crypto cycle. We will also explore how emerging payment rails challenge traditional card networks, what this means for deposits, data, and interchange revenue, and how financial institutions of all sizes should prepare for what comes next.

This conversation is essential listening for banking executives, payments leaders, and fintech professionals who want to understand the real impact of stablecoins, the strategic risks of waiting, and how the banking reset is already unfolding.