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Paladin has helped bankers negotiate hundreds of core, IT and fintech deals since 2007 and we've seen just about every mistake unknowingly made by bankers from coast to coast. Bankers just don't know what vendors know about these contracts and pricing. Here are is a summary of what mistakes we hope bankers stop making.
The Fintech revolution can be a wonderful opportunity for banks to finally employ some cutting edge, competitive services that the legacy cores refuse to develop (see "Are Legacy Cores Innovating?" video). Before you get into a relationship with a new fintech supplier remember that they'll try to lock you into one-sided deals if you permit it. Don't repeat mistakes of the past. Here are some tips.
In every merger across the United States big and small, the core IT suppliers are guaranteed a piece of the action coming and going (buy or sell). Embedded deep in your core agreements are predatory and onerous terms that punish your bank and shareholders for trying to survive and thrive through mergers. Don't get caught allowing these vendors to become silent shareholders in your next merger.
Bankers always want the simple answer to complex financial questions. A ratio, a rule of thumb - anything to help them understand if their core IT supplier is selling them a fair deal. Unfortunately, the vendors have gamed the system for so many years it's nearly impossible to determine the overspend unless your contracts are analyzed by a trained expert. However, here is some research we have conducted and published to help answer this age-old question.
Once upon a time, the core IT oligopoly of FIS, Fiserv and Jack Henry got together (legally, of course) and decided to not innovate but rather hold on to cash and innovate through acquisition of other IT companies and services. Part II of their plan was to monetize bank-owned data by creating complex, expensive and hard-to-use proprietary APIs that bankers are forced to employ when doing business with innovative fintech companies. Brilliant!
The #1 complaint we hear from bankers across the U.S. is that the service and support levels from core, IT and fintech vendors are weak. Typically rated a 2 out of 5. The fact is they don't have to work too hard considering the SLAs in their contracts give them permission to do just about anything they want to do (or not to do) and there isn't much you can do about it until you renegotiate the SLA terms.
If you read all the marketing hype put out there by the BIG THREE core IT suppliers of Fiserv, FIS and Jack Henry - you would think they are spending billions innovating to help the banking industry compete. The truth is something different.
When it comes to adopting the right negotiations strategy - time is always a factor. This fact is no different with core, IT and fintech contracts. You must know when to engage your vendor, what to expect and understand their time manipulation goals to outsmart them and angle for the deal which best suits your bank and not their bottom line.
We're all waiting for some really smart company to give the industry a true, reliable, competitive alternative to the legacy core technology stack we've been saddled with for decades. There are some sharp companies out there working hard to make realities come true but when will the industry be saved? How much longer shall we wait? How will this affect our fintech planning?
When a financial institution starts to think about a fintech strategy one of the first decisions they must make is which business model is right for their bank - omni channel or mobile first?