Shaping the Future of Finance Through Collaboration
How niche banks can forge new paths to growth opportunities in the wealth management market through strategic partnerships.
The rules of personal finance are changing quickly. Wealth management is no longer just for the rich — people are investing in the stock market early in their careers and with limited knowledge of economics. Staying relevant with today’s perceptive, future-focused customers takes a team of innovative thinkers and doers. Technology drives consumer behavior and a necessity for collaboration. By partnering with wealth management digital groups, community banks can implement agile, customer-centric fintech solutions that drive efficient growth within their niche markets.
Savvy financial institutions are discovering a valuable opportunity to band together with fintechs that can help them offer digital wealth management options. Historically, banks and credit unions viewed fintech partnerships as a “life raft” in the choppy waters of today’s financial sector. But modern, strategic alliances built to last provide genuine mutual benefits, such as opportunities for relevant, accelerated growth and client service.
Digital wealth technology firm Marstone, Inc. seized such an opportunity by forging an equal partnership with financial services technology leader, Nymbus. Together, they successfully integrated a turnkey digital wealth management platform with a rapidly growing menu of solutions for niche banking executives — offering niche banks new routes into the wealth management market.
Three actions can benefit niche banks with a healthy boost to their Net Promoter Score (NPS) and the average customer lifetime value (CLV).
Make Personal Finance Less Painful
Modern banking customers aren’t demanding a revolution. They want to be seen and heard. The new rules of personal finance center around creating a holistic wealth management experience for your customers that is simple, streamlined, and embedded.
This paradigm shift means redefining the options for banking growth. Well thought out collaborations in embedded finance blend the unique skills of niche banks, wealth management firms, and fintech companies into a seamless customer experience (CX).
Before the pandemic, a growing number of consumers were already shifting to digital banking and wealth management offerings. COVID-19 accelerated that shift for financial institutions and consumers. The sudden transition to remote work accelerated the need for robust digital solutions — the pandemic contributed to 88% of banks implementing new technologies in 2021.
Niche banks of any size can have efficient avenues to grow and attract new market segments. However, progress is often slowed by roadblocks such as antiquated systems that hinder engagements or a lack of automated solutions to drive efficiencies.
Marstone recognized inefficiencies in paper-driven systems that didn’t speak to each other (silos), so they partnered with Nymbus to design technologies capable of streamlining communications between banking institutions, financial advisors, and clients. By working with Nymbus to create customizable solutions for engagement and efficiency, it became possible to meld the human side of banking and wealth management with simplified backend processes.
Consumer education is not a lecture–it’s a conversation. Familiarize customers with the language of investments in a manner they can understand. Discuss how different types of wealth management products correlate. Listen to customer pain points with managing money and develop solutions catered to those needs. For example, Marstone created an interactive financial wellness and inclusion planning tool. The democratization of wealth management through honest conversations and intuitive educational tools improves its accessibility.
Make wealth management more approachable and less intimidating. Managing personal finances doesn’t have to be an overwhelming process. Nymbus builds future-focused accountability with clients by engaging in ongoing conversations that go beyond technology. Focus on meeting clients where they are and understanding where they want to go.
When financial institutions make personal finance less painful for customers, they nurture an ongoing, trusted relationship that builds in asset value over time.
Shape the Future of Finance Through Collaboration
The future of wealth management isn’t banks telling customers what they need. Understand the needs of your customers to develop affordable, streamlined solutions. Remember that consumers and business owners are connected by emotion when it comes to managing money.
Families focus on their future financial security like business owners take steps to ensure their livelihoods remain intact. When we remember that money has no value without the activities of life, we can harness that collective emotion into a focused energy that drives our decisions.
The modern vendor-client relationship is similar to the business-customer relationship in terms of the need for collaboration. The former, often ineffective notion of a traditional vendor relationship has evolved into a successful partnership by sharing risk and taking accountability for outcomes.
The world has changed, and it is no longer realistic to strive to be all things to all people. With more service lines needed than ever before, there is an increasing need to collaborate. Marstone partnered with Nymbus and combined their unique strengths to make it possible for a niche or a De Novo bank to offer wealth management.
Niche banks become more well-rounded when they embrace embedded finance and partner with fintechs to integrate wealth management into their service line offerings. This leads to an increased market share, accelerating efficient growth.
Partner with Equals and Experience Exponential Growth
The best collaborations may not always appear that way on paper because successful long-term partnerships are about structure–not salvation. There is no end-all-be-all “cheat sheet” hidden in a fintech’s digital drawer that results in instant success for a financial institution looking to go more digital. A successful digital transformation in banking must include involved partners with the drive to succeed and the patience to make it happen.
Calculated collaborations are a slow and steady path on the surface, but they can lead toward exponential growth. When you combine the diversified strengths and holistic offerings from these partnerships, 1+1=3 begins to feel like a theoretical possibility. Nymbus views this as a partnership rooted in purpose.
Both financial brands and their customers benefit because problems of all sizes get solved when companies work together to bring value to people by humanizing finance and wealth management.
Authentic, equal partnerships require meeting at a place of abundance, not desperation. When partners meet at the table as equals with a shared vision, ideas with momentum, and the passion to make it happen, that structure leads to sustainable growth. There are no obstacles to growth–only opportunities not taken. By partnering with equals, you can accelerate long-term growth in your niche market.
