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'We're not in Kansas anymore': Summit focuses on elevating CX in a digital banking world

With a lot of courage, heart and brains, Suresh Ramamurthi and his wife Suchitra Padmanabhan turned a failing bank into a fintech phenom in tiny Weir, Kansas. In a keynote at the BCX Summit, Ramamurthi will talk about CBW's journey — and its far-reaching implications for the bank customer experience.

'We're not in Kansas anymore': Summit focuses on elevating CX in a digital banking world photo istock

April 12, 2018 | by Suzanne Cluckey — Owner, Suzanne Cluckey Communications

Take a line due south from Kansas City — on the Kansas side of the state line — and cruise down Highway 69 for about 150 miles until you're almost to the Oklahoma border.

There, in the grassy flatlands of southeastern Kansas, best known as the home of Dorothy Gale and her little dog Toto, you will find CBW, an extraordinary financial institution that might have been dreamed up by The Wizard himself.

In 2008, Citizens Bank of Weir (population 686) seemed destined — like so many Main Street businesses in the shrinking, flyspeck farm towns of the Midwest — for the dustbin of rural history, doomed by bad loans and worse management.

A decade later, CBW is the vital, FDIC-insured financial institution behind some of America's most innovative and disruptive digital banking ventures, including the mobile-first developer, Moven.

For these forward-thinking companies, CBW, with its partner fintech Yanta, provides the vital underpinnings of regulatory compliance and risk management technologies for groundbreaking digital banking applications. Just as importantly, it supports banks in the swift and seamless deployment of these technologies.

The transformation of CBW from failing FI to fintech frontrunner is a remarkable story instigated by Suresh Ramamurthi, a former Google engineer, current CBW chairman and CEO of Yanta, and his wife Suchitra Padmanabhan, a former Wall Street analyst, now CBW president.

They bought the teetering institution in 2008 with the idea of making it the foundation for an entirely new digital banking framework, one that was as responsive and instantaneous as a Google search and as accessible and user-friendly as an iPhone in an account holder's hand.

As keynote speaker at the 2018 Bank Customer Experience Summit, Sept. 12–14, at the Sofitel Chicago Magnificent Mile, Ramamurthi will explain how CBW pushes the envelope of banking technology from within the industry, and why he believes it is incumbent upon traditional banks to do the work of breaking down needless, timeworn obstacles to customer-centric service.

Ramamurthi's presentation, "Taking a Marketplace Approach to Banking" will kick off two days of sessions designed to inform and inspire banking executives and their industry partners seeking to elevate the customer experience.

The 2018 BCX agenda was developed to address the needs of traditional financial services providers who aim to compete and excel in a fast-changing banking market.

In this increasingly digital environment, nontraditional challengers are aggressively pursuing young, tech-savvy customers open to new modes of banking tailored to their lifestyle and needs.

The BCX summit will present expert insights, real-world case studies and emerging technologies. To name just a few, topics covered include:

The full agenda is available here.

More than scheduled presentations, though, the summit offers participants the opportunity to meet, network with industry peers and technology providers, share their own insights and success stories at the annual BCX awards dinner, and enjoy the sights, sounds and attractions of Chicago.

A $300 discount is available through Friday, April 13, for early birds. Don't miss out — register now!

Suzanne Cluckey

Suzanne’s editorial career has spanned three decades and encompassed all B2B and B2C communications formats. Her award-winning work has appeared in trade and consumer media in the United States and internationally.