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Banking on Community: Meeting the Needs of Underserved Consumers · Leaders in Lending

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to Leaders in Lending from Upstart, a podcast
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  Speaker 1: dedicated to helping consumer lenders grow their programs and improve
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  Speaker 1: their product offerings. Each week, here, decision makers in the
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  Speaker 1: finance industry offer insights into the future of the lending industry,
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  Speaker 1: best practices around digital transformation, and more. Let's get into
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  Speaker 1: the show.
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  Speaker 2: Welcome to another episode of Leaders in Lending. I'm your host,
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  Speaker 2: Matt Snow.
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  Speaker 3: This week, I'm joined by Eric Fiala, the Chief Corporate
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  Speaker 3: Responsibility Officer for Key Bank and also the CEO of
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  Speaker 3: the Key Foundation.
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  Speaker 2: Eric, thanks for joining.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, happy to be here.
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  Speaker 3: Thanks for having me, Matt, absolutely So, maybe get started
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  Speaker 3: by telling me a little bit about how you ended
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  Speaker 3: up in those positions. I think some previous guests we
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  Speaker 3: talked about, you know, banking isn't the thing you dream
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  Speaker 3: up and doing as a kid, and it's kind of
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  Speaker 3: an accidental career. But maybe lead me through how you
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  Speaker 3: got to those roles at Key Bank.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, happy too.
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  Speaker 5: So I actually started at Key as an intern, graduated
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  Speaker 5: with a finance degree, and spent ten years here in
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  Speaker 5: our corporate finance team. I was had a few different
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  Speaker 5: positions there, but was the CFO for our consumer banking business,
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  Speaker 5: so really our branch based, branch based business, and then
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  Speaker 5: ultimately left that role to lead our business analytics function,
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  Speaker 5: which was everything from market research to marketing analytics, customer targeting,
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  Speaker 5: and ultimately wanted to do something that resonated with me
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  Speaker 5: a bit a bit more personally and raised my hand
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  Speaker 5: to move into what we called our corporate responsibility function.
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  Speaker 4: And have been their sentence, and so.
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  Speaker 5: I ultimately started leading the function in kind of early
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  Speaker 5: twenty twenty one, late twenty twenty and again just feel
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  Speaker 5: like I'm doing the right work, the work I was
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  Speaker 5: meant to do in the in the place I was
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  Speaker 5: meant to do it. And so been a long journey
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  Speaker 5: twenty two years now at KEY with a little bit
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  Speaker 5: of background that really helps me understand our clients, understand
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  Speaker 5: our businesses, but then translate it into how do we
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  Speaker 5: leverage that information to bring our purpose and values to life.
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  Speaker 3: Great, Yeah, that is quite a journey, and I would
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  Speaker 3: imagine the analytics background could help you in this space.
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  Speaker 3: I want to maybe come back to that an area
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  Speaker 3: that can be ambiguous around you know, the cra or
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  Speaker 3: how do you help in a community, how do you like,
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  Speaker 3: how do you even measure that, like seems like that
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  Speaker 3: would be a really interesting combination of skills to bring
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  Speaker 3: that role.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 5: Absolutely, I think you know, we we start as most do,
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  Speaker 5: by measuring you know, the activities. So what are the
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  Speaker 5: you know, number of dollars we're putting in a market,
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  Speaker 5: the number of loans you know, in each of the
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  Speaker 5: communities we serve.
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  Speaker 4: But I think where.
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  Speaker 5: We are focused now is really on the transition to
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  Speaker 5: understanding the impact of those and so thinking of it,
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  Speaker 5: you know, not just as a loan, but as you know,
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  Speaker 5: creating a new homeowner, someone who can build generational wealth
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  Speaker 5: over time.
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  Speaker 4: And what does that look like?
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  Speaker 5: You know, as we implement new programs, how does that
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  Speaker 5: change you know, the trajectory of our business relative to
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  Speaker 5: where it's been before. And I think you know, other
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  Speaker 5: things like our philanthropic investments or grants, you know, with
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  Speaker 5: with our larger grants, we work with the receiving organizations
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  Speaker 5: to really understand the targeted outcomes that they're looking to have,
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  Speaker 5: and then we check in with them regularly to understand,
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  Speaker 5: you know, are the investments we're making driving the outcomes
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  Speaker 5: and that can be you know, through things like food service,
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  Speaker 5: financial education, scholarship support, et cetera. There's a number, but
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  Speaker 5: then trying to pull that all back in together to
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  Speaker 5: really help tell the story and understand how those outcomes
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  Speaker 5: should shape our investments going forward.
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  Speaker 4: I think that's really the next turn for us.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a great point.
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  Speaker 3: And I being a data person myself, it's easy to
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  Speaker 3: get focused on the number and try to think about
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  Speaker 3: the scale or the return or those metrics. But it's
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  Speaker 3: I think it's really important to always come back to
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  Speaker 3: those stories. Like you were saying, that these are people
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  Speaker 3: you're directly impacting and stories you're helping improve. And I
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  Speaker 3: think in financial services we have a great opportunity and
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  Speaker 3: responsibility to do that in the right way.
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  Speaker 2: It's always good to anchor back to that.
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  Speaker 3: And you know, it got me think about an earlier
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  Speaker 3: conversation we were having and kind of getting ready for
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  Speaker 3: this recording about you know, the role of a bank
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  Speaker 3: in a community and how that's changed over you know,
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  Speaker 3: hundreds and hundreds of years. Even with the what I
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  Speaker 3: can remember, it's kind of a Christmas tradition for my
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  Speaker 3: wife and I to watch.
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  Speaker 2: It's a wonderful life.
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  Speaker 3: I don't know if that like has a warm spot
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  Speaker 3: in your heart as being someone in banking for a
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  Speaker 3: long time, but how you know, one of the things
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  Speaker 3: that you've seen over your career in terms of how
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  Speaker 3: a bank functions in a community, you know, the the
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  Speaker 3: role it plays, you know, whether just by the nature
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  Speaker 3: of being a bank and being having a physical presence
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  Speaker 3: or I get being involved in the financial wellbeing of
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  Speaker 3: those community members.
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  Speaker 5: Yeah so, so I think nearly every major, if not
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  Speaker 5: every major life event or impact has an associated financial implication,
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  Speaker 5: whether that's you know, having a child, sending someone off
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  Speaker 5: to college, buying your first home, starting a business, There
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  Speaker 5: is a financial component to each of those types of events,
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  Speaker 5: and I would say, you know, banks have the unique
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  Speaker 5: role of helping people through those helping people understand the
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  Speaker 5: implications on their you know, long term financial situation, you know,
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  Speaker 5: as those life events occur, and to help prepare for
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  Speaker 5: those or the course of over the course of time.
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  Speaker 4: I think.
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  Speaker 5: What's perhaps changed about the role of banking, or maybe
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  Speaker 5: is more of a focus today than it has been historically,
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  Speaker 5: is around really understanding communities from a system's perspective and
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  Speaker 5: identifying opportunities that you know, the bank can play in supporting,
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  Speaker 5: you know, as stronger kind of more thriving ecosystem for
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  Speaker 5: our neighbors and our neighborhoods. I think, you know, whether
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  Speaker 5: that's looking at broader based kind of economic or demographic
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  Speaker 5: data understanding, you know, local government priorities and initiatives that
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  Speaker 5: are really rooted in the needs of the community. I
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  Speaker 5: think that's where the role of banking has changed. And
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  Speaker 5: how do we come together, often frankly in the industry
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  Speaker 5: as partners to support local efforts that are trying to
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  Speaker 5: drive some of the systems change to help create the
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  Speaker 5: thriving communities that we all want to be a part of.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's interesting, and I've I've had a couple other
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  Speaker 3: guests on and we've talked about maybe at a more
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  Speaker 3: national level some of those changes or you know, working
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  Speaker 3: with agencies or collaboration and figuring out trade groups or
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  Speaker 3: associations and ways to do that.
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  Speaker 2: But so, how how do you do that at a
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  Speaker 2: local level.
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  Speaker 3: That's a good point about the systems and the local
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  Speaker 3: governments and kind of the infrastructure that develops to solve
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  Speaker 3: those immediate needs. Seems like there could be a lot
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  Speaker 3: of nuance in differentiation depending on the size of the community,
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  Speaker 3: the earl or urban nature of those communities. How do
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  Speaker 3: you get you know, into that the DNA of those
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  Speaker 3: local areas. Yeah, so I think it starts first and
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  Speaker 3: foremost with listening. You know, uh, first with clients. What
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  Speaker 3: are they telling you?
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  Speaker 5: What are the people you're working with or that are
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  Speaker 5: coming into your branches every day saying about the community
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  Speaker 5: where they live. I think the other piece of it is,
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  Speaker 5: you know, we work to establish community partnerships so people
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  Speaker 5: that we know you know, are very focused on serving
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  Speaker 5: the needs of the communities, Understanding what they're saying, what
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  Speaker 5: they're seeing, and then what they're doing to address some
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  Speaker 5: of those issues, and really thinking through that with a
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  Speaker 5: lens of where might we be able to play a
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  Speaker 5: role to help support I think, you know, whether it's
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  Speaker 5: community listening sessions again looking at just some of the
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  Speaker 5: demographic trends, those are all helpful. The other thing I
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  Speaker 5: would say is really making sure that for us, we're
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  Speaker 5: involved with local government, understanding many cities have plans and priorities,
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  Speaker 5: they're making investments to address the most critical needs within
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  Speaker 5: a community, and so really having a perspective on what's
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  Speaker 5: happening there and you know, city council and county councils
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  Speaker 5: and others. Helps us understand you know, what do the
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  Speaker 5: leaders in a local community see as being the priorities
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  Speaker 5: or priority issues within a given community.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, and you mentioned, you know, using kind of the
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  Speaker 3: branch as a channel for gathering some of that feedback.
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  Speaker 2: That's interesting.
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  Speaker 3: Have you seen that change or the way consumers are
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  Speaker 3: using branches now versus you know, even pre COVID. Was
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  Speaker 3: there a dramatic shift for you guys in that perspective?
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  Speaker 3: And how do you think about like digital channels and
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  Speaker 3: keeping in touch with customers.
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  Speaker 5: Yeah, so I think, you know, our trends are similar
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  Speaker 5: to others. I think we're seeing in branch transactions decline.
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  Speaker 5: That said, I would go back to my earlier point,
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  Speaker 5: which is when the life events happen.
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  Speaker 4: I think people still desire to have.
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  Speaker 5: An in person interaction, to sit kind of shoulder to
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  Speaker 5: shoulder with someone and talk through what they're facing, what
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  Speaker 5: their questions are, what they're thinking about, and so in
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  Speaker 5: the those most pivotal moments in someone's life, I still
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  Speaker 5: think people are coming into branches to have those conversations.
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  Speaker 3: It's funny because I was reading an article recently about
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  Speaker 3: where do people go for financial advice again, thinking about
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  Speaker 3: how the role of a bank or a branch has
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  Speaker 3: changed and evolved over the course of time. It was
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  Speaker 3: about half of the people that were surveyed this was
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  Speaker 3: a bank great survey from last year had sought some
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  Speaker 3: kind of financial advice in the past year. The number
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  Speaker 3: one area was friends and family where they got that advice.
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  Speaker 3: But then I thought what was kind of crazy was
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  Speaker 3: similar ratio sought advice from financial advisors versus social media.
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  Speaker 3: I would argue, maybe there's more veracity in one of
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  Speaker 3: those channels.
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  Speaker 2: Versus the other.
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  Speaker 3: But you know, does that resonate with what you've seen
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  Speaker 3: or what kind of things are people coming to the
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  Speaker 3: bank for advice for?
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  Speaker 2: How are they solving these problems?
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, I think it's you know, it runs the gamut.
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  Speaker 5: Really, you know, I would like to buy, you know,
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  Speaker 5: my first home, but I don't know, you know, if
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  Speaker 5: I'm prepared to do that financially, I don't know, you know,
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  Speaker 5: do I have enough of a doubt payment saved, or
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  Speaker 5: what's the monthly payment going to be or sending my
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  Speaker 5: you know, kids to college and how am I going
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  Speaker 5: to support them over time? Or you know, having a
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  Speaker 5: baby and and want to start saving or I think,
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  Speaker 5: you know, the other thing we hear and see is
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  Speaker 5: just how do I withstand some sort of financial emergency
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  Speaker 5: or shock, you know, unexpectedly need a new car or
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  Speaker 5: medical expenses are another big one, are caring for aging parents.
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  Speaker 5: And I think so there's definitely no you know, one
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  Speaker 5: size fits all solution. I think it's how do you
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  Speaker 5: make people, in particular people that have not necessarily had
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  Speaker 5: that kind of history of trust with financial institutions. How
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  Speaker 5: do you welcome them in in a way you know
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  Speaker 5: that feels good to them, where you can start to
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  Speaker 5: build trust and you know, help them work through those
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  Speaker 5: problems or you know, questions.
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  Speaker 4: Over the course of time.
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  Speaker 3: Gotcha any thing innovative that you guys are working on
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  Speaker 3: or trying to use new technology or even a I
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  Speaker 3: know that seems to be a big topic lately, whether
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  Speaker 3: it's large you know, language models, kind of those learning
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  Speaker 3: from your data, anything you guys are working on in
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  Speaker 3: that space.
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  Speaker 5: I'm not well versed in our AI capabilities, but I
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  Speaker 5: think some of the things that we're doing around building
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  Speaker 5: trust in communities are finding new ways to bring the
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  Speaker 5: bank to the community.
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  Speaker 4: And so historically you know, I think.
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  Speaker 5: We may have relied more heavily on foot traffic people
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  Speaker 5: coming in or calling in with questions, and now we're
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  Speaker 5: looking at ways we can help people understand what our
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  Speaker 5: capabilities are and build those relationships before they ever set
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  Speaker 5: foot in a branch. And so I think one of
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  Speaker 5: those is we're working with a company called Mokafi to
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  Speaker 5: bring kind of banking clinics to different parts of the neighborhood,
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  Speaker 5: to historically underserved neighborhoods. And they are in places, you know,
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  Speaker 5: that are central to a community, generally community gathering spots,
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  Speaker 5: and we're saying here's a topic. For example, we're going
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  Speaker 5: to talk to uh, We're going to host a session
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  Speaker 5: that's focused on the black beauty industry and you know,
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  Speaker 5: help people understand that are running salons or other things,
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  Speaker 5: you know, potentially out of their home. You know, what
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  Speaker 5: opportunities exist for them to grow their business, What are
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  Speaker 5: some of the basics you'd want to put in place,
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  Speaker 5: and and you know, we have products and services that
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  Speaker 5: can help with that. The partner we're working with, Mogaphi,
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  Speaker 5: does as well. And then we also bring to those
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  Speaker 5: conversations other community organizations that can help those participants understand
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  Speaker 5: what are some of the other services and capabilities available
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  Speaker 5: to them within a market. In certain cases, we've brought
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  Speaker 5: our branch managers to conduct individual financial wellness reviews, where
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  Speaker 5: someone can do that without ever having to step foot
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  Speaker 5: in a branch. They get to go to a place
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  Speaker 5: where they're comfortable with, They get to be with people
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  Speaker 5: that they're comfortable with and really start to build that
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  Speaker 5: relationship over time.
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  Speaker 3: Wow, that sounds like a really interesting approach, kind of
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  Speaker 3: meeting people where they are and you guys playing facilitator
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  Speaker 3: or a hub for other services they maybe wouldn't have
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  Speaker 3: otherwise known. Is that something you have rolled out widely
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  Speaker 3: or just kind of testing now, I would say more
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  Speaker 3: in the test phases. So we've hosted three or four
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  Speaker 3: events so far, but they've been really successful. People have
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  Speaker 3: been very pleased with the outcomes.
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  Speaker 5: And I think what we sound is that in certain cases,
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  Speaker 5: the more targeted topics are really well received. People want
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  Speaker 5: to know that they're going to come and hear information
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  Speaker 5: that's relevant to their specific situation.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, great, well I'd be curious to hear how that goes.
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  Speaker 3: Maybe pivoting a little bit because I know, when we've
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  Speaker 3: talked before more about the Community Reinvestment Act, some changes
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  Speaker 3: to that last year that are you know rolling out
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  Speaker 3: this year hopefully brings more transparency and ease of kind
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  Speaker 3: of managing that system. How's that been for you guys
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  Speaker 3: in terms of managing that transition?
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  Speaker 2: Good.
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  Speaker 5: I think what we are looking at early on is
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  Speaker 5: any major technology changes we would have to make to
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  Speaker 5: track information and data differently.
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  Speaker 4: But beyond that, I.
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  Speaker 5: Think outside of the administration of it. There are some
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  Speaker 5: really exciting changes to what qualifies this community development I
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  Speaker 5: think some more specificity and so ultimately, you know, we're
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  Speaker 5: really pleased to see, you know that a set of
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  Speaker 5: activities you know will count if you will, towards the
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  Speaker 5: CRA in places that are you know, that are really needed.
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  Speaker 5: So the addition of you know, climate resilience initiatives and
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  Speaker 5: low low income communities, I think more specific callouts for
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  Speaker 5: support of minority depository institutions or community development financial institutions.
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  Speaker 4: Are places where you know, we have.
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  Speaker 5: Been investing over time, and that that clarity of you know,
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  Speaker 5: the community development purpose should help to expand investments you
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  Speaker 5: know that are needed across the country.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I totally agree, and I think there's even some
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  Speaker 3: of those changes maybe help with the idea of the
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  Speaker 3: assessment area or including the idea that there's a maybe
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  Speaker 3: a digital footprint as well as a physical footprint within
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  Speaker 3: a bank's network. Right, Yeah, absolutely, So you mentioned a
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  Speaker 3: few others is going to turn into like an alphabet
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  Speaker 3: soup here with M d I, c d FI and CRA.
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  Speaker 3: Maybe talk a little bit more about your involvement with
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  Speaker 3: those types of institutions. With or maybe even start with,
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  Speaker 3: what is a md I or a cd FI.
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  Speaker 5: Yeah, So, an md I is is a minority depository institution.
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  Speaker 5: It is a bank that is more than fifty percent
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  Speaker 5: owner controlled by by minorities. And a Community development financial
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  Speaker 5: Institution or CDFI is an organization that is a certified
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  Speaker 5: community development lender that really is looking to kind of
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  Speaker 5: close the gap between where traditional financial services start, so
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  Speaker 5: you know, predominantly serves historically underrepresented or you know, vulnerable communities.
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  Speaker 5: Our work with CDFIs and MDIs has really grown, I
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  Speaker 5: think over the past.
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  Speaker 4: Couple of years.
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  Speaker 5: Namely, the major item I would highlight is that we
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  Speaker 5: have placed fifty million dollars of deposits with minority deposit
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  Speaker 5: institutions as part of a commitment we made being a
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  Speaker 5: founding member of something called more alphabet soup for you,
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  Speaker 5: the EOC, the Economic Opportunity Coalition. And what's important about
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  Speaker 5: those deposits is that during the pandemic, many MDIs received
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  Speaker 5: one time funding to make additional loans in communities where
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  Speaker 5: they were really needed. But to do that and to
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  Speaker 5: lever those investments up, it was important that those MDIs
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  Speaker 5: had a stable deposit base. And so what we can
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  Speaker 5: do is partner with the minority depository institutions to place
• 19:37
  Speaker 5: deposits there that we know will be stable, that are
• 19:41
  Speaker 5: below market rates so they're a little bit cheaper, and
• 19:44
  Speaker 5: those dollars then get levered up to make loans into.
• 19:47
  Speaker 4: Communities where they're needed most.
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: That's great. What loans are those typically for the small business?
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: Are they consumer? Are those usually back both?
• 19:56
  Speaker 5: It really depends on the focus area of the NDI,
• 19:59
  Speaker 5: but I would say small business and and mortgage lending
• 20:02
  Speaker 5: are probably the two predominant categories.
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: Gotcha, have you seen any of that changes.
• 20:08
  Speaker 3: It's been, you know, really interesting economic cycle that we're
• 20:12
  Speaker 3: going through now.
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: They all are and that have their own different flavors.
• 20:15
  Speaker 3: Anything that you're seeing, uh, you know, as rates change
• 20:19
  Speaker 3: in terms of the types of products and services in
• 20:22
  Speaker 3: these communities.
• 20:26
  Speaker 5: I think what I would highlight most in terms of
• 20:30
  Speaker 5: where I'm seeing changes are and part of it is
• 20:34
  Speaker 5: rate driven. I think part of it is just general
• 20:36
  Speaker 5: recognition of the need, but is around special purpose credit programs,
• 20:43
  Speaker 5: in particular for mortgage lending. So Key has three special
• 20:49
  Speaker 5: purpose credit programs. A number of banks out in markets
• 20:52
  Speaker 5: have have those programs and that's really where you can
• 20:57
  Speaker 5: offer favorable terms to historically underserved classes of people. And
• 21:03
  Speaker 5: so I think some of those programs focus on you know,
• 21:09
  Speaker 5: closing cost assistance, some of them focus on down payment assistance,
• 21:14
  Speaker 5: Others focus on rate buydowns four loans, which I think
• 21:19
  Speaker 5: can help in this type of environment. I think, you know,
• 21:21
  Speaker 5: as an industry overall, we've seen mortgage lending in particular
• 21:25
  Speaker 5: come down quite a bit from where it had been
• 21:29
  Speaker 5: in you know, twenty twenty and twenty one, but housing
• 21:33
  Speaker 5: prices are still high. Rates are still high. It's really
• 21:36
  Speaker 5: you know, makes it much harder to get.
• 21:39
  Speaker 4: Into a home.
• 21:40
  Speaker 5: And I think some of these you know, products are
• 21:43
  Speaker 5: trying to look at ways that we can make home
• 21:46
  Speaker 5: ownership more affordable, not just a key, but across across
• 21:49
  Speaker 5: the industry.
• 21:50
  Speaker 3: Yeah, definitely a hot topic and try not to stray
• 21:53
  Speaker 3: too deep into politics, but even you know, reading today
• 21:57
  Speaker 3: about some of the proposals maybe from Kamala Harris around
• 22:02
  Speaker 3: twenty five thousand dollars down payment assistance for new home buyers.
• 22:06
  Speaker 3: So I think, you know, the pressure is around home
• 22:08
  Speaker 3: ownership definitely are being felt across the nation, and there's
• 22:12
  Speaker 3: always room for innovation and how do you know, make
• 22:15
  Speaker 3: that more affordable easier for for all folks because it's
• 22:19
  Speaker 3: a huge, you know, generational wealth driver, an important part of.
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: Growing in advancing communities and individuals in the US.
• 22:29
  Speaker 5: Yeah, and over time, I think there's such a long
• 22:31
  Speaker 5: term aspect to it that.
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: We we have to keep keep our eyes on. Yeah.
• 22:36
  Speaker 3: Absolutely, What else are you seeing in terms of you know,
• 22:41
  Speaker 3: regulation change, Things that are on your mind that you
• 22:44
  Speaker 3: know you're trying to kind of keep aware of that
• 22:47
  Speaker 3: maybe potentially can impact keys business.
• 22:51
  Speaker 5: Yeah, so maybe less on the on the bank regulatory side.
• 22:56
  Speaker 5: But I think one of the things that we are
• 22:58
  Speaker 5: seeing across the country are mandates around financial education as
• 23:05
  Speaker 5: part of school curriculums as as as or curricula as
• 23:09
  Speaker 5: graduation requirements. And in many cases, you know, those mandates
• 23:16
  Speaker 5: may be unfunded, and so I think we are seeing.
• 23:20
  Speaker 4: A greater need for.
• 23:22
  Speaker 5: Financial education you know, high school students and up and
• 23:26
  Speaker 5: even in certain cases even earlier that we're really starting
• 23:30
  Speaker 5: to think through how is that you know, unneat that
• 23:33
  Speaker 5: we can help meet in our communities.
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: Oh.
• 23:36
  Speaker 3: Interesting, So one of the ways that you're thinking of
• 23:38
  Speaker 3: doing that is that through curriculum or having folks in
• 23:41
  Speaker 3: schools or what were some of the things you're thinking of.
• 23:43
  Speaker 5: Yeah, so we historically have done financial education you know,
• 23:48
  Speaker 5: on an as needed basis or when someone would you
• 23:50
  Speaker 5: know request it, we would you know, find someone who
• 23:52
  Speaker 5: could go deliver.
• 23:53
  Speaker 4: And and actually it was a series we did at
• 23:57
  Speaker 4: a at.
• 23:58
  Speaker 5: A local high school here in Cleveland, and that got
• 24:01
  Speaker 5: us thinking about the creation of a more established financial
• 24:05
  Speaker 5: education and empowerment program. And so in April of this year,
• 24:10
  Speaker 5: we launched a new financial education program that we call Money.
• 24:14
  Speaker 4: Me and Key and UH.
• 24:17
  Speaker 5: And that is a you know, there are twenty two
• 24:21
  Speaker 5: modules that are part of that curriculum. They don't have
• 24:25
  Speaker 5: to build on one another, so it can be you know,
• 24:29
  Speaker 5: basics of budgeting, you know, how to establish an emergency
• 24:32
  Speaker 5: savings account, to you know, opening a business or buying
• 24:35
  Speaker 5: a home. Uh, you know, whatever is relevant for the audience.
• 24:40
  Speaker 5: And actually that program will start, you know, not in schools,
• 24:44
  Speaker 5: but working with the many community community partners we have
• 24:49
  Speaker 5: across our across our footprint. But what's unique about the
• 24:53
  Speaker 5: model for us this time is that you know, we
• 24:57
  Speaker 5: have asked our teammates to.
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: Sign up to.
• 25:01
  Speaker 5: Become what we are calling Money mentors, and and those
• 25:06
  Speaker 5: money mentors go through a facilitation course and ultimately get
• 25:11
  Speaker 5: certified before we can send them out you know, an
• 25:13
  Speaker 5: internal certification, but before we send them out in communities
• 25:17
  Speaker 5: to deliver that education.
• 25:19
  Speaker 4: And I would tell you.
• 25:21
  Speaker 5: After you know, our launch, we had about six hundred
• 25:26
  Speaker 5: of our teammates sign up to be money mentors, and
• 25:29
  Speaker 5: I think they're really looking forward. Has more requests come
• 25:32
  Speaker 5: into getting out and delivering.
• 25:33
  Speaker 4: That education in community?
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: Oh that's great.
• 25:37
  Speaker 3: And it goes back to you know what I was
• 25:39
  Speaker 3: thinking about earlier around where do people get advice? So
• 25:41
  Speaker 3: this seems like a really positive, proactive way that you
• 25:44
  Speaker 3: guys are getting out there, like the idea of a
• 25:46
  Speaker 3: you know, internal certification, getting people prepared. Like are there
• 25:51
  Speaker 3: certain topics or where have you seen the biggest gap
• 25:54
  Speaker 3: in terms of that, just like basic financial knowledge and
• 25:57
  Speaker 3: education that a general consumer has and or is.
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: Like you said, it's not a one size fits all.
• 26:03
  Speaker 3: Maybe there's different life events that trigger different needs or
• 26:06
  Speaker 3: just how to you know, manage and navigate a certain product.
• 26:10
  Speaker 5: I think it's probably the two topics we've seen most
• 26:15
  Speaker 5: requested are just a basic class, tell me about banking,
• 26:19
  Speaker 5: Tell me about you know, some of the products and
• 26:21
  Speaker 5: services that are available, how are they used, what are
• 26:24
  Speaker 5: they used for, and how might they benefit me?
• 26:28
  Speaker 4: That?
• 26:29
  Speaker 5: And then home ownership, you know, that is always a
• 26:32
  Speaker 5: question I think, given some of our earlier conversation, you know,
• 26:34
  Speaker 5: such an important topic, you know, really across the country.
• 26:38
  Speaker 5: I think, you know, folks want to understand how do
• 26:42
  Speaker 5: I how do I own own a home and build
• 26:47
  Speaker 5: wealth over time? And then actually I would add a
• 26:49
  Speaker 5: third onto that comment, which is we are hearing a
• 26:53
  Speaker 5: lot more interest lately in estate planning, how to think about,
• 26:58
  Speaker 5: you know, end of life issues and making sure that
• 27:02
  Speaker 5: as you grow and build wealth over time, that that
• 27:05
  Speaker 5: you're doing your very best and kind of everything you
• 27:08
  Speaker 5: can do to pass along that wealth to future generations.
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's actually a great point. I hadn't thought of that.
• 27:14
  Speaker 3: The banking ecosystem can be complex enough, but layer on
• 27:18
  Speaker 3: top of that the legal system, and you know that's
• 27:21
  Speaker 3: almost impossible for you know, any person off the street
• 27:24
  Speaker 3: to navigate themselves.
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: Eric, I appreciate the time today.
• 27:26
  Speaker 3: Is there anything else we haven't covered, maybe that you
• 27:28
  Speaker 3: wanted to highlight.
• 27:30
  Speaker 5: I think we've covered a lot of ground in a
• 27:32
  Speaker 5: short period of time. I just think, you know, maybe
• 27:37
  Speaker 5: one of the things I would highlight is the importance
• 27:40
  Speaker 5: of building partnerships. There are so many organizations across the
• 27:45
  Speaker 5: country doing phenomenal work that reach really deeply into communities
• 27:51
  Speaker 5: and help expand you know, that have the potential to
• 27:54
  Speaker 5: help to expand your own reach. And so I think
• 27:57
  Speaker 5: for us, you know, those partners are for us in
• 28:00
  Speaker 5: terms of you know, meeting communities where they are, understanding
• 28:04
  Speaker 5: their needs and and frankly holding us accountable to you know,
• 28:09
  Speaker 5: what we can and need to be doing better.
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: Great. Yeah, I couldn't agree more.
• 28:13
  Speaker 3: And as we've talked about, you know, this world is
• 28:16
  Speaker 3: complex and growing more so by the day. Are there
• 28:18
  Speaker 3: any other podcasts you listen to, authors you like, you know,
• 28:22
  Speaker 3: industry publications that help keep you up to date you
• 28:25
  Speaker 3: would want to share.
• 28:26
  Speaker 5: You know, maybe a little bit of a different answer
• 28:28
  Speaker 5: to your question. All right, So I talked earlier about
• 28:34
  Speaker 5: you know, understanding you know, local plans. I would say,
• 28:39
  Speaker 5: read local news, you know, follow elected officials on their
• 28:45
  Speaker 5: social media accounts, and understand what the priorities of of
• 28:51
  Speaker 5: of local governments are. I think, you know, read the
• 28:54
  Speaker 5: city plans and and really think through you know what
• 28:59
  Speaker 5: are those plans telling you about the needs and a community,
• 29:02
  Speaker 5: And so I think it's not just one source, but
• 29:05
  Speaker 5: several sources that get you closer to what's happening, you know,
• 29:09
  Speaker 5: on the ground, and what are important to the people
• 29:11
  Speaker 5: of each individual community.
• 29:14
  Speaker 3: All right, great pivot, I like that advice. Well, thanks
• 29:16
  Speaker 3: again for joining, Eric.
• 29:18
  Speaker 4: Yeah, happy to be here, thanks Matt.
• 29:20
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