Community Banks Give Small Businesses Big Business Tools to Run Their Business

Inflation is a major challenge for small to midsized businesses (SMBs) in the United States, where 40% are concerned about rising interest rates and 7 in 10 are addressing it by raising prices. These conditions have SMBs on the hunt for working capital to execute growth plans and stay competitive.

SMBs are switching financial institutions (FIs) for better products and pricing. As the financial services playing field gets more crowded, more FIs are leaning on the cloud, advanced technology and data to win and retain customers. The path to the future is not easy, however, as more than half of senior bank executives said they have not yet made significant strides on their own digital transformation initiatives.

This month’s “Digital-First Banking Tracker®” explores how SMBs are increasingly turning to digital banking solutions for better cash flow and other tools to streamline their entire operation.

Around the Digital-First Banking Space

The looming potential of a global recession is lowering margins and making scaling to new markets more challenging, according to a recent report. Two-thirds of SMBs said survival and expansion are their primary challenge, in fact. Retaining existing customers and attracting new consumers are thus the keys to competing.

Interactive teller machines (ITMs) are a growing solution for FIs to help meet customer expectations. According to recent research, this adoption is spurred by pain points around convenience, with 40% of FIs responding to customers’ demands for additional service hours, 39% citing customers’ need for faster service and 31% referencing customers’ demand in underserved locations.

For more on these and other stories, visit the Tracker’s News and Trends section.

An Insider on Why Community Banks Must Help SMBs Navigate Technology

Small businesses are key to the success of community banks and local economies, and FIs are stepping up to better support them as SMBs contend with economic headwinds. Community banks must take a measured approach to choosing the right technologies and tools that SMBs can use to stay ahead of financial trouble. The Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) works alongside community banks to help keep their customers and win new ones.

To get the Insider POV, we spoke with Charles Potts, chief innovation officer at the ICBA, to learn more about how community banks can help SMBs access cutting-edge technologies.

SMBs Seek Personalized Digital Banking Support

The opportunity for banks to streamline financial services and provide personalized alerts and products is enormous. SMBs are clear in their demands for prioritized digital banking relationships, especially those that include embedded finance. SMBs also want convenience and customer analytics and intelligence. Traditional banks are coming up short in many areas, including financial advice, as SMBs tackle a host of problems like supply chain and talent acquisition.

To learn more about how SMBs are seeking more digital support, read the Tracker’s PYMNTS Intelligence.

About the Tracker

The “Digital-First Banking Tracker®,” a collaboration with NCR, examines how digital banking is innovating to better serve the growing needs of SMBs.