Hi Gary, welcome to our Fintech interview Series. Please tell us about your fintech journey so far.
I “grew up” in the financial services industry. Dating all the way back to college, I enjoyed finance and the concept of helping business owners achieve their dreams. Over the span of 23 years, I worked at three community banks serving many roles, but always with a heavy focus on commercial lending and community banking. During this time, I was able to learn the inner workings of a bank, understand the obligation a bank has to its community, and develop a working knowledge of real-world finance. Working there taught me the value of the customer, the symbiotic relationship between bank and borrower, and the impact a proper partnership can have on the lives of individuals.
2012 was a tough time for the banking industry. Ultimately, I decided to change gears and pursue a new and challenging opportunity at Jack Henry. Initially, I joined Jack Henry as a sales executive, specializing in lending solutions that help financial institutions increase net-interest margin and grow overall profitability.
I continued to grow within the company; in less than five years, I was promoted to director of lending sales. I led a group of sales professionals delivering commercial lending solutions to institutions of all sizes. I was also fortunate enough to be on the acquisition team for our FactorSoft product, which exposed me to a different segment of lending, specifically in the non-chartered space.
I spent slightly over a decade in sales until I decided to return to my operational roots. Now, I serve as the managing director for lending and deposit solutions at Jack Henry. In my role, I’m responsible for consolidating our 11 lending solutions, of which LoanVantage is the flagship product, under a single umbrella. This unification is part of our evolving strategy to become more feature and function-based in our delivery based on our clients’ needs. Over the next few years, we see this strategy helping to eliminate duplication, increase efficiencies, and provide a much better experience for our team, our customers, and their accountholders.
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LoanVantage solution is the winner of the “Best Loan Origination Platform” award in the FinTech Breakthrough Awards program. Could you highlight your USP?
LoanVantage is Jack Henry’s loan origination platform designed to support commercial, consumer, and agricultural lending. Our all-digital platform streamlines the entire loan lifecycle by minimizing friction. It automates the mundane tasks required to generate a loan, such as data entry and consolidation, and puts this information into a user-friendly interface. The platform empowers financial institutions to provide a more efficient and consistent experience for both the borrower and lender and compete with mega-banks and fintechs.
Many loan origination platforms prioritize consumer lending technology, while we saw a market opportunity to build technology that better serves commercial clients. This can be a challenging undertaking since no two commercial transactions are the same. However, since we began our journey in commercial lending, we have gained unparalleled breadth and depth of experience with our commercial loan origination system, setting us apart from others in the industry. We have since expanded our platform to include consumer and agricultural lending.
What are the transformative trends shaping the lending tech landscape? Could you site any two?
In the wake of recent financial turbulence, many financial institutions have become more risk-averse and are exercising caution in their lending practices. Credit is currently becoming more restrictive, with financial institutions taking into consideration the uncertain landscape, recent bank failures, and consumers’ purchasing power.
Also, the depletion of stimulus cash has led to a decline in liquidity.
As a result, many financial institutions are focusing on deposit acquisition to ensure they have adequate funding to support their lending efforts. This is an ongoing cycle where the pendulum swings towards gaining deposits and once acquired, we’ll see a swing towards a heavier focus on lending out those deposits.
What are your top loan growth challenges? How can technology be a fit to solve the issue?
At the moment, the lack of liquidity has led financial institutions to focus on gathering deposits, rather than growing their loan portfolios. However, it’s important to recognize that the pendulum tends to swing back and forth over time.
As these factors change or improve, there could be a significant increase in loan demand. Regardless, financial institutions will be well-positioned to help if they continue to build strong relationships with clients and businesses, as well as provide modern lending experiences.
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How have you automated the entire loan life cycle? How technology can speed up the renewal process?
LoanVantage facilitates interactions between the borrower and the financial institution from initial application to underwriting, approval, closing, and post-closing management. During this process, data points that can be gained from existing data stores are utilized to improve accuracy and speed up the process.
Regarding renewals, the quicker financial institutions have access to information, the more efficiency they can bring to the process. Using automation to request data, underwrite, and prepare renewals in advance improves the experience for both the institution and account holder.
What’s your smartest work-related shortcut or productivity hack?
As a leader, surround yourself with talented people and support their efforts. One individual alone cannot keep up with the pace of business in today’s highly tech-minded world. People will excel in their fields only through proper management of superior resources.
We’d love to know what are your predictions for the future of FinTech?
I predict open, API-first technology will marry the current advancements in the fintech space with legacy applications, bridging the gap between the two generations of technology.
Your favorite fintech quote.
Two of my favorite quotes are ‘fail fast, iterate faster’ and ‘don’t be afraid to fail.’
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Before we wrap up, a few biggest learning and tips you’d like to share with fintech leaders.
My biggest tip for other fintech leaders would be to embrace the legacy providers and work together to create a superior experience for mutual clients.
Thank you, Gary! That was fun and we hope to see you back on Global Fintech Series.
[To share your insights with us, please write to sghosh@martechseries.com]
Gary Lewis is managing director for lending and deposit solutions at Jack Henry & Associates. He has twenty-three years of commercial lending experience in executive banking positions with both national and community banks.
Jack Henry is a well-rounded financial technology company that strengthens connections between financial institutions and the people and businesses they serve. We are an S&P 500 company that prioritizes openness, collaboration, and user centricity – offering banks and credit unions a vibrant ecosystem of internally developed modern capabilities as well as the ability to integrate with leading fintechs. For more than 46 years, Jack Henry has provided technology solutions to enable clients to innovate faster, strategically differentiate, and successfully compete while serving the evolving needs of their accountholders. We empower approximately 8,000 clients with people-inspired innovation, personal service, and insight-driven solutions that help reduce the barriers to financial health.
