Banking Transformed with Jim Marous

Marbue Brown, CX executive and author who built AI-driven customer experience teams at Amazon, JPMorgan Chase, Microsoft and Cisco, joins to outline how banks can become truly customer obsessed. Short takes cover the three pillars of obsession, policy questions that expose weak spots, practical branch and AI-driven plays, and ways to anticipate life moments and empower staff to act.

S. P. “Wije” Wijegoonaratna, co-founder and CEO of Aliya and a former hedge-fund investor and computer scientist, explains how AI turns lending from a one-time decision into continuous, governed opportunity exploration. He covers AI-native lending architectures, why FICO is insufficient, always-on monitoring and marketing signals, scaling profitable underwriting across loan sizes, and how AI augments frontline bankers.

Joe Pine, author and consultant known for The Experience Economy and The Transformation Economy, argues the era of CX is over. He explores shifting from moments to measurable transformations. Short takes cover uncovering core aspirations, blending apps with coaching, using AI to visualize future selves, and outcome-based pricing.

Jesus Garcia, Chief Experience Officer at OceanAir Federal Credit Union, leads branches, contact centers and digital transformation. He discusses the execution gap holding credit unions back. Short takes cover faster fintech partnerships, hiring and embedding digital across teams, branch experiences that complement online services, and practical AI and integrations that drive measurable change.

Allison Netzer, brand strategist and author of Think Like a Brand, Not a Bank, helps banks break free from feature wars. She explains why customers decide emotionally first. Conversations cover pain→promise→proof, counterintuitive differentiation, leadership alignment, and how AI-driven parity makes brand conviction essential.

Isaiah Granet, co-founder and CEO of Bland who builds secure, conversational voice agents for enterprises. He discusses how voice can replace frustrating phone trees and strengthen customer relationships. He covers measurable ROI, compliance guardrails for scaling voice AI, and practical steps community banks can implement within a year.

About 25% of Americans can’t get a credit card from a major bank, and more than half are one or two missed paychecks from a credit crisis. Yet most financial institutions still design their products for prime borrowers and pretend the rest of the market doesn’t exist.In this episode of Banking Transformed, I sit down with Steve Min, Chief Credit Officer at Credit One Bank, who has built a business around the customers most banks would rather turn away. We talk about why two-thirds of consumers don’t understand the basics of how their credit score is calculated, why the stigma around imperfect credit keeps people from getting help, and what it actually takes to rebuild a credit profileSteve explains how Credit One approaches risk differently, why its Credit Wreckers program teaches people what not to do with their credit, and how building financial momentum can help borrowers qualify for better products over time. If your institution claims to serve the underserved, this conversation will challenge whether you’re actually doing it.Resources:CreditWreckers.comForWhatsAhead.comThis episode of Banking Transformed is sponsored by Credit One Bank Credit One Bank is a financial services company and one of the fastest-growing credit card issuers in the U.S. Founded in 1984 and headquartered in Las Vegas, Credit One Bank offers a full spectrum of credit card products including cash back and points-based cards as well as high-yield certificate of deposit and savings accounts. Credit One Bank is also an official partner of the Las Vegas Raiders and the Official Credit Card of NASCAR, the Vegas Golden Knights and Best Friends Animal Society. Learn more at CreditOneBank.com, in our Newsroom or on social media (@CreditOneBank) on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn.

Eric Fulwiler, co-founder and CEO of Rival and authority on challenger brands, breaks down what makes challengers like Liquid Death stand out. He discusses how challenger mindset beats bigger budgets. Short takes cover differentiation, targeting microcultures, marketing driving product and culture, and pragmatic ways banks can adopt challenger playbooks while navigating regulation.

Leaders understand what must change but struggle to turn strategy into action. The conversation calls out funding mismatches and stalled initiatives across real-time payments, visible AI, and partnerships. It highlights the need to kill ineffective pilots and prioritize a few decisive moves to close the execution gap and compete with fast-moving challengers.

Benjamin Conant, Chief Product Officer at Alkami and co-founder of MANTL, is a fintech product leader reshaping digital account opening and unified banking. He discusses why piecemeal upgrades fail against fintechs. He explores turning branches into profit centers, the critical moment after account opening, AI co-pilots, and vendor consolidation for speed and scale.