How Does Wells Fargo Decide When To Partner With Fintech Startups?

The Benzinga Fintech Summit is a gathering of the top leaders in brokerage, payments and cryptocurrencies in San Francisco Nov. 14. Ahead of the Summit, Benzinga is profiling fintech thought leaders who are speaking at the event.

For this installment, Benzinga interviewed Nancy Selph, senior vice president of advanced technology and partnerships at Wells Fargo WFC.

What is your role at Wells Fargo? How does your group fit within the bank's innovation drive?

My role is Technology Business Development Lead within the Advanced Technology & Partnerships team, which sits inside Wells Fargo’s Innovation Group. My team is responsible for helping Wells Fargo discover, validate, and adopt capabilities from the technology ecosystem to address enterprise needs, as well as for Wells Fargo to provide banking services to this ecosystem.

The Innovation Group overall serves as a catalyst for the company to quickly transform business models, processes, and programs to meet evolving customer needs.

What customer problems are front of mind for you to solve?

Our goal is to provide customers with better control, simplicity, and transparency. We are using the power of innovation and technology to build stronger relationships with customers through our bankers and digital capabilities. We want to simplify the way people are able to connect and conduct banking from wherever they are.

How does Wells Fargo view customer engagement and feedback? How does it incorporate that feedback, and how does it stay ahead of what customers want?

Customers are at the center of everything we do, and their voice is what is driving us toward the future. We monitor customer feedback on an ongoing basis using a variety of customer feedback and survey tools. In addition, we conduct consumer research to gain insight into their changing needs. Feedback on our current experience along with customer insights help inform the evolution and optimization of our digital experiences.

How can a fintech startup partner with Wells Fargo? What do they need to know coming into a potential partnership?

There are a couple of different ways, depending on the size and maturity of the company.

Early-stage companies can apply to the Wells Fargo Startup Accelerator, which is a virtual, non-exclusive six-month program where we mentor startups and help them refine their potential breakthrough technologies for financial services and other applications. We help startups understand how to approach and sell their products or services to Fortune 500 companies. The demand, scale, and requirements by companies of this size are unique, and Wells Fargo provides education and guidance around the process.

More mature, enterprise-ready companies can engage with us by requesting an introductory meeting with myself or one of my colleagues where we will do an initial evaluation of their solution.

We look for companies with solutions that differentiate themselves from competitors, as well as evaluate how much of a demand there may be for a given solution inside the bank. Additionally, we look for solutions that have the ability to scale appropriately while still meeting strict requirements around security, among other things.

What did you think would happen in fintech five years ago? How did your predictions play out?

Five years ago, there wasn’t nearly as much collaboration between banks and fintechs as there is today, but it seemed natural to me that there would have to be more of an intersection between the two, and that innovation would become a high priority for traditional banks. It seemed like everyone was talking about things like big data, AI, and blockchain, but now we’re to a point where adoption levels in those spaces have evolved and we’re starting to see initiatives that are driving real change.

Before coming to Wells Fargo, I helped Deutsche Bank set up its innovation practice. What felt very different to me from past attempts at setting up innovation programs within large financial institutions was that it was a “must have” and not just a “nice to have.” We had executive support both financially and organizationally. There is an energy and forward momentum that is building on itself across the industry, where banks are sharing ideas and solutions to change their business models and adopt new technologies in order to stay competitive and grow.