Ash Patel on the Future of Money & Banking

Hunger and drive is another very important trait to have in the banking and finance industry

There is a lot of competition and a lot of consolidation in the industry. If you want to succeed, and create the best benefits for your clients, you are going to need tenacity, drive and grit to do so.

The way we bank has changed dramatically over the last decade. It was not too long ago when you had to wait in line in a bank to deposit money. Today things are totally different. You can do your banking without ever walking into a bank. In addition, the whole concept of money has changed. In the recent past, money usually meant bills and coins. But today, the concept of money has expanded to include digital currency and NFTs. What other innovations should we expect to see in banking in the short and medium term?

To address this, we are talking to leaders in the banking, finance, and fintech worlds, to discuss the future of banking and money over the next few years. As a part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Ash Patel.

Ash Patel is the Chairman of the Board, CEO and President of Commercial Bank of California (CBC), a $2 billion community business bank headquartered in Southern California. He joined the bank in 2013 with approximately $200 million in assets, and quickly grew the bank to the size, strength and stability it is today with his entrepreneurial spirit and unique approach to banking.

Ash led his team over the last few years to not only focus on the future of banking and money, but to anticipate the future trends of consumers. He tasked his team to recognize that they aren’t competing with other banks, but instead with the ease and convenience of purchasing. For example, how easy it is to order groceries online or even with your voice.

THIS is the what the future of banking should look like. Ash believed that banking was a traditional, slow-to-evolve industry and he was determined to transform it, creating a bank that didn’t yet exist. He led his team to the edge of innovation in banking, automation, cashflow management, real time payments, lending, client experience, crypto, credit card and ACH payments, and more.

Based on your vantage point as an insider in the finance industry, what innovations should we expect to see in banking in the short and medium term?

One of the most need concepts in the finance industry today is the move towards taking the friction out of moving money. The digital age has gifted us greater conveniences in so many aspects of our lives, and it’s time banking did the same. The first focus of that is on our mobile devices. We need to make banking available on mobile devices beyond the capabilities we have today. We also need credit products available on mobile devices so businesses can get access to capital faster and easier.

Another innovation the banking industry needs is a more robust cash management systems. Cash flow can be a clog for businesses, and they don’t even realize because it’s a normal experience for them. Businesses need access to their receivables faster so they can deploy capital, complete payroll or innovate their own technology.

But there is one thing we need to address quickly in the short term: fraud. Because of the pandemic, many people became used to not coming into their bank. When we get a request from someone to do something for their business, we now need to work much harder to digitally identify them and ensure the request isn’t fraudulent. Hacking and fraud is at an all-time high, and all banks should be leveraging artificial intelligence and / or machine learning to help reduce this fraud, protect the banks and protect our clients.

Thank you David Liu and Authority Magazine for this interview. To read the full interview, please visit Authority Magazine’s website here.