Marcus Rothaar

Each year, Raddon brings together many of the industry’s top leaders and visionaries to our invitation-only CEO Forum. This year’s event took place earlier this month in Dana Point, California, with more than 75 executives collaborating for two days of engaging and interactive discussions with their peers. Join us as we reflect back on some of the key takeaways from the 2019 Raddon CEO Forum.

“Alexa, what can financial institutions learn from Amazon’s brand strength?”

Alexa: “Sorry, I don’t know that one.”

Oh well, it was worth a shot. If she had answered, I could have cleared my afternoon. But alas, we have some research to help answer this question.

Small business optimism has remained elevated in 2018 as business owners look to capitalize on improved economic and market conditions. This optimism is welcome news for financial institutions that are in a position to assist these businesses in meeting their growth goals.

Raddon Research Insights explores the outlook for the small business market and the opportunities for financial institutions to increase market share.

Small business optimism entered 2017 at levels not seen in more than a decade.  According to the National Federation of Independent Business’s (NFIB) Small Business Optimism Index, the December 2016 index score of 105.8 was an increase of 7.4 points above the November measurement (the NFIB scores are based on a 1986 average score of 100).  The large jump was driven by significantly more business owners expecting “better business conditions”.

Consumers aren’t the only ones turning to mobile banking for anytime, anywhere access to financial services. According to the Fall 2015 Small Business National Research report by Raddon, nearly half of small businesses are using mobile to add a new dimension to their day-to-day operations, including on-the-go approvals and decision making.

Wedged between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, Small Business Saturday® annually encourages support of small and local businesses. It’s also a good time to look at what’s changed for small businesses – and what hasn’t – since Small Business Saturday was introduced five years ago.

You’d be hard pressed to find a product launch that generated as much buzz and excitement in the financial services industry as the announcement of Apple Pay™ last September. Heralded at the time by Apple CEO Tim Cook as the service that would replace the “fairly antiquated payment process” and “forever change the way all of us buy things”, Apple Pay set out to revolutionize the payments experience.

Being a consumer today is hard work.  The long list of do’s and don’ts to protect oneself from things like identity theft and credit card fraud is enough to overwhelm anyone.