Last week I had the immense pleasure of attending Net Finance 2013 in Phoenix, AZ. Speakers included big names like Larry McClanahan, VP of Digital Delivery at Fifth-Third; Patrick Myron, VP Distribution Marketing at Fifth-Third and Marc Warshawsky, SVP Mobile at Bank of America, and there was a lot of good information to take away from every session. I thought it would be great to share some of the highlights and key messages in this week’s posts and discuss how it all ties back into digital marketing.

One of the biggest topics (and one I found most interesting) was a panel discussion breaking down disruptors in the banking industry. There are currently three major issues banks have to answer and adapt to: mobile wallets, money movement and the branch experience.

The wallet goes digital
As smartphones take an ever-more prominent role in our daily lives, there’s one emerging trend that financial institutions should pay particular attention to. The concept behind the “mobile wallet” is, on its simplest level, the idea of storing digital versions of credit and debit cards on a smartphone instead of carrying hard copies in a bulky, physical wallet. If a consumer wants to purchase something using their Google Wallet app, they simply tap the back of their phone on an NFC terminal (basically a scanner) at the point-of-purchase and the transaction is complete.

While the real upside of mobile wallets is yet to be truly realized (like automatically selecting the card with rewards points you didn’t even know were available for purchasing a particular item), the technology is far enough along that key players in the tech industry are moving in on what should intuitively be financial and banking market share. According to a study by Carlisle & Gallagher Consulting Group, Level-Up, Square, PayPal, Google and Apple are the tech giants best-poised to beat major banks and credit card companies to the proverbial profitable punch.