Q&A with Jack Henry’s Nicole Harper on financial literacy

Technology
provider

Jack
Henry
leans
into
its
financial
health
training
and
offerings
during
April
—
Financial
Literacy
Month.

Jack
Henry’s
financial
institution
clients
can
tap
into
the
tech
provider’s
direct
API
connection
to
benefit
from
data
aggregation,
personal
financial
management
and
fraud
detection
tools,

Nicole
Harper,
director
of
corporate
strategy
at
Jack
Henry,
told

Bank
Automation
News.

BAN
sat
down
with
Harper
to
discuss
how
to
approach
financial
literacy
with
strategy,
technology
and
data
in
mind.
What
follows
is
an
edited
version
of
that
conversation.

Bank
Automation
News:
How
does
Jack
Henry
prioritize
financial
literacy
education
during
April?

Nicole
Harper:
Financial
health
is
really
a
part
of
Jack
Henry’s
DNA
but
it
is
emphasized
during
April.
Jack
Henry
aims
to
strengthen
the
connections
between
people
and
financial
institutions
through
all
the
technology
services
and
solutions
we
deliver.

To
achieve
that,
throughout
the
month
Jack
Henry
offers
internal
financial
health
training
for
its
more
than
7,000
employees.
Training
includes:

• 
  LinkedIn
  Learning
  courses;
• Internal
  training
  through
  “Jack
  Tracks;”
• Access
  to
  a
  financial
  counselor;
• The
  ability
  to
  update
  401K
  contributions;
  and
• Help
  updating
  personal
  budgets.

As
Jack
Henry
prioritizes
financial
literacy
training
internally,
it
has
also
announced
its
latest
award
program,
which
spotlights
clients
and
fintechs
that
are
doing
amazing
things
rooted
in
improving
financial
health.
Winners
of
the
award
will
be
announced
at

Jack
Henry
Connect
in
the
fall.

BAN:
What
challenges
might
FIs
face
when
implementing
a
comprehensive
financial
strategy?

NH:
There
are
three
challenges
financial
institutions
should
consider.

1.
Understanding
and
defining
financial
health.
According
to
the

Financial
Health
Network,
financial
health
is
defined
as
being
able
to
spend,
save,
borrow
and
plan
in
ways
that
improve
your
ability
to
be
resilient
and
pursue
new
opportunities
for
yourself.

In
the
Financial
Health
Network’s
latest
study,
it
found
71%
of
Americans
are
financially
vulnerable,
which
is
both
a
challenge
and
an
opportunity
for
financial
institutions.

If
you
think
about
all
the
ways
that
consumers
are
managing
their
finances,
with
between
15
and
20
financial
relationships,
how
can
people
get
a
holistic
view
of
their
finances
and
make
better
decisions?
That’s
where
FIs
can
come
in,
using
secure
financial
data
aggregation
to
solve
that
fragmentation.

2.
Identifying
a
business
case
for
prioritizing
financial
health.
According
to
Jack
Henry’s
annual
Strategy
Benchmark
study,
banks
are
prioritizing
growing
deposits,
growing
loans
and
improving
efficiencies.

Those
are
strong
priorities,
so
when
you
consider
resources,
where
does
financial
health
come
into
the
fold?

It
might
feel
like
a
challenge
to
come
up
with
a
business
use
case
for
financial
health,
but
in
reality,
banks
and
credit
unions
that
prioritize
the
financial
health
of
their
account
holders
can
see
measurable
impacts
to
their
bottom
line,
including
stronger
deposit
growth
and
a
more
resilient
loan
portfolio.

3.
Achieving
enterprise
commitments
to
financial
health.
It’s
easy
to
launch
an
initiative,
but
it’s
harder
to
sustain.
Having
commitment
from
the
top
down
and
laterally
is
a
necessity.

BAN:
How
should
banks
approach
financial
fragmentation?
What
role
can
data
aggregation
play
here?

NH:
We
think
about
all
the
ways
that
consumers
and
businesses
are
trying
to
manage
their
finances.
Aggregation
positions
FIs
to
be
the
central
or
primary
financial
hub
and
presents
account
holders
with
data
within
their
digital
banking
experience
that’s
not
only
related
to
their
relationships
with
their
bank
but
also
with
outside
partners.

That
provides
huge
benefits
because
it
allows
account
holders
to
connect
external
accounts,
see
everything
in
one
place
and
manage
their
money
a
bit
better.

The
best
way
to
do
that
is
having
direct
API
connectivity
into
the
data
aggregators,
to
avoid
the
risks
of
screen
scraping.
At
Jack
Henry,
we
have
direct
API
connections
that
allow
us
to
leverage
tokenization
that
provides
secure
financial
data
exchange
and
aggregation.

As
consumers
benefit
from
data
aggregation,
FIs,
too,
can
look
at
this
data
and
analyze
it
to
deliver
value.
It
helps
them
understand
where
the
money
flows
and
what
insights
would
be
useful
to
provide
to
account
holders.
This
improves
the
overall
experience
when
making
recommendations
or
providing
offers
to
account
holders.