5 questions with … EverBank COO Lindsay Lawrence

EverBank is selecting third-party vendors and updating manual processes throughout the bank, according to Lindsay Lawrence, executive vice president and chief operating officer.  

 “We’re cramming about five years of change in two years,” Lawrence told Bank Automation News.  

The nearly $40 billion, Jacksonville, Fla.-based bank, formerly TIAA Bank, continuously updates its platforms and strategies as it invests in digital capabilities and efficiencies, she said.  

In fact, the bank is adopting tech provider FIS’ Digital One consumer platform, which will go live later this summer, and in May announced it had selected Finzly as its payments processor.

Lawrence recently sat down with BAN to discuss EverBank’s latest digital efforts. What follows is an edited version of that conversation: 

Bank Automation News: How would you describe the digital strategy at EverBank? 

Lindsay Lawrence: We want everything to be very technology-forward. A lot of it is building things with new technology, but API first so that we can build something with rails that can help us with our scalability and efficiency down the road.  

As we look at our technology partners related to our digital strategy, it’s very customer-first. We want to create that personalized, customer-centric kind of experience for our clients. We looked for that same mindset in our partners when we selected our payment hub and commercial treasury management provider. 

BAN: What is your approach to buy versus build? 

LL: I am a big fan of buy. You can’t be good at everything, so it’s important to find other people or companies that have a great skill set and leverage them.  

When we’re looking for fintechs, it’s important for us to lay out our own strategy and road map and also understand their strategy and road map as well.  

For example, the bank selected European fintech Backbase as its commercial treasury management provider because they wanted to break into the U.S. market and wanted a bank that would grow with them. It’s been great because on some level, we can help each other. We both want something out of the relationship and it’s important in a partnership that there is a good, healthy challenge on both sides. 

BAN: What are some recent technology projects you have spearheaded? 

LL: Our biggest one is Digital One. That’s our new consumer platform with FIS. Previously, when we were TIAA-owned, we were on their online banking system. We will launch Digital One later this summer. This platform will be for online banking, online account opening and branch account opening platforms.  

BAN: Can you quantify how automation has improved the customer experience for EverBank clients? 

LL: We have capacity models that we look at to see how long it takes to open an account, monitor manual reviews and fraud alerts. What will be exciting is as we deploy new technology, especially FIS’ Digital One, it’s going to be great because we’re going to use those same capacity models that we were using before to see how much more push-through we get and how much less fraud we get.  

With those insights, we probably don’t need to add as many full-time employees down the road to support those efforts. That’s where scalability and efficiency come into play. It’s hard at the beginning, but when you look at how much time it takes in all of these different areas of operations, saving five minutes here or three minutes there starts to add up. This is an opportunity to put people who have been doing manual tasks into other roles. 

BAN: How would you describe your leadership style? 

LL: Transparency for me is always important. Getting in front of the team and explaining where we are headed. Also, the humility, recognizing I don’t have all the answers today. I spend time in the branches and ask about frustrations and work to identify areas for improvement. I’m listening to what the pain points are, sharing the ultimate vision for the bank, and communicating along the way.  

Early-bird registration is now available for the inaugural Bank Automation Summit Europe in Frankfurt, Germany, on Oct. 7-8! Discover the latest advancements in AI and automation in banking. Register here and apply to speak here.