“SUNRISE BANKS IS A SOCIAL ENTERPRISE THAT JUST HAPPENS TO BE A BANK”

TYLER SEYDEL CHIEF FINTECH OFFICER, SUNRISE BANKS

a product, paying it off, and maybe then taking out the product once again. We need to look at that and think seriously about whether these folks are becoming trapped in a cycle of economic conditions. What can we do to help them out?”

What's on the horizon for Sunrise?

In our conversations with Seydel, it's clear above all else that mission and purpose are the biggest motivations behind the bank's work. It goes without saying that, regardless of what the economy gives us, Sunrise will continue to prioritise its customers –championing financial inclusion, caring about people’s household budgets, and living up to its obligations as a socially minded business.

When he looks ahead, he can't help but reflect on a topic that has already made an appearance so far in our discussion. “Over the next 10 years, I think open banking is going to become a force in the United States,” Seydel predicts. “It's only going to continue to gain momentum. As you look at the state of globalisation, we'll be forced to deal with open banking or at least we're going to be seeing that as an opportunity.

“Then there's embedded finance. To most consumers, the idea of going into a branch is not an end-destination, it's a chore. When you pair those two together, that's going to be wildly powerful. Today, financial institutions have your information and they're in a position to know what you need before others will. In the future, nonbank platforms like Facebook might decide to vertically integrate and have their own institution. In that case, are they going to lower their prices in an effort to capture market share? Probably. Because there's a volume component there that's very real and true. I think we're going to see a lot of social platforms start to move into the banking space, because they already have that group of active users.”

When we think about the future of banking, it's easy to assume that will be branch-less. For many consumers it will. Technologies like open banking and embedded finance will empower more consumers to participate in financial services – and they won't need to visit a bricksand-mortar branch to do so. After all, even in modern society, nearly 6m American households are reported to be unbanked.

But contact-free banking doesn't work for all consumer groups, and the challenge for social banks like Sunrise will continue to be retaining a physical presence for customers that need it. That might include elderly customers or those without home broadband, which still number more than 20m – or 8% of the US population – to this day. Keeping a branch open in a time of mass closures is not always financially viable, so alternative branch models – such as hubs or shared spaces – could signal the new era of in-person banking.

“We are looking at a branch of the future and exploring those options right now. We can't give too much detail because we're still in the exploratory phase,” Seydel teases. “But we're absolutely looking at what our lines of engagement look like for the future.” He mentions that this concept might include community spaces to draw in more people, or broader use of virtual tellers. Maybe you take the example set by embedded finance and situate mini-branches in establishments that customers still frequent regularly – like coffee shops or gyms.

The shared space model, which is being piloted in a number of regions already, raises the prospect that Sunrise Banks and all it stands for might one day be seen right next to some of the largest margindriven lenders and big banks. So would Tyler Seydel be comfortable about the bank featuring side-by-side with one of the big boys?

“I would love if we had a shared banking space,” he effuses. “I would love it if people had the opportunity to understand the mission component of what we do, because getting that message out there can be tough. If anything, it would be a unique market study just to see how much our brand resonates. I guarantee, as soon as people start to understand our mission, they will pick us every time over one of the big banks.”