MoneyLIVE North America: CU Execs Take Center Stage

By John San Filippo

MoneyLIVE North America, for which Finopotamus was an official media partner, was held in Chicago, Sept. 15-16, 2025. The sessions consisted primarily of panel discussions and so-called fireside chats (a moderator talking with one or two subject matter experts). Credit unions were well-represented in the panel discussions, where credit union executives offered opinions alongside representatives from larger organizations. Finopotamus had the opportunity to attend three such panel discussions, each of which is summarized below.

All three sessions were moderated by event emcee Juliette Foster, owner of Magnus Communications.

Keeping Ahead in an Evolving Market: The Strategic Priorities for 2026

Panelists:

• Linda Tai, CIO, M&T Bank

• Ryan Gatti, SVP, Head of Innovation, Citizens Bank

• Steve Bugg, president and CEO, Great Lakes Credit Union

• John Kain, head of financial services market development, Amazon Web Services

(l-r) Foster, Kain, Bugg, Gatti. Tai

This panel explored strategic priorities for financial institutions in 2026 and beyond. Tai stated that M&T’s strategy revolves around the customer, focusing on building lasting relationships through investments in security, compliance, digital channels, and data analytics. She explained that the bank’s technology investment prioritizes modernization, resiliency, and digital growth. As she noted, “We’re not just building products; we’re actually building relationships that last a lifetime.”

Bugg said that member feedback is at the center of his credit union’s decisions. He noted that members prefer a simplified, seamless experience over a cluttered app with too many features. He highlighted the credit union’s AI assistant, “Olive,” which handles a significant portion of incoming calls, allowing human agents to handle more complex inquiries and improving employee satisfaction. He also stressed that smaller institutions must rely on partnerships to access the technology and skill sets needed to compete with larger banks, “Regardless of asset size, we’re all experiencing the same things. It’s just how do you scale for your institution?”

Gatti discussed what he called the “consumerification” of business banking, where commercial accountholders expect the same digital experiences as retail accountholders. He noted that a key challenge is balancing these needs with the complexity of commercial banking. He stated that a strong technology foundation that is modular and API-first is crucial to creating platforms that can serve both types of clients. Gatti said, “The customer’s got to be in the center of everything that you do to win and thrive in this ecosystem.”

Kain added that the key to delivering a competitive customer experience is the effective use of data and analytics. He said that AI’s impact is already tangible, citing examples such as increased self-service rates and accelerated mortgage processes. He summarized, “No matter what we’re talking about from an experience perspective, retail or corporate, essentially it’s the effect of the use of data within your organization to bring these personalizations and insight to the floor.”

The AI-Enabled Bank: Strategies for Implementation and Governance

Panelists:

• Kristin Milchanowski, chief AI and data officer, Bank of Montreal (BMO)

• Rafal Orlowski, director of data science, Scotiabank

• Melisa Albas, director of enterprise insights, First West Credit Union

• Carlos Kazuo Missao, global head of innovation solutions, GFT

L-r) Foster, Milchanowski, Orlowski, Albas, Missao

This discussion focused on the strategic implementation of AI in banking. Albas stated that AI should serve three core purposes: reducing risk, generating revenue, and elevating the customer experience. She also emphasized the importance of diversity in AI models and data sources to avoid systemic risks, as well as the need for transparency and human judgment to test and overcome bias. She explained, “AI is not magic. AI is not the mission and that mission is straightforward in our world. It is to reduce risk, to generate revenue or to elevate the number of clients.”

Milchanowski discussed BMO’s strategy of doing “100 agents in 100 days” by focusing on a specific outcome and working backward. She stated that a use case is not accepted unless it drives at least one basis point of revenue. She further explained that BMO is not using AI just to automate, but to “elevate” quality and decision-making by integrating intelligence directly into the bank’s core systems. Her key takeaway was: “It’s not so much about what AI can do, but it’s whether or not we make it serve what matters.”

Orlowski said that to manage risks, internal stakeholders, including risk management teams, should be brought into a project as early as possible. He added that each AI project has a different risk tier, and the level of mitigation should correspond to that risk. He noted, “We quickly found out that 15 to 20 topics accounted for 70% of the volumes. And that’s where we solved the biggest ROI (return on investment); that’s where we invested the most for self-service.”

Missao noted three key areas where AI is providing business value: efficiency through automation, enhancing business and product experiences with real-time data, and supporting the development experience. He advised the audience that to mitigate risk, financial institutions should pilot the same business case with different data sets and different LLMs. Her said that GFT’s main purpose and desire is to “create the offerings and understand various positions that our clients are looking for and then provide that to them.”

Operational Optimization: Enhancing Agility and Efficiency

Panelists:

• Elizabeth Osborne, COO, Great Lakes Credit Union

• Shreyans Sethia, associate vice president, Software Engineering, Technology Delivery, TD Bank

• Aditya Sridhar, principal value engineer, Celonis

(l-r) Foster, Osborne, Sethia, Sridhar

This panel discussed how financial institutions can optimize their operations to improve agility and efficiency in a complex and competitive landscape. Osborne noted that fintechs and neobanks have raised consumer expectations for a seamless and quick experience. To compete with larger institutions, Great Lakes Credit Union partners with fintechs to leverage already-developed technology and customize it. Referencing the technology first mentioned by Bugg earlier, Osborne noted a successful investment in a virtual AI bot named Olive, which handles over 60% of incoming calls during business hours and 75% after hours, freeing up employees to focus on more complex tasks. Addressing the need to remain agile and partner with fintechs, Osborne added, “We’re a small institution. We have to compete with those that have a much larger budget than I do.”

Sethia emphasized a simple approach to unlocking efficiencies: automating repetitive tasks and streamlining data flow. He suggested that financial institutions should focus on short-term goals to achieve long-term success. He also discussed the use of AI in incident management to automate tasks like checking application logs and restarting servers, which eliminates the need for manual intervention. “It’s about prioritization, it’s about thinking through the small things one at a time and then accumulating them into your larger outcomes versus just thinking about the broader outcomes,” he explained.

Sridhar explained that financial institutions should look at the cloud from a platform perspective, not just infrastructure. His company helps clients analyze and optimize processes before migrating them to the cloud to avoid inefficiency. He also noted that by leveraging their tools, they can identify bottlenecks and repetitive tasks that are prime for automation. “The business starts seeing value every two weeks or every month. And that generally has seen a lot of traction within the business leaders because they see instantaneous results,” he concluded.