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Editor’s note: A look back at two decades of BAI Banking Strategies

Jul 7, 2016 / Consumer Banking

It has been an honor and a privilege to serve as managing editor of BAI Banking Strategies for the last two decades. During that time, we’ve witnessed some tremendous change in the financial services industry, from the consolidation frenzy of the late 1990s to the financial crisis and digital transformation of the 2000s.

The industry is a very different place than it was in 1996, when I joined BAI. Digitization and mobile banking, for example, have proved a great boon to customer convenience. Being able to deposit your checks on your cell phone and conduct most of your banking business online without having to get in your car and run to the branch is a definite enhancement of the customer experience.

BAI Banking Strategies has also experienced a digital revolution over my time as editor.  From September 1996 to January 2009, we published a bimonthly print magazine. Although the sentimental journalist in me lamented the transition away from the print magazine with its four-color spreads and lengthy articles (I had worked for newspapers and magazines since 1981), the ability of digital publishing to deliver relevant content with much accelerated speed and immediacy clearly serves the reader better, particularly in an industry evolving as fast as financial services. Today, we can publish an article the same day we receive it – compared to multiple months under the print publication model. It’s also wonderful to be able to correct a typo after an article is published rather than live with the mistake forever!

Some equally momentous change lies in the future, no doubt, but it’s time for me to move into the next stage of my life, as my wife and I retire to sunny Costa Rica, land of quetzals and toucans. You can continue to contact me, on a personal level through LinkedIn, but any editorial issues from this point on, should be addressed to Matt McGuire, BAI’s director of digital content, at [email protected].

It’s been a pleasure connecting with many of you in person over the years, and I’m proud to have served the rest of you in my editorial role. And I’ll miss all the distinguished colleagues I’ve worked with at BAI over the years.

Hasta luego,

Kenneth Cline