Retail Banking: Technology Trends Previsory webinar, 2027 edition

Zil is a Banking and Payments Director at Celent, global research and advisory firm specialising in Financial Services, and is based in London. His research focuses on the impact of technology-driven change in banking, particularly on retail payments, AI, and the open financial services ecosystem. Zil has a global perspective with an emphasis on market developments in Europe and North America. Zil is a regular speaker, chairman, and panel moderator at the leading payments industry events, such as Finovate, Money 2020, FTT Payments, and many others. He has also been widely quoted in the press, such as The Economist, The Financial Times, The Banker, The Times, The Daily Telegraph, The New York Times, American Banker, PaymentSource, and other publications. Prior to joining Celent, Zil was a management consultant, most recently at Oliver Wyman. He has over 25 years of advisory experience with a strong focus on cards and payments innovation and has worked with major financial institutions and technology players around the world on a range of strategic issues. Zil has an MBA from Carnegie Mellon University and MSc in Applied Mathematics from Kaunas University of Technology. He is fluent in English and Lithuanian.

Craig Focardi is a Principal Analyst in the Banking Practice with Celent, and heads lending research. He is based in San Francisco and focuses on issues related to the intersection of business and technology with an emphasis on how technology can improve business practices. Craig is the lead analyst for loan origination, decisioning, and servicing technologies, and researches, advises, and consults on analytics, core banking systems, enterprise content management, and AI applied to lending. His consulting engagements for financial institutions, private equity, and venture capital firms include core lending and banking system vendor selection, technology provider acquisition due diligence, North American and European market entrant strategy for IT firms, and go-to market assessments for technology vendors. Craig’s experience has been forged during 20 years at mortgage banks, mortgage insurers, and LendTech firms. He has a multi-disciplinary background in economics, finance, technology and marketing. Craig began his career in the mortgage industry for lenders and IT vendors, including Wells Fargo, CoreLogic, the Federal Home Loan Bank, and The PMI Group. Prior to joining Celent in 2017, Craig spent 15 years as a banking industry analyst at TowerGroup and Corporate Executive Board (CEB/Gartner). Craig is a frequent speaker and moderator at industry conferences, including Mortgage Bankers Association annual/technology conferences, AFSA, and FIS Emerald. He has written dozens of bylined articles for Mortgage Banking Magazine, Lending Strategy (UK) and American Banker. Craig holds the Certified Mortgage Banker (CMB) designation from the Mortgage Bankers Association and often contributes to industry publications and conferences. Craig received an M.A. in applied economics from the University of San Francisco and graduated with high honors from the State University of New York with a B.S. in business economics. Craig also attended Schiller University in Heidelberg, where he studied international trade.

With a long-standing background in industry analysis and research, Daniel leverages considerable experience in both quantiative and qualitative analysis as well as industry focus across financial services technology sectors to advise and consult on business-led technology strategy and investment for financial institutions, technology providers, and technology investment firms. Daniel's coverage areas focuses on the banking platform market. Complementary coverage areas include cloud, SaaS, analytics, digital transformation and platform transformation and modernization. His advisory engagements have included banking system vendor selection for financial institutions, IT benchmarking for financial institutions, and market feasibility and go-to market assessments for technology vendors. Daniel began his career at Datamonitor, before moving into Ovum and more recently Omdia with an ongoing focus on the financial services technology market. He was also responsible for enterprise IT strategy research, and data insight programs involving extensive primary research across the financial services sector as well as institution-specific IT insight. Daniel holds an MA and BA in Economics from Cambridge University.

Based in Connecticut USA, Michael has spent over 25 years’ leading technology, strategy, and business development in financial services and other industries. Michael has extensive experience in client advisory, he is the co-author of Celent's Digital Banking Platform reports, and he leads Celent’s global Model Bank Award program. Michael has delivered research and advisory on North American, Latin American, Europe, and Middle East market topics. He has spent his career delivering meaningful strategic roadmaps, innovative measurement frameworks, and multi-channel customer experience technologies. Michael spent 10+ years developing web and mobile products and architecture in the insurance and retail banking industries, and another 10+ years leading product, channel, digital customer experience, and vendor-partner strategy at multiple U.S. regional banks. His expertise spans core and data technology, mobile and online product and distribution, and consulting. As a former Chair for the Digital Channels Committee of the Consumer Bankers Association, Michael has worked with peers across the industry to address challenges and opportunities in digital product management, customer expectations, regulatory outlook, and market evolution. He holds a BA in Political Science from Providence College.