Jerry ReeseSr. Solutions Engineer · ebankIT Follow on LinkedIn

Digital banking, from both sides of the table.

I'm Jerry Reese. I spent 22 years inside a $1.2B financial institution, the last eight running digital banking. Now at ebankIT, I help banks and credit unions make digital platform decisions they can defend to their board, their members and their customers.

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The buyer's chair
Honda FCU · 2003 to 2025
The vendor's chair
ebankIT · 2025 to today
Jerry Reese in a navy blazer

What a board asks

"We can't fund everything. What do we modernize now, what do we fund next, and what can wait?"

What I'd tell them

In my experience, the best leadership conversations aren't about polished roadmaps. They're about tradeoffs and limited resources. Deciding what can wait is part of the strategy. If you're a FinTech, that's your real test: can you show why you belong in now?

Sort your own priorities

Every chair at the table

The buyer's chair

22 years

FI Practitioner

Honda Federal Credit Union

8 years as Head of Digital Technologies.

In the room with vendors

  • 6 years

    Client Advisory Board

    Q2

    2 years holding the Voice of the Credit Union seat on the CAB Executive Team, then 4 on the Client Advisory Board.

  • 6 years

    Digital Payments Advisory Board

    FIS

    Advising the product team on roadmap direction.

  • 5 years

    CUSO Innovation Council

    Corporate One and Sherpa Technologies

    Reviewing fintech offerings and voting on which ones mattered to credit unions.

The vendor's chair

Now

Sr. Solutions Engineer

ebankIT

Same table, the other chair.

What's on your agenda?

Pick a topic. The buyer's question, the platform's answer, and what I would tell you from having sat in both chairs.

View the agenda as:

The buyer's chair asks

“Can we explain what the AI just did to a member/customer and to an examiner?”

From the practitioner's chair

In banking, AI is only useful when employees can trust it, members and customers can understand it, and regulators can validate it.

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The vendor's chair offers

ebankIT uses AI to turn real-time data into smarter decisions, stronger security, and more relevant customer experiences.

What I'd ask your FinTech before I signed

In my experience, every new partner is a decision the institution has to live with and may have to defend. These five questions show who is ready for that. If you're a FinTech, have your answers ready before the meeting.

  • What changes for our members and customers in the first 90 days?

    If the answer is a feature list, I keep asking.

  • Who owns the problem when your product and our platform disagree?

    Every integration looks clean in a demo. I want to know who picks up the phone.

  • What will an examiner ask us about you, and what will you hand us?

    The institution carries the accountability. A good partner brings the evidence before anyone asks.

  • What do you need from my team that you have not told me yet?

    Staff time is the cost that rarely makes it into the proposal.

  • What happens to our data and our members and customers if we leave?

    A partner that cannot describe the exit has not finished describing the deal.

From the buyer's chair...measured

  • +67%

    Digital enrollment, year one after the digital platform conversion I led.

    Measured after launch, not projected.

  • +40%

    App store rating, year one.

    Measured after launch, not projected.

  • 6

    Platforms evaluated before one board decision.

    A nine-month, board-sponsored evaluation.

  • 22

    Years inside a $1.2B financial institution.

    Honda Federal Credit Union, 2003 to 2025.

Test your stay-or-switch numbers A five-year view, using your own numbers.

Jerry Reese smiling and waving hello

Hi, I'm Jerry.

From the trauma bay to the boardroom to the vendor side. Every step taught me something I still use with institutions today.

  1. 1997 to 1999Lead Trauma Radiology Technologist, The Johns Hopkins HospitalWhere I learned to stay calm with people who were not.
  2. 1999 to 2003Senior Technical Service Engineer, Honda of America Mfg.Secure network operations for more than 7,000 users.
  3. 2003 to 2017Infrastructure and network engineering, Honda Federal Credit UnionFourteen years securing data centers and the network behind digital banking. Where I learned to hold a vendor to what it sold.
  4. 2017Head of Digital Technologies, Honda Federal Credit UnionBuilt the digital banking department from zero and led its team for eight years.
  5. The platform decisionSix platforms. One board decision.A nine-month, board-sponsored evaluation with a normalized cost model, peer calls on every side of the decision, and a recommendation I put my name on. Then I led the conversion.
  6. 2025 to todayebankITThe FinTech side of the same table. Helping financial institutions make the decisions I used to make, with the honesty I wanted from vendors back then.

What I believe

  • On peopleTrust begins when people feel understood.
  • On boardsYour board isn't buying software, it's buying confidence.
  • On business casesA business case that owns its risk earns the room's trust.
  • On numbersA model that folds under scrutiny isn't a model.

Latest from #JerryReeseBanking

Plain language about digital banking, from someone who has run it. I write for the people who have to run digital banking: practitioners, executives, and the teams who support members and customers after go-live. No vendor-speak. I keep learning in public too, with generative AI certificates of completion from Anthropic and AWS, Product Management from Cornell, and a UX Certification from the Nielsen Norman Group.

Jerry Reese at the ebankIT booth at a conference
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Why you can trust what I share

  • Lived, not borrowed. Every story on this page is one I was part of.
  • Measured, not projected. Results here were measured after launch.
  • Both sides, in the open. I work for a FinTech vendor today.
  • My own views. What I post is my perspective as an FI practitioner.

Follow along, or let's compare notes.

If you are building for financial institutions, weighing a platform decision, or just want to talk about how members and customers really use digital banking, I would like to hear from you.

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