Big things happen at M&T Banks regional headquarters in Wilmington. Along with the news of its increased focus on digital comes a Wilmington-based chief digital officer role, recently filled by former Bank of America executive Ishet Dhar.
In Delaware, banking has been central to Delaware’s economy ever since Act on the development of financial centres enacted in 1981, and with the rise of technology in the 21st century, the banks have become some of the state’s largest financial technology companies. As banks become increasingly digital, they are hiring more technologists – a trend that has continued through the COVID-19 pandemic.
M&T Bank is one of a growing number of companies with a chief digital officer, a C-level role responsible for developing and implementing its digital strategy – and in the case of M&T Bank, that strategy is customer-facing.
Dhar, whose role officially began Aug. 10, has worked in Wilmington for nearly two decades, commuting from his home in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania. During that time, he also gained global experience, including most recently as Bank of America’s SVP of digital consumer delivery.
We sat down with Dhar to talk about the position and fintech’s ever-growing role in Delaware.
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Technical.ly: How was your professional journey to this point?
Ishet Dhar: My journey towards this has been very heavy in the financial services, be it 17 plus years at Bank of America or my work before that in consulting and financial services in India. There have been a number of roles, a number of assignments across products, and then sales and marketing and digital opportunities. It has been a fun journey and I have learned a lot.
What specifically drew you to this role?
It’s really a huge opportunity to supercharge the bank’s digital transformation and give our customers a more comprehensive and seamless digital experience.
M&T is a super regional bank that is growing while maintaining the strong sense of community bank-slash-neighborhood. And the commitment to diversity at M&T is incredible and starts at the very top.
What does the digital manager do?
I must be laser-focused on understanding the customer’s needs and experiences. We need to invest to be able to deliver these experiences, mostly in the form of core capabilities that we need to be able to support these needs. Because everyone is on a different journey in life, understanding where they are and what we can do to help them when they want it is one of the critical [areas of] focus.
How generally do you see fintech moving in Delaware?
I think Delaware has been a pretty strong technology [sector] from a financial perspective. It’s a pretty solid place. For anyone looking to invest in financial services or in fintech to build out teams there, I think of the strong presence of the big banks, the regional banks and then fintech [startups]there are great opportunities.
It’s a beautiful state, there’s a lot of really good talent, there’s a lot to access in terms of schools and everything else, as far as the ability to build on a vision someone has for fintech and banking.
What will M&T’s digital growth look like for Delaware?
I don’t have all the details yet about the investment M&T is making here yet, but there’s a lot of new focus on financial technology, and my ability to lead the integration and transformation of all our digital platforms is going to be huge.
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