Interview from David Baxter, CEO of Solutions by Text (SBT), a trusted leader in compliant messaging and integrated text payments for more than 600 consumer financial services companies.
How are innovations in messaging and communications technology redefining what “frictionless” means for customers in banking and fintech today?
“Frictionless” isn’t a trendy buzzword that everyone uses but can’t really define. In reality, it’s a simple concept: remove anything from a customer experience that might slow the customer down. But how companies remove friction for customers is changing.
Prior approaches focused on making web and app experiences easy to use. But they still share a major point of friction: getting there. Customers must download an app, learn its interface, and sign-on, or navigate to a website and face similar impediments.
Many fintech companies are finding a better way: engage customers where they are and feel most comfortable. Text communications (SMS, MMS, and RCS) enable a customer to receive notifications, questions, authenticate, and complete actions such as funding or payments in a message thread without app switches or logins. Where SMS, the original text format, supports brief conversations reliably over just about any device, MMS enables sending images, audio, video, and longer text over the same cellular channels, giving richer communication while still working on most phones and carriers. RCS (Rich Communication Services) is the next innovative step, using data or Wi‑Fi to support high‑resolution media, interactive buttons, read receipts, typing indicators, group chats, and branded, verified business messaging. This makes conversations more secure, engaging, and app-like for users, while maintaining the simplicity of texting.
An integrated platform, such as SBT’s FinText, that supports them all can make a tangible difference. Financial institutions have seen up to a 25% increase in application approval-to-funding conversions and 2x the payment volume compared to mail, phone, and email, demonstrating that conversational messaging makes “frictionless” a real thing, removing steps for customers and accelerating completion rates.
We see this as part of a broader adoption trend. Our messaging volume grew 95% in a single year and continues to expand significantly. We see leading lenders and servicers rapidly standardizing text as the primary “frictionless” engagement layer. With features like one-time passcodes, payments by text, document collection, and right-party contact monitoring, a text messaging platform like FinText compresses formerly disjointed workflows into a few taps in a trusted mobile conversation.
What impact do verified, branded messaging channels have on building trust and driving action in sensitive transactions like payments or loan approvals?
Verified, branded messaging leaps the number-one barrier to financial texting—fear of fraud—by making it visually clear that a known company is sending a message. RCS uses verified sender identity, brand elements, and consistent presentation to allay any “who’s really sending me this text?” fears. Datos Insights’ joint research with SBT shows that 80% of consumers want text capabilities from their financial providers, and that RCS closes the “trust gap” by embedding verification and branding into the conversation, which is especially critical for payment and loan-related flows.
High trust translates into more action: the research found that 78% of consumers are likely to act on RCS promotional messages, 84% would accept RCS for account alerts, and 75% of Gen X and younger would establish payment plans through RCS, turning messages into a measurable conversion channel across the lifecycle. When properly used to engage customers, RCS improves deliverability, reduces opt-outs, and boosts conversions.
From a customer perspective, once you’ve cracked the trust challenge, your messages now move from static communication—updates, reminders, offers—to conversations that enable you to take action. A customer can confidently make a payment, complete an application, or enroll in direct deposit. This saves customers time and supports a trusted long-term relationship with a financial brand.
In what ways are next-generation messaging capabilities (like RCS) enabling true personalization and supporting higher engagement across diverse consumer segments?
Next-generation messaging capabilities like RCS move financial communications beyond one-size-fits-all alerts into interactive, context-aware conversations. Instead of sending the same message to every customer, institutions can tailor content, timing, and calls to action based on where someone is in their financial journey, whether that’s onboarding, servicing, repayment, or recovery. Rich elements such as images, quick-reply actions, and secure payment links allow messages to feel relevant and purposeful, not transactional, which naturally drives higher engagement across demographics.
But it isn’t the technology alone that makes a difference, but how financial institutions apply it. Platforms like SBT give teams the flexibility to design and manage customer experiences that personalize outreach by segment, behavior, and intent while staying compliant. A first-time borrower may receive educational prompts and self-service options, while a returning customer sees streamlined payment actions or proactive reminders. That ability to adapt the experience to the individual within the same conversation thread is what turns messaging into a high-engagement channel that works across consumer segments, from digital-first Gen Z to more traditional borrowers who still value clarity, trust, and convenience.
How is Solutions by Text helping financial brands differentiate themselves as consumer expectations shift from notifications to two-way conversational experiences?
SBT helps brands evolve from one-way alerts to live, two-way conversations through capabilities such as real-time SMS replies, inbound routing, keyword workflows, MMS document exchange, and integrated payment flows, all optimized for regulated use cases. Financial institutions using FinText have reported outcomes including up to 400% ROI on texting programs, a 25% lift in approval-to-funding conversions, a 15% increase in refinance take rate, a 45% reduction in non-FDCPA debt letters, and a 100% increase in self-service payments, highlighting how compliant, conversational engagement changes customer behavior.
These capabilities differentiate brands at scale by enabling customers to resolve questions, negotiate payment plans, and advance applications within a single compliant text thread, rather than relying on low-yield mail, email, or phone. As messaging volumes continue to surge, institutions that embrace conversational journeys will stand out as responsive, mobile-first partners in a crowded fintech landscape.
Looking ahead to 2026, what do you see as the biggest opportunities for fintechs to merge security, convenience, and personalization into the customer journey?
In 2026, the biggest opportunity for fintechs will be designing customer journeys that feel continuous, relevant, and frictionless without asking consumers to jump between systems, channels, or experiences. Marketing, origination, servicing, payments, and collections will increasingly come together as a single, connected conversation that evolves over time and meets customers where they already engage.
What’s changing is how personalization shows up in practice. Rather than relying on static segments or one-off campaigns, leading fintechs are using conversational messaging to adapt outreach based on context, behavior, and intent. The same thread can support education, reminders, self-service actions, and payments adjusting tone, timing, and next steps as a customer’s needs change. Compliance and verification are built into the foundation, so they don’t dominate the experience or slow it down.
The next wave of differentiation will come from unifying convenience and personalization in a single conversational channel, instead of managing engagement, payments, and servicing as separate initiatives. In that sense, “omnichannel” is being redefined not as more channels, but as fewer, better-connected experiences that drive action in the moments that matter most.
