New Cash Management Future Is on the Way to American Retailers

Newsweek

24-04-2025

The financial industry is at an inflection point. While consumer banking has been transformed by digital tools—mobile deposits, peer-to-peer payments and full-service ATMs—retailers and other businesses are still reliant on outdated, inefficient systems to manage their money.
But that's about to change.
I've spent a career working on innovations in finance and banking, and I've seen firsthand how things once considered unchangeable can be swept away by progress. And I am confident that a revolution is coming to the way retailers manage their cash.
A Journey In Innovation
I grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, a blue-collar city that has seen its share of change and struggle. It's where I learned the value of hard work, resilience and transformation. After high school, I attended the University of Dayton, unsure of my future. Like many young people, I was searching for inspiration. That's when an internship at NCR, a technology company headquartered just across the street from campus, changed everything.
In the mid-1990s, NCR was pioneering automation in banking. While back-office operations had long benefited from computing technology, the front office was just beginning to realize how automation could streamline branch operations and improve the consumer experience. I worked on projects that helped eliminate paper-based deposits and withdrawals at the bank branch, allowing for faster, more efficient transactions. This early experience planted a seed in my mind: Technology had the power to transform finance.
One of the most pivotal projects I worked on involved check processing. Back then, checks were manually sorted and keyed in by humans sitting in massive operations centers. NCR introduced scanning technology and software that allowed checks to be digitized and processed at scale, paving the way for mobile check deposits that consumers now take for granted. It was a lesson in how automation could revolutionize labor-intensive processes while putting money in consumer bank accounts quicker—and how outdated systems, if left unchanged, could hold industries back.
Pathward was named Best Banking as a Service Solution Provider in the 9th annual FinTech Breakthrough Awards program.
Pathward was named Best Banking as a Service Solution Provider in the 9th annual FinTech Breakthrough Awards program.
The Consumer Banking Revolution
As my career progressed, I had the opportunity to apply automation to another sector: consumer banking. I worked to apply automation through ATM machines, creating reliability and convenience for withdrawing and depositing cash and checks through secure and trusted ATM networks. This was a time when the machines were evolving from simply dispensing bills to allowing consumers to deposit cash and checks directly, bypassing the need for tellers. This demonstrated the importance of creating solutions that worked for both the consumer and the business—a principle that continues to guide me.
By the time I joined Cardtronics, a global leader in operating ATM networks in convenient retail locations, I was ready to tackle something big. My role was to find ways to make the company's network of 80,000 ATMs more accessible and valuable while driving more transactions through this established network. One of our key initiatives was partnering with banks to make our network accessible to their cardholders, surcharge free. Our shared infrastructure of ATMs benefited financial institutions, by reducing their need to deploy their own machines, as well as consumers through expanded access and convenience. This experience deepened my understanding of the power of utilities—shared networks that reduce costs while expanding access for everyone.
Eventually, I took all the experience and knowledge I have gained to solve a problem that has been overlooked for far too long: business cash deposits. While consumer banking has seen incredible innovation, businesses have been left behind. For many retailers, cash remains a critical part of daily operations, but depositing that cash is a cumbersome, time-consuming process that has not changed in 30 years. Whether it's retailers manually counting bills at the end of the day or the time intensive journey to the nearest bank branch to deposit cash through a bank teller, the methods are outdated, costly and time-consuming.
The Future Of Cash Management Is Digital
But that's changing. Business banking—and particularly cash management for retailers—is on the verge of a revolution that mirrors what happened on the consumer side. Just as ATMs and mobile banking eliminated the need for frequent trips to a physical branch, new solutions in cash management are poised to do the same for businesses.
For me, this work is personal. I've met countless small business owners who work long hours to keep their operations running, often with slim margins and limited resources. If we can make their lives easier by eliminating inefficiencies in cash deposits and business banking, we've succeeded.
Financial institutions that fail to adapt will be left behind. The future belongs to those that recognize the need for seamless, technology-driven cash management solutions. Much like the early days of ATMs, banks and businesses may be skeptical of change, but once they experience the benefits, there will be no going back.
The shift is already underway. Just as consumers now expect digital convenience in their personal banking, businesses will demand the same in their cash management. A new model is emerging—one that moves beyond legacy systems and allows businesses to deposit cash quickly, securely and efficiently, without the constraints of traditional banking infrastructure.
This is not just about convenience; it's about survival. The inconsistency between what businesses need and what banks offer is becoming more glaring. If financial institutions do not act, businesses will consolidate commercial deposits, and their relationships, with those banks or fintechs that step in to fill the gap. We've seen this happen before with consumer banking, and it's happening again with business banking.
Now Or Never
The future of retail cash management is clear: Businesses need modern solutions, and banks must be willing to provide them. If they don't, more agile networks and startups will. The question isn't whether this transformation will happen—it's who will lead it.
Innovation in cash management isn't just possible; it's inevitable. My journey—from working on check automation and ATMs to leading new solutions in business deposits—has shown me that technology, when applied thoughtfully, can solve systemic inefficiencies. The same logic that revolutionized consumer banking will revolutionize business banking. The only question is whether banks will embrace change or be disrupted by it.
The future of cash management is about empowering businesses, reducing friction, and ensuring that cash management is no longer an obstacle but a seamless, efficient process that enables growth. That's the vision that drives me—and it's the future that's coming, whether banks are ready or not.
Brian Bailey is president and COO of Clip Money, Inc. (TSX-V: CLIP; OTCQB: CLPMF) the only non-bank business deposit network for businesses.