The Bank leader opens up about his 2020 outlook and shares sage wisdom
As the TD Bank team continues to grow and evolve, we are proud to shine a light on game-changers at various levels and departments within the Bank.
First up is Matt Boss, who was just promoted to Head of Consumer Products earlier this year.
Matt has big aspirations and responsibilities leading his line of business, but his goals are always to add value to both his customers and employees.
When he's not working, Matt said he's spending time with his family, playing basketball, and either coaching or watching his kids' teams and activities. He also admitted that he tends to get a little "hangry" when he hasn't eaten his lunch.
Without further ado, we give you Matt Boss:
You're the head of Consumer Products. What does your line of business do for the Bank?
Consumer products is half of the business that makes consumer go overall. I have the privilege to share responsibility for the consumer bank with a great partner, Ernie Diaz, Head of Consumer Distribution and Wealth.
In the simplest sense, we have manufacturing responsibility and Ernie has distribution responsibility. We have to work with all our partners to put together products that can meet our customers' needs, that they find useful and that they find value in.
What are some of these products?
We have a fairly traditional product lineup, from deposits - which includes savings, checking and debit - to credit cards to mortgage and unsecured lending.
Something unique to TD within cards is our retail card partnerships and strategic partnerships with brands like Ethan Allen, Nordstrom, Samsung and Target.
Where do you see banking heading in 2020 and beyond? What are some areas people should watch out for?
Open banking and customer data, that one is clearly an area to think about and one that is talked about often in the industry. Also, payments and what's happening there from a technology perspective is interesting.
What makes TD different from the competition in your eyes?
Convenience. Though the convenience we have today will change with consumer preferences, things like late store hours and weekend hours may become less important, but those types of things clearly still resonate with our customer base, and we'll find other ways to deliver convenience where it's meaningful.
It's simple, but we also have people that genuinely care and are nice. That's back-, middle- and customer-facing folks. We also genuinely care about our colleagues. Those things are easy to say, but I've worked at two other banks and I don’t think either really prioritized this in the way TD does.
What can TD work on to be the better bank?
At TD, we're a very, very good day one bank. We're really good at acquiring customers. Our brand, our value proposition of America's Most Convenient Bank really resonates.
We've got to do a better job of making it easier to be a TD customer, then we can ask for more business from our customers.
Just throwing in a few fun questions! What's your morning routine like?
I like to get up and get my workout done in the morning. Then, I always try to see the kids and do our unique goodbye handshake with each of them before they head off to school, like they do in the NBA, but we are trying to evolve them. We are going to up our game.
What's something people don't know about you?
I can easily get 'hangry,' I have to eat by noon. If I don't, all I can think about is eating.
How do you unwind after work or on the weekends?
Monday nights I play in a basketball league. I have season tickets to the 76ers, so I try to take one of the kids, my wife Amy or some friends to that.
I coach my son's basketball team on Saturday, that's a lot of fun. I love the outdoors as well. And, I recently got a Big Green Egg so working to master that.
Any advice to your younger self?
Knowing my younger self, I think any advice I would have given, I wouldn't have listened to. But I think early on in my career, the most important work I did was before 8 a.m. and after 5 p.m., because that's usually when things were critical – even going wrong – and I was pulled in because help was needed. I learned a lot from that.
What was the worst advice you never took and are glad you didn't?
There were at least two jobs, which were promotions, that I didn’t take – and some people thought those were bad decisions. It's not that I wasn't interested, but not taking them wound up being the right choices. If I had taken those positions I wouldn't have been able to later on take jobs that were better for me. There's been a lot of following my gut and believing in myself, weighing decisions for my family and playing the long game … and a lot of people helped along the way.