Bridging the Gap Between Legacy Banking and the AI Era
Helping banks, credit unions, and fintechs navigate the structural shift to AI-enabled, real-time, data-driven financial services — with board-level clarity and operational depth.
Independent. Experienced.
Fluent in Both
Languages.
With 40+ years across CFO suites, digital banking transformations, board rooms, and data architecture — Neal Brauner brings operational depth that pure strategists lack, and strategic clarity that pure technologists miss.
The result: advice that’s simultaneously board-ready and technically credible — capable of translating the implications of AI, payments modernization, data architecture, and strategic opportunity assessment into language executives can act on.
Five Strategic Capabilities.
One Connective
Thread.
Each practice area reflects a distinct client need — and all five share a common purpose: building organizations that make better decisions in an era of structural change.
The board-facing practice. Independent evaluation of strategic proposals before capital is committed — not as an auditor, but as the person who asks the questions management teams sometimes avoid.
- Independent Evaluation of Management Proposals
- Strategic Planning Facilitation
- Technology & Vendor Due Diligence
- Digital Banking Strategy
- AI Readiness Assessments
- Core Conversion / Platform Selection Advisory
- Fintech Partnership Evaluation
Not “AI tools” — AI-enabled decision systems. Helping organizations redesign how decisions get made, governed, and optimized for the AI era. A more durable framing than tool deployment.
- AI Strategy Development
- AI Governance & Oversight Frameworks
- AI Use-Case Prioritization
- Decision-Engine Design
- Conversational Analytics
- Human-in-the-Loop Decision Architectures
- AI Risk Frameworks
From reports → recommendations. From dashboards → decision engines. From fragmented data → institutional intelligence. A rare intersection of banking domain knowledge and AI-safe data architecture.
- AI-Safe Data Warehouse Design
- Enterprise Data Strategy
- Metadata & Governance Frameworks
- Customer Profitability & Lifetime Value Analytics
- Semantic Layer & AI Query Architecture
- Real-Time Decisioning Architecture
- Executive KPI & Intelligence Frameworks
Most community bank consultants still think about payments operationally. This practice addresses payments strategically — as architecture, competitive positioning, and transformation driver.
- Real-Time Payments Strategy (FedNow / RTP)
- Payments Hub Evaluation
- Core & Payments Decoupling Strategy
- Embedded Finance Strategy
- Stablecoin & Tokenized Deposit Assessments
- Digital Banking Architecture
- Vendor Ecosystem Evaluation
Many fintech founders genuinely don’t understand how banks make decisions, board dynamics, regulatory psychology, or procurement cycles. That gap is expensive. DV21 Advisory bridges both worlds.
- Fintech Go-To-Market Strategy for Bank Markets
- Community Bank Market Positioning
- Product Messaging for Financial Institutions
- Banking Partnership Readiness
- Regulatory & Operational Translation
- Product-Market Fit Assessments
- Board & Executive Presentation Coaching
- Strategic Narrative Development
- Pricing & ROI Framing for Banks
Strategic Translation:
The Rarest Skill in Advisory
Every engagement, regardless of practice area, draws on the same foundational capability: the ability to operate fluently across boundaries that most advisors cannot cross.
This isn’t positioning — it’s the accumulated result of 40+ years navigating every corner of financial services: from the CFO chair to the data warehouse, from the board room to the fintech conference floor.
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Neal Brauner
Founder & Principal, DV21 Advisory
Board Candidate · San Francisco Bay Area
Neal Brauner has spent 40+ years inside financial institutions — not observing them from the outside, but running finance, building data infrastructure, leading digital transformations, and advising boards. That operational history is the foundation of every engagement at DV21 Advisory.
His career spans CFO roles at two financial institutions, where he oversaw strategic planning, M&A due diligence, and data warehouse development. Led enterprise-wide digital banking and business intelligence for a $15B+ regional bank — including an online/mobile UX redesign recognized among the industry’s most innovative — and co-led a merger-of-equals integration.
As founder of two consulting firms, he has worked with banks and credit unions across the country on profitability systems, data analytics, digital platform selection, AI readiness, and board governance. His current focus sits at the intersection of AI architecture, decision intelligence, and strategic banking transformation — a rare combination in the advisory market.
Neal is also a frequent author on topics spanning AI for community banks, payments modernization, data strategy, and board governance. His writing targets the same audience his advisory work does: executives who need clarity, not complexity.
Thinking That Drives
Better Decisions
Regular commentary on AI in banking, payments modernization, data strategy, and board governance — written for executives who need clarity, not jargon.
Recent Posts
Show All Posts-
If Your Strategy Is Customer-Focused, Why Isn’t Your Budget?
It’s that time of year again. Banks and credit unions are beginning work on their 2027 operating budgets. The process can be painful. But there’s a bigger problem: Traditional budgeting often causes strategy to disappear. Most banks manage and budget their balance sheet and P&L through business units, branches, and responsibility centers. That makes sense…
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A Lot Can Change in Three Years
In 2023, ChatGPT had just arrived on the scene, and most banks were debating whether employees should even be allowed to use generative AI. FedNow hadn’t launched. Stablecoins lived firmly in the crypto world, not the regulatory one. Three years later, much has changed — and three years happens to be the planning horizon most…
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When a Bank Outsources a Function, What Exactly is it Outsourcing?
The obvious answer is the work. But the fuller answer may include the employment relationship, institutional knowledge, customer experience, accountability—and increasingly, the decision about how aggressively to use AI to reduce labor. Community banks have good reasons to outsource. Specialized vendors can provide capabilities, scale, resilience, technology, and expertise that a smaller institution could not…
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Turning Customer Profitability Information into Action
The following is a real-life case study on the value of customer profitability from my upcoming book: An Executive’s Guide to Customer Profitability. A commercial lender was renewing a real estate loan for a large church when something in the bank’s relationship profitability system caught his attention. The church maintained more than $1.1 million in…
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Your Digital Banking Platform is More Than a Technology Decision
It’s a strategic one. And most community banks fail to recognize that. When digital banking first arrived on the scene it was considered an “alternative delivery channel.” Branches were the center of the relationship. Digital was a convenience layer built to handle the basics: Check your balance. Transfer funds. Pay a bill. Deposit a check….
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Reflections on Two Industry Conferences
I attended two industry conferences in the past three weeks: Alkami Co:lab and Finovate Spring. I came away with the same thought after each event: Most community-bank executives and board members are not getting enough direct exposure to how rapidly banking technology is changing. At Alkami, I saw AI agents that allowed customers to design,…
Four Engagement Models.
One Standard of Rigor.
Every engagement is project-based or retainer-based — never staffing, never implementation. The focus is always strategy, architecture, and governance.
Ongoing access for boards, CEOs, and executive teams navigating sustained transformation. Monthly or quarterly cadence, with availability for critical decisions.
OngoingA specific question or initiative with clear deliverables — AI readiness assessment, vendor evaluation, data strategy roadmap, or board education session.
Project-BasedInterim digital banking, strategy, or analytics leadership during transitions, capability build-outs, or vacancy periods — with the depth to contribute from day one.
InterimStructured sessions for boards and leadership teams on AI, payments transformation, fintech trends, and digital strategy — tailored to the institution’s context.
EducationReady to Think Differently
About Your Institution?
Whether you’re a bank executive navigating AI, a fintech seeking banking market access, or a board seeking independent perspective — the right conversation starts here.