| | AUGUST 20209CIOReviewWhile there's no doubt fintechs see strong business potential with community institutions beyond the promise of revenue, they consistently point to one foundational concept: the relationship between the customer and the community bankertogether to interoperate from a single platform--helping bankers actively manage daily tasks for their portfolios. Everything from exception tracking to loan-closing documentation is available through the platform. By alleviating some of the manual processes associated with tracking activities, Teslar works to empower bankers to better serve their customers with accurate and timely information. Accelerator participant MK Decision also offers a solution to streamline processes. By leveraging APIs, MK Decision's technology integrates with a bank's core; an API also enables it to tap into credit bureaus to get information on a loan applicant within seconds. This helps speed up the loan- decisioning process while providing an improved digital lending environment for enhanced customer experience. In fact, ICBA Bancard, the payment services subsidiary of the Independent Community Bankers of America, which provides community banks with access to comprehensive, affordable payments solutions, has partnered with MK for its online loan-origination system. The product streamlines the community bank credit card application process to create a better customer experience to shop and apply for cards.Then there's the important work of safeguarding our institutions in today's evolving cyber threat environment -- accelerator finalist Adlum in offers finance-specific security incident and event management (SIEM) solutions to community banks. From data retention to compliance, to malicious intruder detection, the company provides a range of offerings to help community banks meet cybersecurity compliance and manage evolving threats. AI and machine learning techniques fuel their solutions and analyze anomalies, funneling a billion monthly events down into the five or six each month that requires further review by a bank employee or the attention of the team. And, Finovate's most recent "Best in Show" awardees Invest SouSou is another accelerator alumni that provides a new product stream for community banks to grow deposit accounts via a concept called "social banking." The solution allows a group of individuals with similar financial goals to open a group savings account that can be used as cash collateral for a loan guarantee. As a bonus for banks, the company's proprietary algorithm creates unique customer credit risk profiles to better inform bank lending decisions.These are just a few solutions that create a wealth of possibility, but what leads these innovative companies to seek out community banks as partners? While there's no doubt fintechs see strong business potential with community institutions beyond the promise of revenue, they consistently point to one foundational concept: the relationship between the customer and the community banker. Coincidentally, that's also the foundation of the community bank business model and why these local lenders continue to flourish and remain competitive with even the biggest banks. Because it's not always about scale, rather it's about finding the right solutions to help people and local businesses prosper. And community bank-fintech partnerships create a winning combination of high-tech, high-touch, to do just that. It's an exciting time to be in community banking.
< Page 8 | Page 10 >