Strategy
03/01/2016

Innovation Takes Center Stage


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Technology has always been integral to banking, bringing both speed and efficiency to a transaction-intensive business. But in recent years, technology has stepped onto center stage as a prime component in every bank’s growth and distribution strategy. Technology has, in effect, gone from being a way to save money (a crucial function that it still fulfills) to a way to make money. Much of this activity is being driven by the continued growth of mobile and online banking.

In an effort to highlight the importance of technology and the evolving partnership between banks and their financial technology providers, Bank Director held its second annual FinTech Day today at the Nasdaq MarketSite in New York. The event brought together senior executives from banks, technology companies and investment firms to create a dialogue between these important groups, encourage cross-fertilization and build a foundation for collaboration.

This year’s event also featured Bank Director’s inaugural Best of FinXTech Awards, which recognizes examples of innovation and collaboration between banks and their financial technology providers. The awards have been given to five banks and their technology partners, chosen by Bank Director from among 10 finalists.

The five winners are:

  • Univest Bank and Trust Co. in Souderton, Pennsylvania, and nCino in Wilmington, North Carolina. The project: Developed a cloud-based, end-to-end small business loan origination system that enabled Univest to meet the challenge of aggressive alternative lenders that are pushing into that important lending market.
  • CNLBank in Orlando, Florida, and CheckAlt in Los Angeles, California. The project: Jointly developed a new solution for remittance processing that greatly reduced the volume of payment exceptions, resulting in reduced costs and improved commercial client retention. In December 2015, CNLBank was acquired by Wayne, New Jersey-based Valley National Bancorp.
  • Somerset Trust Co. in Somerset, Pennsylvania, and Malauzai Software, Inc. in Austin, Texas. The project: Developed a mobile banking solution that allows Somerset retail banking customers to securely check balances, use picture bill pay and remotely deposit checks from any location of device.
  • Metro Bank in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and BizEquity in Wayne, Pennsylvania. The project: Developed a private label version of BizEquity’s online business valuation service, available through Metro’s website, that is used as a tool to bring prospective business customers into the bank’s branches. In August 2015, Metro was acquired by Pittsburgh-based F.N.B. Corp.
  • City National Bank in Los Angeles, California, and MineralTree in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The project: Developed an online business-to-business, invoice-to-pay solution that enabled the bank to differentiate itself from its competitors and attract new corporate customers. In June 2015, City National was acquired by Royal Bank of Canada.

The five winners were honored today at FinTech Day in New York. The other five finalists were USAA and Daon Inc., Seattle Metropolitan Credit Union and D+H, First Financial Bank and StrategyCorps, Central Bancompany and Ignite Sales, and Metro Bank and Zopa, both located in the United Kingdom.

WRITTEN BY

Jack Milligan

Editor-at-Large

Jack Milligan is editor-at-large of Bank Director magazine, a position to which he brings over 40 years of experience in financial journalism organizations. Mr. Milligan directs Bank Director’s editorial coverage and leads its director training efforts. He has a master’s degree in Journalism from The Ohio State University.