Community Banks Accelerate FinTech Integrations

Build, buy or partner? For more community banks, the latter strategy can fast-track digitization initiatives.

This week’s look at the latest bank-FinTech tie-ups shows Banking-as-a-Service and other FinTech players embracing smaller regional and community banks to elevate small- to medium-sized business (SMBs) and corporate banking offerings.

Finastra Chosen by Community FI

The Peoples Community Bank is broadening its existing relationship with banking technology provider Finastra, the firms revealed this week in a press release, with the financial institution (FI) looking to accelerate its own innovation and product rollouts. The bank revealed it will be upgrading its infrastructure to adopt Finastra’s Phoenix core platform, and will further be adopting Finastra’s Fusion Digital Banking, LaserPro and other products as part of its digitization initiative.

Their announcement noted that The Peoples Community Bank’s current infrastructure does not support the ability to quickly build and launch new products, and with an infrastructure upgrade — which enables application programming interface (API) integration with Microsoft Azure — new products can be built and launched within a matter of days. The bank will also have access to FusionFabric.cloud, its developer platform and marketplace, to integrate pre-built solutions into its own offering.

Oxbury, ClearBank Pair for Payments

Oxbury, a U.K.-based bank targeting SMBs in the farming and food industry, recently announced a collaboration with ClearBank. Oxbury will gain access to ClearBank’s clearing and payments capabilities, enabling the bank to gain access to U.K. payment schemes.

The companies noted that Oxbury, which secured its full banking license in early-2020 with plans for a full launch later this year, will focus its services on the agricultural food chain with lending and payments services. Wielding ClearBank’s APIs and platform, the bank will also be able to integrate ClearBank’s existing Banking-as-a-Service product set, including technology to loop into the U.K.’s. Faster Payments scheme.

People’s United Bank Links With FIS, MineralTree

Also targeting FinTech collaboration to bolster its corporate offerings is regional bank People’s United Bank, which recently announced that it will be adopting solutions offered by FIS and MineralTree. With a focus on its broader treasury management offerings, People’s United is adding MineralTree’s invoice-to-pay solution and FIS’s integrated payables technology to streamline business clients’ accounts payable processes.

In a statement, the FI’s Senior Vice President of Treasury Management Cris Sigovitch noted that the partnerships support its efforts to aid clients’ business continuity efforts.

“These technologies are also critical elements to client business continuity planning and enabling Accounts Payable teams to effectively carry out their responsibilities particularly during this difficult time,” he said.

Five Star Bank Taps Corserv Card Tech

Community bank Five Star Bank is strengthening its card offerings through a partnership with Coserv, according to a recent press release. The companies revealed that Coserv will support the bank’s rollout of consumer, SMB and corporate credit cards, with value-added services for commercial cardholders.

“Corserv’s solution provides robust features for our business customers such as a self-service card management portal, alerts and controls, and virtual cards to automate ePayables,” the bank’s Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer Krista Snelling noted in a statement.

Surecomp Debuts as-a-Service Offering

Banking-as-a-Service technology provider Surecomp is introducing a new solution for its banking and corporate clients. The company recently announced the rollout of its Trade-Finance-as-a-Service suite of products, which include both front- and back-office solutions for banks and their corporate customers.

With API integrations, the TFaaS offering supports digitization of trade finance workflows for banks, enabling corporates to digitally apply for financing, while banks can access an end-to-end set of services that promote security and compliance. The platform is SWIFT-certified, Surecomp noted, and is offered on a subscription model for FIs that can also integrate the offering with other tools via Surecomp’s API gateway and its Marketplace of FinTech partner solutions.