Fintech acquisitions have bolstered CSI’s capabilities so the company, in turn, can enable community bank clients to better compete with larger lenders, CEO Nancy Langer said.

Recent acquisitions that core provider CSI has made are aimed at helping its community bank clients better compete in commercial banking, where they’re facing more pressure, the company’s CEO said.

“Bigger banks are coming into some of the smaller communities, for sure, going after small business, which is part of our message to the banks: they also have to be aggressive about leveraging the technology,” said Nancy Langer, CSI’s president and CEO, said during an interview at last month’s Money20/20 conference in Las Vegas.

CSI, which competes with larger rivals Fiserv, FIS and Jack Henry, provides financial software and technology for community banks. The Paducah, Kentucky-based company’s customer base ranges from de novos to banks with about $20 billion in assets, Langer said.

Serving commercial banking needs is essential for community banks to remain competitive with regional and super-regional lenders, who are racing to serve small businesses. And commercial business is a top driver of margin and growth for small banks, Langer said.

Local lenders will always get commercial real estate loans but may not be able to retain deposits, especially as a business grows, she said.

Relationships still go a long way in community banking, but “a lot of those businesses are getting turned over, whether it's from their grandparents or their parents, to fairly young [owners], and they need real-time, they need immediate cash visibility, they need a user experience that they’ve come to expect,” Langer said.

Source link