Community and Regional Banks embrace digital transformation by selecting FIS

By Edlyn Cardoza

As community and regional banks accelerate their digital transformation strategies, FIS continues to be a destination for innovative financial institutions looking for providers with a complete financial suite of solutions. FIS has recently signed agreements with five new banks, including PointBank and Bank of Southern California, who are embracing HORIZON and Digital One as their banking and digital platforms for the future.

Based in Denton, TX, locally owned and independent PointBank has served its community with personal and commercial banking services for more than 130 years. Bank of Southern California, N.A. was founded in 2001 in San Diego to focus on the local business community’s needs in the region. The ability to constantly benefit from rapidly advancing digital technology and modern user experiences were primary drivers behind these banks’ selection of FIS.

According to FIS’s most recent PACE Pulse survey, “digital banking” is more appealing to new regional or community bank customers than others — 26% of respondents started a new relationship with a regional or community bank for digital banking services. The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated consumer need for digital banking and payments, and banks with complete and up-to-date digital banking capabilities could be better positioned to meet these shifting trends.

FIS’ HORIZON is a flexible and modern banking platform that uses a multi-tiered architecture, which allows for a consistent, robust user experience across most devices and browsers. Digital One enables these banks to deliver a streamlined, modern digital banking experience that customers are coming to expect from their financial services providers. And banks using HORIZON will also be able to utilize a comprehensive set of FIS, and third-party solutions enabled via the growing FIS Code Connect ecosystem—all of which can be implemented with little integration work on the bank’s behalf.

“PointBank has deep roots to our community, and that means we have a responsibility to the people and businesses we serve to deliver the best banking experience that we can,” said Jonathan David, Chief Operating Officer at PointBank. “FIS helps us achieve that mission by enabling us to offer our customers truly advanced and intuitive banking wherever they are—in branch or online.”

“To support the future growth of the business communities we serve throughout our banking footprint, it is important that we be equipped with the best tools available,” said Pamela Isaacson, EVP Chief Operations Officer at Bank of Southern California. “FIS’ core banking system not only offers us the flexibility to tailor-make our banking experience, but also helps us deliver new services to our market faster than we could have before.”

“Community and regional banks are often at a disadvantage to their larger competitors who have more resources to build out their digital technology, but FIS gives these banks a new leg up,” said Maria Schuld, Division Executive, Americas Banking Solutions at FIS. “We seek to be a consummate partner to our banking clients, helping them grow their portfolios by delivering truly modern banking experiences in a way that is accessible, easy to integrate, and scalable for them, no matter their size.”