A new group is looking to bring small and midsize banks together to work on technology projects.
The Btech Consortium is being led by Elizabeth Park Capital Management, Strandview Capital and a group of banks that includes East West Bancorp in Los Angeles and Customers Bancorp in West Reading, Pa.
Participating banks will pool their capital and resources to invest in emerging tech companies.
“We expect the consortium to provide us curated knowledge of [fintech] solutions geared toward solving our most high-priority initiatives to enhance our customer user experience, strengthen risk management and improve efficiency,” Irene Oh, chief financial officer of East West Bank, said in the release.
The initiative includes the Consortium HUB, a proprietary, member-only data exchange that will including information on emerging fintechs, sector overviews, product demos and an investment pipeline.
“The tech-forward community banks who have joined the Btech Consortium are taking a leadership role in advancing technology for the entire community bank industry,” Fred Cummings, Elizabeth Park’s founder and president, said in the release.
“We increasingly see technology as a key differentiator that allows banks to serve their customers better, generate new sources of revenue, and operate more efficiently,” Cummings added. “Our deep knowledge of the community bank industry and Strandview Capital’s decades of expertise with fintech investments provide a unique opportunity for our bank members.”
Areas of interest include business payments, cybersecurity, commercial loan origination and servicing, regulatory compliance, API integration, robotic process automation (RPA), credit analytics, document management and commercial deposit gathering.