Sutton Bank and Bankers Helping Bankers (BHB) are pleased to announce the creation of the BHB Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) Association, aimed at serving the unique needs of BaaS Sponsor banks. Sutton Bank, Attica, OH is proud to be one of the founding, charter members of the Association. According to Robert Keil, SVP, Chief Payments Officer of Sutton Bank, “Community banking is experiencing a number of challenges. Banking-as-a-Service is one offering that enables banks to generate alternative revenue and predictable fee income. Furthermore, by partnering with select Fintech organizations, smaller community banks are able to offer banking services to large numbers of the unbanked and underbanked population. Having an association for banks active in this space will only help to continue the momentum and further strengthen consumers and community banking alike.”
BHB Co-founder, Tanner Mayo said, “These elite bankers lead in profitability and innovation. It is essential that banks getting into this space do so in a safe, sound, and regulatory compliant way. This association is intended to help them embrace the opportunities of BaaS, while proactively identifying and mitigating risks.”
The BaaS association was created to:
- Coordinate legislative and regulatory advocacy efforts to promote an environment for the responsible delivery of BaaS by Federally-insured depository institutions.
- Promote best practices and standards for the delivery of BaaS to non-banks.
- Build a community of like-minded bankers and other industry participants to share experiences, insights, successes, and failures realized in BaaS endeavors.
- Connect Federally-insured financial institutions to the fintech technology partners who will help them facilitate a successful BaaS program.
BaaS is a highly specialized niche and one that is seeing a tremendous increase in bank participants. Fueled by rapid expansion in FinTech funding and a constant supply of new startups, there simply aren’t enough BaaS Sponsor banks to meet the growing demand from hundreds of FinTech applicants.
Mayo said, “BaaS banks are mostly community banks, a few are larger, but one thing they have in common is that they are the top earning banks in the United States. The BHB BaaS Association is representing the greatest hope in a generation for the future of community banking, embracing new technologies and new diverse products that are more inclusive for all.”