Driving the Future of Open Banking IN ASSOCIATION WITH
TAB BANK
DIGITAL REPORT 2021
117
Driving the Future of Open Banking WRITTEN BY
RHYS THOMAS PRODUCED BY
MICHAEL BANYARD
FEBRUARY 2021
118
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TAB BANK
Mike Palmer illustrates how digital transformation is powering TAB Bank to make major contributions to the financial well-being of its customers
T 119
ransporting vital goods to consumers and connecting businesses that are sometimes thousands of miles apart,
trucking is the lifeblood of the United States. For those who have never driven a semi-truck and trailer, the industry evokes iconic images of impressive chrome-tipped cabs, and of hardworking men and women glued from dusk till dawn to the painted lines of the nation’s highways. But the day-to-day reality is, of course, more nuanced; it is an industry brimming with unique financial complexity. How do truckers, forever on the move, receive their hard-earned paycheques? How do they access funds to fuel their trucks or acquire loans to buy their semi-trucks and trailers in the first place? And more importantly, how do they find a bank that understands them and their distinct needs?
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120
1998
Year founded
274
Number of employees
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The Future of Alternative Payments is Here. Our mission is clear: to help non-prime consumers shop where, when, and how they want while increasing retailers’ sales. Our leading edge omni-channel solutions were developed to serve both with our lease-to-own marketplace, payment method for ecommerce, and mobile app for in-store point of sale commerce. We are proud to introduce FlexLending, in partnership with TAB Bank, which broadens our reach with consumer installment loans. When it comes to alternative payment options, we have a solution.
Financing offered is made by Transportation Alliance Bank, Inc., dba TAB Bank.
FLEXSHOPPER: FLEXIBLE PAYMENT SOLUTIONS Kelly Arduz, Vice President of Marketing, FlexShopper explores the firm’s exciting new lending product launched in partnership with TAB Bank FlexShopper offers alternative payment solutions for non-prime consumers, allowing them greater freedom to shop the branded goods they need and desire, from appliances and consumer electronics to furniture and auto tires. Already a leader in lease-to-own, the firm is expanding its offering through a partnership with TAB Bank, and the subsequent launch of a new lending product called FlexLending. The solution bestows a broader spectrum of US consumers with greater choice in how to finance their purchases, and helps retailers increase their sales with this core consumer base. “We’re really excited to be able to serve more consumers and partner with new retailers as a result of this collaboration,” says Kelly Arduz, Vice President of Marketing at FlexShopper. “We’ve had significant success in the lease-to-own space and sought to broaden our verticals beyond just durable goods, which in turn enables us to serve more consumers and partner with more retailers. TAB Bank has expertise in originating consumer loans, and FlexShopper specializes in marketing non-prime payment solutions to consumers and retailers.”
FlexShopper is moving to meet market demand and adapt to best serve consumers, allowing them to shop how and where they choose. “Point of sale finance with retailers has been a growing industry,” Arduz says. “And through our partnership with TAB, we’ve taken advantage of a significant opportunity in the Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) space that ultimately benefits all parties.” FlexShopper’s partnership with TAB Bank is “a synergy of expertise,” Arduz says, a symbiotic relationship combining the incisive capabilities of both organisations. “We’re coupling our abilities,” Arduz continues. “We can now solicit additional retailers and expand into states where installment loans are preferred over lease-to-own, and a customer who previously signed a lease for tires with FlexShopper can now get their car serviced or repaired through installment loans with our new product FlexLending, thanks to our partnership with TAB.”
TAB BANK
“WHEN YOU’RE DEALING WITH PEOPLE’S MONEY AND THEIR FINANCIAL LIVES, IT’S EMOTIONAL”
Founded in 1998, TAB Bank set out to answer those questions. Known in the early days as the Transportation Alliance Bank, its suite of financial services for businesses and individuals were tailored to truckers from day one, earning it an impressive reputation and loyal customer base within the industry and beyond. That the bank remains a
— Mike Palmer, Chief Operating Officer, TAB Bank
small financial organisation by definition belies the scale of its ambition and the enormous positive impact it has on the lives of its customers.
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FEBRUARY 2021
E X E C U T I V E P R O FILE :
Michael Palmer Title: Chief Operating Officer
Company: TAB Bank
As TAB Bank’s Chief Operating Officer, Mike oversees the operational and customer support teams that assist TAB’s clients with their deposit relationships with the bank. Additionally, his teams securely process all the bank’s electronic funds transfers, apply for invoice specific payments across the factoring portfolio, and process thousands of lockbox and other checks per week. Mike is a Certified Regulatory Compliance Manager. Prior to his experience at TAB Bank, he spent 13 years at Wells Fargo, the last ten being spent in regulatory compliance roles focusing on international BSA/AML compliance as well as mortgage and consumer lending regulations. Mike holds a Bachelor of Science degrees in Finance and Marketing from Utah State University and a Master of Business Administration from Brigham Young University. He is a graduate from the Graduate School of Banking at the University of Wisconsin –Madison where he completed courses necessary to achieve the Executive Leadership Certificate from the Wisconsin School of Business.
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TAB BANK
01
Flanked on either side by model
Doing it right for a relatively niche
trucks in his office in Ogden, Utah
customer base such as truckers
– TAB Bank’s central and only loca-
means understanding the realities
tion – Chief Operating Officer Mike
of their lives and their financial situ-
Palmer strives everyday to uphold
ations. To highlight the point, Palmer
that original vision. “When you’re
points to the ‘guaranteed check’, a
dealing with people’s money and
form of one-off payment run by third
their financial lives, it’s emotional,”
parties that is generally used to pay
Palmer says. “It has a huge impact
truckers performing a single job for a
on everything that they do, how they
different company. TAB works with
live, and even how they see the world.
these third parties to ensure their
And so doing that well, doing it right,
customers can deposit these cheques
is very important to me and the peo-
directly into their TAB account – a
ple that I work with.”
seemingly small service that in fact
FEBRUARY 2021
“WE WILL DRIVE ENGAGEMENT WITH TAB BANK, AND CUSTOMERS WILL REALISE, ‘THIS IS WHERE I CAN REALLY LIVE MY FINANCIAL LIFE’” — Mike Palmer, Chief Operating Officer, TAB Bank
We Are TAB Bank CLICK TO WATCH
|
3:03
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Technology services designed for banking and lending firms ValueMomentum is at the forefront of helping Banks and Lending companies in their digitalization journey across Retail & Commercial Banking, Core System modernization, and Lending lifecycle automation/optimization. We are supporting TAB Bank as a strategic partner in their Open Banking, BaaS, Integration (internal and partner ecosystem), DevOps, Analytics, Data, RPA, Development, Test Automation and Digital Banking initiatives.
Visit our website
04
has a major positive impact on the
bank is undergoing a dramatic digital
lives of its customers. “They haven’t
transformation to bring ‘EU-style’
got this guaranteed cheque having
mobile banking to its customers
around that they’ve got to wait to
across the US and expand its cus-
deposit at their hometown bank when
tomer base beyond transportation,
they get home,” Palmer says. “We can
an initiative that has been in the works
get money in their account. They can
for some time.
fuel their truck again and keep moving goods across America.”
“I would say we’re right at the cusp of being able to take advantage of
TAB’s deep ties to the trucking
the investments we’ve made over the
industry stretch back more than two
last several years,” says Palmer. Led
decades, but much has changed in the
by TAB’s president Curt Queyrouze,
intervening years both in trucking and
described by Palmer as a “brilliant
the wider financial landscape. Now the
banker and futurist”, the executive busi ne ssc hi ef . com
Customer financing made EASY - Approvals up to $5,000 - Good credit to NO credit - ZERO down payment required - 90-Day No Interest Promotion* - Affordable monthly payments *With up to a $40 processing fee
Visit our website All loans made by Transportation Alliance Bank, Inc. dba TAB Bank, which determines qualifications for and terms of credit, excluding AK, AZ, CA, DE, ID, KS, KY, ND, NH, NM, NV, OR, PA, UT, VA, WA, and WI. Financing in these states is administered by EasyPay Finance.
team took a step back to reassess how best to organise data, how that data can enhance the customer experience, and what underlying hardware and resource investment would be vital to realising their grand vision. These are lessons TAB learned from the European Union, which Palmer believes picked up the data-driven baton from the US and ran it in the
“I’M VERY EXCITED ABOUT WHAT WE’RE GOING TO BE ABLE TO DELIVER TO THE MARKET HERE IN THE FIRST QUARTER” — Mike Palmer, Chief Operating Officer, TAB Bank
right direction. “In the United States we were famous for using data to retain and 06
control our power in the marketplace – and I don’t think that we really even did a really great job of it,” he says. “Then organisations in the European Union came through and began opening this data up, and allowing people access to it within the banking system. I think what we’ve learned in the States is that there is a way to make this work and be profitable, provide a great customer experience, and make everybody better off. “What that means is making all the information that you have directly available to customers, and giving them access to it in the way that they want. A lot of the legacy online busi ne ssc hi ef . com
TAB BANK
and mobile banking platforms in the United States are very inflexible,” Palmer says. Using open banking has empowered TAB to fine tune and tailor its new platform, as well as partner with market leaders to expedite the process of bringing it to market. “We’re headed to that real open platform, with functionality that even allows customers to drop and drag widgets and other useful things like that,” Palmer continues. “If I’m a 07
small business owner and I want to see all the cheques that are clearing that day, or the transactions that are going to post, I can move that to the top. Or maybe I’m a consumer, and I am always worried about my balance because I’m living paycheque to paycheque, so I want that to flash to the top of mind. That’s efficient and effective for our customers, whether they are consumers or small business, and our hope is that by introducing these new services – and more in the future – we will drive engagement with TAB Bank, and customers will realise, ‘This is where I can really live my financial life’.” FEBRUARY 2021
08
“WE’RE HEADED TO THAT REAL OPEN PLATFORM” — Mike Palmer, Chief Operating Officer, TAB Bank
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Partners have been vital to realis-
UX specialists who work to tie all these
ing TAB’s ambitions. On the backend,
things together. I’m very excited about
partners including MuleSoft and
what we’re going to be able to deliver
ValueMomentum worked with TAB’s
to the market here in the first quarter.”
internal teams to build the robust mid-
Developing this open banking plat-
layers that bridge the gap between
form will allow TAB to partner with
customers, their information and
fintechs to provide banking services to
TAB’s suite of services. On the fron-
their customers in a way fintechs want
tend, TAB leveraged Technisys’ Cyber
to. “Providing everything from a cus-
Bank platform.
tomisable customer interface to the
“These are tremendous partners
back-end core system was a goal from
that we’ve had tremendous success
the beginning,” Palmer explains. The
with,” Palmer says. “And then we have
way everything ties together allows
some very, very talented people here
partners to decide which pieces they
at TAB Bank, from developers to UI/
need to go to market.
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10
TAB BANK
11
For Palmer, however, TAB Bank
and debt. He paints the picture of a
remains an organisation concerned
customer that banks with TAB Bank,
with people and making lives better.
but who took advantage of a good
Setting technology and digital trans-
car loan at a dealership in Kentucky,
formation to one side for a moment,
and whose mortgage is with a major
he says the overarching aim is to give
national lender. TAB’s new platform
customers a “more complete finan-
aims to unify all this data in order to
cial picture”, tying in all the disparate
understand each individual and begin
strands of their incomings, outgoings
offering recommendations on
FEBRUARY 2021
12
everything from insurance to mort-
is,” Mike says. “That’s really where I
gage rates or investment.
hope we are in 18 to 24 months. It’s
“We will be able to say, ‘Here are
a Herculean effort to try to get there,
some steps you can take to make your
and we’ve got a lot of work to do, but
family more secure, what your upcom-
I’m cautiously optimistic.”
ing business expenses are, make your financial picture better, and head in the right direction to get to where you want to be, wherever that busi ne ssc hi ef . com
TAB BANK 4185 HARRISON BLVD. OGDEN UT 84403 T 800-355-3063 E marketing@tabbank.com
www.tabbank.com
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