Moving the NEEDLE Colony Bank’s Innovation Journey

The innovation journey looks different for every Georgia community bank. Banks have questions about where to start, who to partner with, what bank peers are doing, regulatory concerns, current offers and more.

CBA invited Heath Fountain, CEO, Colony Bank, Albany, to share how Colony Bank began their innovation journey as well as his advice to community bankers starting their own journey.

In late 2021, Colony team members attended CBA’s Fintech Forum at the Georgia Tech Conference Center. “The presentation on Baas, Banking as a Service, by Eric Sprink, CEO, Coastal Community Bank, Everett, Washington, really got my team excited,” shared Heath. “The team ended up getting me on a video call with him. We really hit it off and stayed in touch. What they were doing got me thinking about all the things we could do.”

What were your innovation offerings/plans prior to the forum?

We really did not have any offering that I would consider to be “innovative” today - but we are working on a number of things.

Since December 2021, what has the innovation journey looked like? In terms of technology; investment; people?

I did not feel like we could do this on our own and felt like we needed some help. Through my relationship with Eric, I met Christian Ruppe, who we ultimately ended up hiring as our Chief Innovation officer.

What has CBA done to help with Colony Bank’s innovation journey and what more can CBA contribute or offer of value to assist your efforts?

The programming CBA has featured on innovation really opened our eyes to the possibilities and the introduction to Eric Sprink was critical in getting us down the road.

I think continuing what you are doing, and with the ICBA’s programs coming to Atlanta, helping us to network and vet out potential fintech partners will be great.

Where do you see Colony Bank’s innovation efforts in five years? Or – what does the future look like for your bank’s innovation efforts?

I think in five years, Colony will have a digital customer experience that rivals any of the large banks and the neo banks as well. I think we will be working with a dozen or more fintech partners to provide more services to our current customer base and will likely have a handful of niche products that we offer to customers on a nationwide basis. I think our mobile and online apps will be the go-to source for the financial needs of our customers. We will be using our core provider only for our core processing, and we will be using best of breed partners for all our customer facing applications.

Please share any advice to community bankers embarking on their own journey.

My advice would be to embrace change, and to expose yourself to as much as you can. Go to conferences, read articles, talk to bankers that are paving the way. The way we do business is going to drastically change in order to meet the demands of our customers. If you count on your core provider to get you there, you will be left behind.