CSI launches commercial banking suite for community banks

CSI has launched a commercial banking suite for community banks, aimed at helping smaller lenders serve more complex business customers.

The new offering, CSI Commercial Suite, combines deposit, payment, card and treasury functions in prepackaged products that connect with CSI's core banking and digital banking systems. It is designed to address a pressure point for community banks as business clients seek faster payments, more detailed cash management and tighter integration with the software they use to run their operations.

The suite connects directly to the accounting and enterprise resource planning systems commercial customers use. It is initially packaged for sectors where community banks often have local relationships but where operational demands can push businesses toward larger banks, including homeowners and community associations, landlords and property management companies, attorney and client trusts, and title companies.

The launch comes as smaller banks face stronger competition for commercial deposits and payments activity. CSI cited research from Datos Insights showing that half of community bank customers are open to switching financial institutions within two years, and that they are more likely to move for better functionality than for lower prices.

Datos also found that the main cash flow complaint among community bank customers is managing multiple systems that do not communicate with each other. That creates an opening for larger banks and financial technology firms that can offer a broader set of payment and treasury tools through a single interface.

CSI is positioning the suite as a way to reduce that fragmentation. The platform includes real-time ledgering and virtual account management, multi-rail payments across ACH, wire, RTP, FedNow and card networks, and commercial card programmes covering debit, prepaid, virtual and corporate cards.

It also includes digital banking and treasury tools such as dashboards, payment approvals, user permissions, mobile banking and application programming interfaces. Additional functions cover automated allocation, reconciliation and reporting, along with controls including audit trails, positive pay, activity monitoring and configurable governance.

Commercial focus

The product is intended to help banks support specialised workflows without having to assemble multiple systems from different vendors. CSI highlighted common needs across industries such as fund segregation, payment controls, reconciliation and reporting, even where each market has distinct operating requirements.

Those features are likely to matter most for businesses handling funds on behalf of multiple entities or clients. Property managers, homeowner associations, law firms and title companies often need to separate accounts, track balances in detail and manage approvals across a high volume of transactions.

The suite also supports broader cash management and liquidity needs across markets, including multi-entity treasury operations, real-time balance visibility and automated reconciliation. That gives banks a way to serve commercial clients whose requirements have outgrown standard small-business banking tools but who may still value a local banking relationship.

"Businesses outgrow basic cash management well before they outgrow their bank," said Gilles Ubaghs, Executive Advisor with the Commercial Banking & Payments practice at Datos Insights.

"The banks that close that gap with more connected capabilities are better placed to keep commercial relationships they'd otherwise be at risk of losing," Ubaghs said.

Built on Qolo

The launch builds on CSI's acquisition of payments infrastructure provider Qolo. Qolo's technology serves as the orchestration layer for the new suite across payments, accounts and workflows, and connects with CSI's core, digital banking and API systems.

That acquisition points to a wider shift in banking technology, as traditional providers try to bring together ledgering, payments, cards and treasury management in a more unified architecture. For community banks, the appeal is not only the ability to offer more services, but also the chance to keep deposit balances and payment volumes from shifting elsewhere.

Nancy Langer, President and Chief Executive Officer of CSI, framed the issue in terms of local economic retention.

"Community banks are the operating infrastructure of local economies, and every commercial relationship they can't fully serve means deposits, treasury activity, and eventually lending capacity leaving the community for a bigger bank," said Nancy Langer, President and Chief Executive Officer of CSI.

"With this suite, we're giving community banks the sophisticated capabilities their business customers now expect, so they can keep those relationships and the local economic activity that comes with them," Langer said.

Harmony Bank in northeast Texas is among the early users CSI identified. The bank plans to use the suite with a focus on homeowners associations and other community associations, a market where account structures and reconciliation demands can be unusually complex.

"Commercial clients want relationship banking and technology that fits how they operate, especially in HOA and community association banking, where managing hundreds of associations creates complex account, payment, and reconciliation needs," said Kara Fox, Senior Vice President and Director of Signature Solutions at Harmony Bank.

"The same is true for property managers, law firms, healthcare practices, and municipalities. CSI Commercial Suite will give banks like ours the ability to grow alongside the associations, businesses, and communities we serve," Fox said.