Central Trust Bank’s Journey to Core Banking Transformation

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The Central Trust Bank (Central Bank) USA, a leading midwest regional bank, selected TCS BaNCS to simplify its technology landscape, spark organic growth and accelerate client onboarding.
Dan Westhues, Executive President & Chief Marketing Officer at the Central Bank, shares the Bank’s playbook in addressing the present challenges in the banking space in North America – be it from the geo-political scenario and the need for modernizing core and digital banking technology.
Emphasizing that core banking transformation is more of a business transformation rather than a mere technology rehaul, he describes the thinking behind the strategies they have put in play to ensure that the program runs smoothly.

Customer Story

Central Trust Bank is a USD19 BN financial institution headquartered in Jefferson City, Missouri, serving businesses and customers since 1902. The Bank has over 150 branches in approximately 80 communities, and serves the Midwest throughout Missouri, Kansas, Illinois, and Oklahoma.

This leading midwest regional bank selected TCS BaNCS to simplify its technology landscape, spark organic growth and accelerate client onboarding.

TCS BaNCS spoke to Dan Westhues, Executive President & Chief Marketing Officer, The Central Trust Bank (Central Bank), to understand his Bank’s playbook in addressing the present challenges in the banking space in North America – be it from the geo-political scenario and the need for modernizing core and digital banking technology.

“The traditional banking model is still the best way to navigate any economic cycle or other environmental challenges”, says Dan. “We keep leadership and authority in the individual markets as this allows us to stay close to our customers and connected to each of the communities we serve. At the same time, we commit significant resources to technology and product development for each business line. This relationship between our market and company leaders creates a winning combination for continued growth and stability in any environment.”

Dan affirms that the Bank’s strong foundation rests on people, community service, and technology.

“Our mission is to provide quality products and services with state-of-the-art technology to the communities we serve through local high performing bankers.”

On the key objectives of the core and digital banking transformation project that led the Bank to select TCS BaNCS, he says, “Central Bank has a proprietary core banking system that was built and maintained in-house for over 50 years. The system is solid, stable and flexible, and has played a critical role in creating a competitive advantage for us. However, with the increasing speed of change within financial services technology, it became clear that modernization was necessary.”

“We wish to remain a technology leader among super community banks and be seen as a formative competitor to larger institutions. And we needed our technology to be nimble, efficient, and customizable. Specifically, we were looking for ways to increase our speed to market with new products and services, and ease our ability to integrate with potential fintechs and other best-in-class solutions, and make the important move to real-time processing. We expect this core transformation with TCS BaNCS to help us achieve these goals and accommodate unique products that will help us maintain our competitive advantage.”

On how modernizing the core banking platform can create an efficient front-to-back digital banking experience for customers, he says, “Like most institutions, Central Bank is seeing significant growth in digital acquisition. Currently, our onboarding journeys are singular by channel and create a variety of customer experiences. With the new core banking solution, we can now embark on a connected onboarding strategy for both digital and branch channels, thereby creating a seamless customer experience, enhancing efficiencies in operations and opening up opportunities for marketing and cross-selling. More importantly, we will be able to drastically improve the digital onboarding experience for our business customers.”

The Bank will harness the full potential of TCS BaNCS’ API ecosystem, fostering interconnectedness across applications, services, and platforms, allowing for accelerated integration of new banking partners, facilitating both organic and acquisition-led growth.

In addition to enhancing their customer acquisition process and improving employee productivity, the Bank’s employees will gain a holistic view of customer relationships and be able to create and deploy differentiated products rapidly. As the solution is pre integrated with TCS BaNCS for Payments, an ISO 20022-ready solution, the Bank can offer FedNow^® services and RTP^® by the clearing house easily.

Emphasizing that core transformation is more of a business transformation rather than a mere technology rehaul, he describes the thinking behind the strategies they have put in play to ensure that the program runs smoothly.

“We are a company of builders and entrepreneurs. Our approach to core transformation is to have these groups working side-by-side, every step of the way. To help our technology staff, we have enlisted experts from the business lines and our markets who are familiar with the customer needs and how our systems are used today. Second, each team is tasked with answering two critical questions at every stage: How do we do it today? How could we do it better tomorrow? Their goal will be to improve efficiencies in our internal processes and discover new innovation pathways that add value to our customers’ lives.

To ensure the project moves forward at a proper pace we created a strong infrastructure for decision making, designed a process for approvals on enhancements, or significant changes, and have hired change management personnel to lead the entire company through this change. This streamlined approach underscores Central Bank’s commitment to staying agile in an ever-changing financial landscape.”

We were looking for ways to increase our speed to market with new products and services, and ease our ability to integrate with potential fintechs and other best-in-class solutions, and make the important move to real-time processing. We expect this core transformation with TCS BaNCS to help us achieve these goals and accommodate unique products that will help us maintain our competitive advantage.

Dan Westhues
Executive President & Chief Marketing Officer, The Central Trust Bank

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TCS is here to make a difference through technology.

We deliver excellence and create value for customers and communities.

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Find the latest news about TCS in our Newsroom

Recent Press releases

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TCS works hand in hand with world-leading investors.

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