Turning Risks Into Rewards: Bankers’ Bank Launches Successful ERM Product for Community Banks

It’s not every day you get to build a customized one-of-a-kind Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) solution. At least, that was the case for Tyler Stamper, Vice President of Product Management, and David Paxton, Senior Vice President of Risk Management Solutions at Bankers’ Bank.

Originally, Bankers’ Bank — a banking and technology partner for community-based financial institutions — began working with a vendor that provided an out-of-the-box ERM platform. Like many banking institutions, Bankers’ Bank wanted to help their clients better understand and manage risks that impact their specific businesses. A tool for managing organizational risk was necessary to help clients grow, but the challenges related to implementing and operating within this platform were unexpected and disappointing. 

One-Size Does Not Fit All

Upon implementation of the initial vendor-managed ERM, Bankers’ Bank found that the platform was incredibly robust. In fact, it was too robust. “The product was not built for community banks to use,” David Paxton recalls. “It was overly complicated.” The complexities began with implementation, which was completed through the vendor. Without owning the platform implementation process internally, the team found that the content was not tailored to their client’s unique risk management needs. The “one-size-fits-all” approach did not benefit their clients and rapidly caused confusion.  

“We felt like the platform was too robust and our clients weren’t getting enough attention. We felt we needed to step in and build our own.” - David Paxton, Senior Vice President of Risk Management Solutions at Bankers’ Bank

The difficulties were far from over after implementation was complete. After what sometimes took several rounds of implementation to onboard the client, the ongoing work necessary to keep the system functional was excessive. The maintenance that was needed on a quarterly basis to make it operational for clients was so inefficient and cumbersome that it eventually became unmanageable.  David describes this manual process as one that is primed to produce “garbage in - garbage out” results.

The largest obstacle Bankers’ Bank found with the initial ERM was that it simply could not be depended upon for reliable data. David remarked, “From a risk management standpoint- you want to be able to trust the numbers that you are getting out of the system.” He explained the many components involved in understanding the specific risks of their clients, including things like interest rate risk, lending rates, and cybersecurity risks, were more detailed than the current ERM system accounted for. “Measuring risk is really timely,” says David. “Customers are trying to measure and report all of the risks together.” Without the ability to measure and report these risks in real-time, data-driven decision making can’t take place effectively.  

The team knew it was time for a fresh start. David said, “We felt like the platform was too robust and our clients weren’t getting enough attention. We felt we needed to step in and build our own.”

Building a Cost-Effective Path Toward Success

With a new plan in mind, Bankers’ Bank turned to their trusted AI and technology partner, Snow Fox Data, to embark together on this exciting new initiative.

First, the team defined the scope and results necessary for this project. Shifting away from the traditional ERM platform, Bankers’ Bank needed a cost-effective, go-to-market, shelf-ready solution that didn’t require significant development in-house. Creating a product that was built upon their existing technologies and could be tailored to the client’s specific risk management criteria was a top priority. “We were trying to get an enterprise risk management solution to market for community banks without being too robust. We boiled it down to the essential parts and built from there,” states David.

Snow Fox Data leveraged Bankers’ Bank’s existing analytics technology stack, which included Dataiku, Snowflake, and PowerBI, to streamline development and maximize project success. Dataiku's collaborative analytics platform allowed for efficient model building and seamless integration across datasets, enabling rapid experimentation and iteration. Snowflake provided a scalable, cloud-native data warehousing solution, ensuring secure, high-performance storage and access to enterprise risk data without compromising speed or flexibility. Finally, PowerBI offered intuitive, real-time visualization capabilities, empowering users with insights through easy-to-digest dashboards and reports. Together, these tools enabled a fast, collaborative workflow and data-driven insights that were critical to building a reliable and responsive risk management solution. This was the best solution from a cost and delivery standpoint without building something completely from scratch – two key goals for the Bankers’ Bank project team.

For clients, this new solution gave them a fresh, simplistic interface that gathered risk information, measured risk on a predetermined scale against benchmarks, and gave clients a unique risk score. The risk score is compared to risk appetite or risk tolerance level, which is discussed and managed individually with each client. David reiterated how important it was to make sure the interface was easy and interactive so clients could quickly access the information they needed. “We wanted to make sure it was a product that customers liked the look and feel of,” he confirmed.

“Our clients trust the data a lot more. This gives us another product to market to customers that we didn’t have available before and our clients aren’t going to find at another correspondent bank.” - David Paxton, Senior Vice President of Risk Management Solutions at Bankers’ Bank

This new ERM solution gave Bankers’ Bank what they call a “holistic” look at risk for their clients. David describes this tool as incredibly valuable to Bankers’ Bank,  giving them exposure to customers floor to ceiling – from the executive suite to the operation centers. “The cool thing is,” explains David, “this tool takes numbers that are inconsistent across an organization and gives clients real-world parameters within their risk tolerance and where they’d like to be.” This solution gives Bankers’ Bank interaction with customers that they would not have gotten from another product.

The Value of Impactful Data Solutions

When Bankers’ Bank brought the ERM solution to their clients, they were confident it would be a success.

David recalled the initial pains of implementation on the old ERM platform and noted the immediate and refreshing difference in onboarding the new ERM. “It is extremely easier to do implementations now,” he shares. The simplicity and accuracy of the platform were a definite success, giving clients an opportunity they haven’t had before – controlling and understanding their own data in a way that made sense to them and their bank.

With the tool up and running smoothly, it showcases the importance of the platform and its impact on clients of all sizes. David recalls examples where client data appeared to be just “numbers” which, on their own, don’t mean much to their business. He describes his clients’ new experience with the ERM by saying, “If you can curate the data into something that is easily ingested and compared on a standard scale, it makes it much more understandable.”

Some clients also experienced an additional, even unexpected, benefit. “We noticed for clients with preestablished risk management professionals at their bank, the new ERM gave them a better tool to compile and report the data to their management and board,” said David. “It provides a way of measuring the information, but also helps people in these risk management roles to be more effective.” With this tool, risk management professionals are equipped with the right resources to provide the bank with something consistent and concrete to work from. 

Trusted Data, Trusted Partnerships

“Our clients trust the data a lot more,” David summarizes the client’s experience with the new platform. “This gives us another product to market to customers that we didn’t have available before and our clients aren’t going to find at another correspondent bank.”

“We like working with your team.”- David Paxton, Senior Vice President of Risk Management Solutions at Bankers’ Bank

The partnership between Snow Fox Data and Bankers’ Bank has showcased what success can look like when we work together. What if Bankers’ Bank hadn’t worked with Snow Fox Data on this solution? “We would have had to build something entirely independent from scratch, which would have deviated from our overall strategic goal of having our products available on our Dynamic Insights platform,” shares David. Bankers’ Bank clients benefit from having a centralized platform, using their own intellectual property. A partnership approach to this solution was critical to its success.

“Snow Fox Data is responsive, patient, and energetic,” shares David. “We like working with your team.” Snow Fox Data is proud to help advance Bankers’ Bank's goals with a product that strengthens risk management while driving operational efficiency. Snow Fox Data continues to provide innovation and support, ensuring Bankers’ Bank remains well-positioned for future growth. Together, we are building a foundation for sustainable, data-driven decision-making that empowers both Bankers’ Bank and the community banks it serves. 

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