investment, VyStar selected Nymbus as their mobile online banker, and in October 2021, Nymbus moved into VyStar’s office. May 13, 2022, was conversion day. The site went down, and VyStar’s internet banking was dead in the water. It stayed down for 12 days, until May 25. Vystar told the customers access was back, but we collected screenshots from customers that said differently. We have one where the customer’s position in line was 93,162. VyStar members filed the first set of complaints on June 3, 2022. On June 6, a screenshot showed someone’s position in line was 2,466. On July 4, 2022, someone said VyStar hates its members and that it sent them into ruin to increase its member base. Months later, VyStar members were still experiencing technical issues. People could not access their account information, and the credit union missed payments and deposits. One member called VyStar the Deathstar, and others promised to end their membership. Vystar was supposed to acquire Heritage Bank; the management at Heritage Bank backed out of the deal and said, “We aren’t going to let you slaughter us.” This story about Nymbus and Vystar shows that consultants don’t necessarily do what is right for community banks. Nymbus is an example of bad fintech. If VyStar were a community bank instead of a credit union, we would have told its management, when the information would have done some good, that Nymbus had zero live customers using its mobile online banking system. We feel bad for the credit union and its customers, but this story underscores how important it is for there to be someone out there helping community banks identify who the good guys with good products are. town without one. The one with the community bank will be vibrant. The one without is going to be the complete opposite. What can community banks do to protect themselves? In 2022, BankDirector released a Bank M&A survey. The survey asked bankers to identify the three main reasons they might be forced to sell. The answers were: 1. Inability to provide a competitive return 2. Inability to keep up with the digital evolution 3. Inability to operate efficiently Fintechs can help solve all three things, but some Fintechs harm more than they help. Since consultants don’t necessarily do what is right for community banks, they need someone to help them identify the good guys. A big part of competitive returns, digital evolution and efficient operations involves developing a more diversified income stream. Bankers Helping Bankers can identify good partners and connect community banks with good fintechs. If a community bank wants to go down a specific path, we help them with a playbook and tell them about other banks that are doing the same thing. That way, they can find efficiencies, implement better workflows and robotic processes, offer digital bank services, and connect with Banking as a Service (BaaS) banks. One of the stories I tell on the stage is a catastrophic story about VyStar Credit Union that is still playing out. Very recently, it was the 13th largest credit union in the nation and had $12.4 billion in assets and 822,000 customers. Management wanted to convert to direct banking on the internet, so they talked to consultants about a digital-forward cloud-based solution. In April 2021, VyStar invested in a fintech named Nymbus Credit Union Service Organization (CUSO). They invested $20 million, the largest fintech investment on file. In July 2021, three months after that 9 Pub. 12 2023 Issue 1
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