In this engaging episode of FinTech Confidential, hosts Tedd Huff and Colton Pond, along with Rafael Reznek (Chief Technology Officer) and Sam Pause (Chief Innovation and Brand Officer), share insights into Mascoma Bank's distinctive approach in the banking sector. Known for its unique mutual ownership model and focus on community and environmental sustainability, the bank shines as a model of innovation and customer-first services in the digital banking era.

The conversation opens up about how Mascoma Bank prioritizes its community, highlighting its strides in technology to push the boundaries of innovation, including its noteworthy achievement as a certified B Corporation. It casts a spotlight on the bank's significant tech upgrades, designed to redefine banking for the digital customer by emphasizing proactive, tailored financial services.

The discussion moves to the strategic shift towards more personal, community-based banking experiences, emphasizing Mascoma Bank's effective use of technology to enhance customer service. Rafael and Sam explore the bank's deployment of Core Switch technology for efficient account transfers, addressing challenges in lending with innovative solutions, and setting benchmarks for banking evolution. Looking ahead, they share thoughts on the future of banking and lending tech, focusing on utilizing data, artificial intelligence, and crafting individualized customer journeys.

This episode is an essential listen for those keen on how traditional banking can adapt and thrive by focusing on technology, community engagement, and sustainability, showcasing Mascoma Bank as a pioneer in the financial landscape.

Key Highlights:

• Mutual Ownership and Sustainability: Mascoma Bank stands out for its mutual ownership model, which emphasizes community and environmental sustainability, distinguishing it in the banking industry.
• Positive Use of Technology: The bank leverages technology not just for efficiency but also to improve customer experiences and make a positive impact on the community.
• B Corp Certification: Achieving B Corp status enables Mascoma Bank to focus on its social and environmental impact, ensuring accountability and higher standards.
• Tech Transformation: Mascoma Bank is updating its technology infrastructure to become more proactive and customer-focused, shifting from traditional practices.
• Community Banks' Rise: The popularity of community banks like Mascoma is growing because of their attentive customer service and smart use of technology to meet current needs.
• Core Switch Technology: This technology offers a way to move away from outdated systems, providing more adaptable and friendly banking solutions.
• Simplifying Lending Platforms: By automating and tailoring their processes, the bank addresses the complexities of lending platforms, boosting efficiency and customer service.

Takeaways:

1. Community and Tech Commitment: Mascoma Bank exemplifies the balance between prioritizing community values and using technology to enhance services and impacts.
2. Customer-Centric Focus: The bank's shift towards prioritizing customer needs through technology shows the potential for community banks to stand out.
3. Unique Position with B Corp: Being a B Corp distinguishes Mascoma Bank by underscoring its commitment to ethical and responsible banking.
4. Forward-Looking Tech Approach: Mascoma Bank's move to update its technology and focus on customer needs underlines its approach to tackling future banking challenges.
5. Clear Success Indicators: Enhanced customer satisfaction, streamlined processes, and reduced costs are the benchmarks for Mascoma Bank's modernization efforts, showing a strategic approach to improvement.

Also, watch the entire episode on YouTube.

Links:

Mascoma Bank

Website: https://www.mascomabank.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mascoma-bank/

X (formerly Twitter): https://twitter.com/mascomabank?lang=en

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/MascomaBank

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mascoma_bank/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MascomaBank

Raphael Reznek LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/raphael-reznek/

Samantha Pause LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samantha-pause-42b87646/

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Time Stamps:

00:00 Introduction to the Modernization Journey of Mascoma Bank

01:33 Spotlight on Mascoma Bank: A Standout in the Banking Sector

02:37 Personal Experiences and Insights into Mascoma Bank

05:12 Rafael Reznek's journey into banking and insights application.

05:12 The Unique Journey into Banking: A Conversation with Rafael and Sam

06:50 Sam Pause's diverse experience and innovation drive.

09:22 Raphael's approach to banking technology

11:17 The Role of B Corp Certification in Mascoma Bank's Mission

11:44 B Corp certification impact on Mascoma Bank.

14:01 The Start of Mascoma Bank's Modernization Journey

15:56 The Challenges and Solutions in Modernizing Mascoma Bank

19:44 The Impact of Technology on Customer Experience

22:42 The Power of Community Banks and Technology

22:52 Prioritizing Technology in Banking

23:32 Sponsored Message: LoanPro

24:12 Challenges and Solutions in Prioritizing Technology

25:44 Introducing Core Switch: A Game Changer for Mascoma Bank

28:38 The Impact of Core Switch on Customers

30:18 Addressing Pain Points in Lending with Technology

41:44 The Role of Data and AI in Future Banking

42:41 The Transformation of Roles in Banking

44:01 The Future of Banking: Implicit Interaction and Personalization

This is a Production of Diamond D3, Media

ABOUT:

Raphael Reznek: As Chief Information Officer of Mascoma Bank, Raphael Reznek focuses on reintroducing the question ‘Why?’ into community banking. At a time when small banks face greater competition than ever, Raphael is on a mission to reinvent how community banks can thrive in an increasingly digital world. When he overhears a partner or potential partner saying “banks don’t do that,” he knows he’s on the right path. Raphael has decades of successful experience building and leading technology and product teams. From his own startup to financial services firms, Raphael’s goal has always been to build customer-facing enterprise applications that improve the customer experience and strengthen brand loyalty. He is focused on using technology strategy as an integral part of business development in the 21st century economy.

Samantha Pause: As the Chief Innovation and Brand Officer at Mascoma Bank where she has spent her entire career of over 32 years. Samantha started as a teller at the bank in 1991 and has held several positioning over her 32 years in a variety of functions. Samantha uses this breadth of experience on a day-to-day basis to drive forward innovation that truly makes and impact for Mascoma Bank with their team members and customers. Samantha is always driving forward the brand and has been the largest advocate in getting Mascoma Bank to be a Certified B-Corp. This certification strengthens Mascoma Bank's mission to give back and truly serve their community.

Mascoma Bank : Mascoma Bank is a mutually owned bank and not for sale. With no shareholders to please, the bank is committed to remaining independent and to re-investing profits in the community. The first priority of Mascoma Bank has always been its customers, providing them with the security of a long-term relationship. The bank ensures that customers can get things done locally with people who make decisions on their behalf. With 25 locations throughout the Connecticut River Valley in New Hampshire and Vermont, and having been incorporated in 1899, Mascoma Bank strives to provide exceptional customer service while improving the lives of its customers and the community. It is a full-service bank offering a wide array of financial services, including deposit products, loans, commercial banking, insurance, and wealth management. Mascoma Bank also offers a range of automated services to provide access to accounts 24/7, including internet banking, person-to-person payments, mobile deposits, and cash management products.

Tedd Huff: Tedd Huff is the Co-Founder of Voalyre, and the President & Founder of Diamond D3, a professional services consulting firm focused on global payments and marketing. He is also a video podcast host and producer of Fintech Confidential.

Over the past 24 years, he has contributed to FinTech startups as an Advisory Board Member, Co-Founder, and Chief Experience Officer, providing strategic and tactical direction for Global Payments OpenEdge, Heartland Payments, Nuvei, and TSYS, among others, focusing on growth while delivering innovation, process improvements and user experience-driven value to simplify the complexity of payments.

Colton Pond: Colton Pond is a seasoned marketing executive with a strong fintech and financial services background. In his latest role, Colton is the CMO for LoanPro's API-first lending platform, aiming to meet the increasing market demands. His track record includes a significant tenure at Truv, where he led the marketing team to achieve a 300% growth in year-over-year revenue. Colton has also held key marketing and sales positions at MX, Lucid, and HealthEquity, demonstrating his ability to drive success and innovation within the fintech sector.

Diamond D3, Media: A media creation, management, and production company delivering engaging content globally

Raphae Reznek -Mascoma Bank: If Apple had to shut their system down while

I did an upgrade, customers are not going to be happy that they can't watch

their movies or listen to iTunes or buy a computer, the same with Amazon.

Their site does not shut down unless there's some catastrophe.

You can always order and get your.

You're saying in two to four hours or a day, but that's

the way technology should be.

We're talking about people's money.

So financial services, we shouldn't have to shut down.

So our goal was to be able to migrate a single account in real time.

That's what we built with CoreSwitch.

It's a platform that allows us to migrate an account from one system

to the other and not impact the customer nor the rest of the team

members in the bank for that matter.

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential: welcome to Fintech Confidential, bringing

you the people, tech, and companies that change how you pay and get paid.

Welcome to Accrued the FinTech confidential series presented by Loan Pro.

In this series, we're deconstructing the complexity of lending and exploring the

compliance, optimization, modernization, and personalization through insightful

conversations with the industry's best.

I'm Tedd Huff and with my co-host Colton Pond.

We're guiding you through the intricate lending world.

Whether you're deep into LendTech or just intrigued by how technology is reshaping

lending, you're in the right place.

Colton, welcome back.

Colton Pond - LoanPro: Thanks, Tedd.

It's good to see you.

I, I've got a new background here today, but same background for you as

always, but it's good to see you, man.

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential: Today we spotlight Mascoma Bank and

they're a standout in the banking sector with its mutual ownership model

That places community and environmental sustainability at

the forefront of its mission.

This approach diverges sharply from traditional banking emphasizing the

importance of reinvesting profits for community betterment, Mascoma bank's,

dedication to modernization, and its B Corp certification highlighted

its commitment to using technology as a force for good enhancing

customer experiences and fostering meaningful community engagement.

We're joined by Raphael Reznek who leads the charge in on technological innovation,

and Sam Pause, the Chief Innovation and Brand Officer, whose extensive

career at Mascoma has been pivotal in driving innovation and brand advocacy.

Together.

They represent the innovative spirit of Mascoma bank, showcasing how it's

redefining the essence of community banking in today's digital era.

Let's explore their insights and the impact of MU's Bank.

Mascoma

Bank's unique approach.

And Colton, why don't you go ahead and share your personal experience

with this

Colton Pond - LoanPro: team.

I know these, these two really well, actually, I've been most looking

forward to this episode because of this, uh, and, and love and appreciate

both of them for different reasons.

Rafael, one of the smartest people I've ever met, uh, especially

in banking, thinking about how to push banking forward.

Um, actually grew up in Alaska, so shout out to all our

folks up in Alaska watching.

And then Sam, uh, one of the nicest and most brilliant people that I've ever

met have a huge respect for Sam because she's been at Mascoma Sam 35 years,

32 years, uh, which is incredible.

Uh, I'm sorry.

Uh, fun fact is, uh, Sam's probably the biggest Disney fan

you've ever met in your life.

Uh, if you get to know her sometimes she'll tell you about all her

trips to Disney World and, and running races there, and all of

the stuff that she does at Disney.

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential: Oh, I've, I've had the opportunity

to, to go to the, uh, the Food and Wine Festival race.

Uh, we did a couple others and we did a handful of the, the virtual

races during, during covid.

So we've got a string of medals across the wall.

And my, my all time favorite one is when they did, um, Yzma and Kronk.

For, for Wooten Food and Wine Festival.

And that is by far my beloved.

I, that's the favorite shirt that I have from that race.

And we had such a great time.

So I'm glad that I'm in good company, uh, with you on that one, Sam.

Colton Pond - LoanPro: are and, and

Sam Pause - Mascoma Bank: then Tedd Next Race, we'll meet and do it together.

Colton Pond - LoanPro: then you have Raphael and his family on the other

side of the country up in Alaska wondering what they do with all the cold.

So.

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential: Well, Colton, I appreciate you giving

this personal introduction, but I wanna dive into Mascoma Bank as it

truly stands as a beacon in the world of community banking, and they've

been illuminating the path where technology and human values converge.

In today's episode of Accrued, we're cracking open the books on how MoCo Bank

uses its unique position to redefine what it means to be a bank in the

LendTech era, we're set to uncover their commitment to community, combined with a

forward thinking approach to technology.

This sets them apart in a crowded field from their B Corp certification

to their innovative strategies.

In lending, mu Scoma Bank is crafting a new narrative in banking.

Colton, let's get started and learn what drives Mascoma Bank's

success in banking and LendTech

Colton Pond - LoanPro: Let's do it.

So, uh, Rafael, Sam, we wanna start off on a little bit more

on your journey into banking.

You both have very unique different journeys to banking for sure.

Uh, and what I love about Mascoma is you two is the dynamic duo.

Combine it together as a superpower, which is awesome.

So.

Rafael, give us some insights on your journey into banking and also how you

apply insights from outside of banking on your day-to-Day life to challenge

assumptions that are in banking today.

Rapheal Reznek -Mascoma Bank: My experience as uh, a business

owner, uh, an entrepreneur and, uh, in the tech industry, uh,

certainly is applicable to banking.

Mascoma is my first, uh, role inside a bank, working for a bank.

Um, prior to that, it's always been in the tech industry where solutioning

at a rapid pace was definitely top of the list and team building.

And I think, uh, that has really helped at Mascoma, uh, team building and asking why,

why are we doing something repeatedly?

And that is definitely, um, uh, achieved good results.

Colton Pond - LoanPro: I love it.

If we go back to our first episode on that note, Rafael, uh, we had Rhett

the, uh, co-founder, CEO of Loan Pro on, and he often says, uh, building

finance the way it ought to be.

I feel like you are like the pinnacle of doing so and challenging and say, Hey.

Why is this?

And if the answer is oh, it's just 'cause it's the way that we've always done it.

Probably not a good answer.

Probably time to rethink and how to drive efficiency.

Sam, on, on your end, I won't date you 32 years, uh, all 32 years

of the bank, which is awesome.

And I, I respect 'cause like the tremendous amount of loyalty you

have, but all in different roles.

What's really cool about that is you see it from a different lens

on, I've sat in all these seats.

So how do you take that from all these different seats within banking

and drive innovation as your title says, innovation forward for the bank.

Sam Pause - Mascoma Bank: That has been probably the best part of my

career is the fact that I have had a variety of seats throughout the bank.

I've been in lending, I've been in operations, I've

worked on the retail side.

been in marketing for quite a while, and it's given me a really good

lens on how the bank works and how we can best impact our customers.

And from that lens, it also gave me a good,

view into the frustrations.

That I have had as a banker, um, because of limitations that we may have with

systems or whatever, uh, it may be.

So I think my journey and Rafael's are very different, but they have

come together at a really good time.

And you said it before, it's kind of our superpower is I can think of this,

I can look at what we're doing and, and how we should be innovative as a

banker and he can look at it from a technology side and we can come together

and really get a good understanding of, of a direction that we need to go in.

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential: Sam, you just hit on something that you know

a lot of organizations don't really have is that that perspective from an inside

banker that is open to looking from an outside perspective, from a technologist,

how do you guys reap the most benefits out of that relationship?

Sam Pause - Mascoma Bank: It can go both ways.

So there's a lot of bankers that don't wanna look from the outside

and are very set in their ways.

There's a lot of technologists that don't necessarily wanna look at how

banks do their business and, and think about how to get them more innovative.

I've been fortunate that I've been in a company that has been open to how we

should be looking from the outside in.

How is there a different perspective?

And Rafael has really brought that to the table.

And I give Rafael credit.

I think the way that we can take the most advantage of it is that

he is very good at listening to what it is we're trying to achieve.

Rather than just saying, you're doing it wrong and here's what you should do.

He's really focused on what is it that you're trying to achieve

from a banking standpoint?

And then let's think about technology and tie it together.

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential: A couple episodes ago.

You know, we had John Maxfield on, and we're talking about, you

know, the importance of looking at the banking history and not trying

to jump too far into the FinTech and saying, everything's broken.

Everything's broken.

We can fix it with technology.

Raphael, how are you approaching coming in to a banking organization

from a technology perspective?

What insights could you give us on, on what you've seen and, and how you've

been able to move forward successfully?

Rapheal Reznek -Mascoma Bank: I think iterating has been very beneficial for me.

Scoma Bank, being able to break the, uh, issue that we're, that we have down into,

components and not trying to solve all of them at once.

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential: Mm-Hmm.

Rapheal Reznek -Mascoma Bank: Trying to iterate, you know, towards our

destination, uh, a piece at a time so that we can, we can measure

and determine if that was the right thing to do and then adjust.

The partnership I have with Sam is.

Really super beneficial because Sam has, you know, 32 years of

banking experience and I had none.

So she can basically say, you know, if I come up with an idea, uh, or

a solution, she can say, you know, that's interesting, or No, that's,

that's not really a good idea.

We can't do it that way.

So we, we have that ability to, uh, problem solve with, uh, a lot of

banking subject matter expertise and the ability to iterate, which we've,

you know, built a team that can do that, which is also really important.

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential: I am looking forward to diving into how you

guys have gotten to that point to be able to do the iteration with the team and,

and the things that you guys have built.

Colton Pond - LoanPro: one of my favorite parts on that note

is you all transforming, uh,

Rafael, Sam, uh, two and a half, $3 billion bank.

Yeah.

Sam Pause - Mascoma Bank: It's just under three.

Colton Pond - LoanPro: Just under three, $3 billion bank in, in New Hampshire.

in a meaningful way.

But before we jump into some of those insights, um, one of the

things that Tedd brought up is the mission and vision of MAs

and Sam, I know you're super passionate about this and you do a lot of work,

and you did a lot of work in helping Mascoma become a B Corp and, and all

of the things you do around community.

Help us understand more insights into why you made that decision,

the impact that it's had from Esco Bank, if you'd recommend.

I know we've been a lot of, in a lot of settings where.

Uh, you've recommended to other financial institutions, Hey, you should

look at B Corp CER certification.

Help us understand more about that.

Sam Pause - Mascoma Bank: This bank has been in existence since

1899 and it's a mutual bank.

And being a mutual bank, we don't have stockholders, so it really

allows us to really focus on what's best for our customers and our

communities over the long term.

having that type of structure has really allowed the culture of this bank to

really flourish on what is it we're doing?

How are we making the best impact we can?

Um, several years ago, one of the things that we looked about at was should

we become a certified B corporation?

And what a certified B corporation allowed us to do.

for some aspects taking advantage of all the positive things that we were

already doing in our communities, but it brought a much stronger focus

to us on let's not just do a lot of really nice things or good things.

What it does is it holds us accountable.

So every three years we have to recertify and there's a pretty, um, robust

examination process you go through.

And I think that's probably one of the best reasons for becoming a certified B

corporation because it really allows you to really think about how you're making

an impact, but then you have to prove it.

You can't just say a lot of nice things, you actually have to do it.

And being a mutual bank and being really focused on how we make an impact.

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential: I honestly, I hadn't heard of a B

Corp until Colton shared it with me.

I'm familiar with ESG and all that other front stuff, but for some reason B Corp

just didn't pop into my head.

So I went to B Lab and I started looking, and I, the, I, I

probably didn't get all of them,

I could only find 10 banks globally that have gone through that process.

That puts you guys in a very unique position and a very unique category.

Sam Pause - Mascoma Bank: There are other financial institutions,

but as a traditional bank, I think actually, I think it's 12 now.

There's not a lot.

Um, and it is something that I think a lot of banks would really connect to, and

it's a matter of them taking the time.

there's not a lot of traditional banks.

Our goal is to get more on board, and I know in New England,

we're in northern New England.

There are, there have been others that have followed suit.

Um, there's, there's a couple in Maine, there's a couple in Vermont.

So it's, it's been good to see that that charge spread a little

bit throughout our industry.

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential: It's a very noble charge and I congratulate you

on making that happen.

'cause I know it's not easy.

So I want to dive into,

what you're billing at Miss Cooma Bank and how you begun.

Began, I should say, this journey to completely modernize the bank.

And if you would just like kind of discuss with us how, how it started,

what are the things that you're doing to, to really move it forward and keep

in alignment with that, that, B Corp.

Rapheal Reznek -Mascoma Bank: Sam asked a question, that's really where it started.

And the question was, it was a very innocuous question.

Can we do this thing for our customers with our debit cards?

And I was like, I, I don't know.

It sounds intriguing.

Um, let me start looking at it.

And I,

I.

Started pulling on a thread and I didn't realize that thread was attached

Colton Pond - LoanPro: Raphael.

Rapheal Reznek -Mascoma Bank: Yes.

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential: long.

Rapheal Reznek -Mascoma Bank: Still pulling on it.

So six years later.

We started pulling on this thread and it really led to this realization that we

had a, a monolithic system that you you can't change a small component to it.

You can, you can bolt things onto it, sort of like Frankenstein, but from a customer

experience standpoint, there are stops and starts and there's a lot of friction.

It's not a good customer

experience, it's not a good team member experience, and it's not great to the, for

the bank's bottom line either, to be fair.

So that's really where we started

what we landed on is we wanted to be able to have that

choice regardless of the tech.

We wanted to be able to make a decision that could positively

impact our customers, our team members, and our communities.

And that's really what Sam's question started six and a half years ago,

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential: you grab onto that string and

you're like, I know I shouldn't.

Pull this very hard, but once I start pulling this string, there's no stopping.

Rapheal Reznek -Mascoma Bank: correct?

Yes.

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential: what was the thing that, that, you

know, what was that moment when, when the organization desired or said

we're we want to pull the string,

How did you evaluate whether you were gonna buy it, build

it, or partner with somebody?

Rapheal Reznek -Mascoma Bank: We have finite resources here at Mascoma,

so we can't build everything.

And what we landed on is

we would only build what doesn't exist that we cannot buy.

and of course we didn't know what we could, not, could or

could not buy in the beginning.

We had to figure all of that out and at the end of the day, what we figured

out is that we couldn't buy a system that allowed us to iteratively change

our customer and team member experience over our own determined amount of time.

Any change that occurs is a, a boil the ocean scenario.

You leave on a Friday with one system and you come in on a Monday

with a completely different system

that's been migrated over the weekend after 18 months of really hard work

Colton Pond - LoanPro: Yeah.

Rapheal Reznek -Mascoma Bank: and hope that it goes well.

And that is a,

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential: The fingers right.

Rapheal Reznek -Mascoma Bank: cross the fingers and, and

we've seen over the years some.

Pretty bad outcomes.

So the risk is high,

Colton Pond - LoanPro: yes.

Rapheal Reznek -Mascoma Bank: and we didn't want to take that risk.

And there's there's very little to learn when you boil the ocean.

So you come in on a Monday and it's, it's really, uh, a, a crisis because

you're putting out fires and you're not, actually, what you're learning

is that you shouldn't have done that.

So we, we really, um, looked at, platforms that would put the decision

making capability back into our hands.

And that's how we landed on a few of the platforms we did.

And we also found out that, that some of the things we

wanted to do were not available.

So that's what we decided to build is, is a platform that would

allow us to iterate a migration.

And give us access to data in real time.

So in flight, not, not right after, not near real time, but

actually as it's occurring.

So those, that's the platform that we build.

Colton Pond - LoanPro: So, so Rafael,

give the audience a listeners some insight into the magnitude of change

that y'all have gone through at Mascoma and plan to go through, uh,

are there any vendors in your tech stack.

When you came on that, um, have not been replaced or

likely will not be evaluated in the future, right?

Rapheal Reznek -Mascoma Bank: from a magnitude standpoint, we are

replacing everything from the ground up, including the core, our teller

platform, our digital banking platform, all of our and A-M-L-B-S-A platforms.

we're replacing everything.

and not all at once.

We're able to do it a, a component at a time.

So from a magnitude standpoint, it is, it is tremendous.

It's taken us six years,

from the idea to actual implementation, and we are, we are live with

a portion of the system now.

Colton Pond - LoanPro: One of the biggest questions as I interact

with bank and credit union leaders is say I'm in a new role.

I wanna make a difference.

I wanna make a change.

However, I've got other peers of mine who are stuck in their ways, or maybe

I've got a board who's stuck in their ways, or, or I've got a team or a

department who like doesn't want the change and wants to be more risk adverse.

How did you get, uh, the broader team aligned with this modernization vision?

And then how do you get the board members rest of the executive team?

What did that alignment process look like?

Sam Pause - Mascoma Bank: We're a mutual bank, traditional bank, and we have

the same challenges as a lot of other banks, and it's a lot of traditional

thinking and a way of doing business.

The thing that I think really helped us.

As a company from the board on down to understand that we needed to do

something different was really what we're experiencing in our day-to-Day lives

with technology, and some of this relates back to being a certified B corporation.

We interact very differently in our expectations are very different today than

they were five years ago, 10 years ago.

And as a bank, if we truly wanna make an impact on our customers

and our communities, where can we make the biggest impact?

It's on their financial wellbeing and their fin financial health.

The systems and the platforms that we had been using do not

allow us to truly understand.

Our customers do not allow us to pull data together.

They don't allow us to be proactive and support them in the

moment when they have a problem.

and we need to change that because as a consumer, we're starting to get used to.

That's how we interact with all businesses.

If you think of.

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential: Heck, I get Amazon within two hours at my house,

Sam Pause - Mascoma Bank: right?

So, A, and they're also, Amazon's also telling you, Hey, by the way,

your order, do you wanna reorder that?

It's time to reorder and it might be a good time.

You might be outta coffee right now.

That's what we're getting accustomed to and

we should

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential: always dog food over here.

Sam Pause - Mascoma Bank: Exactly.

we should doing the exact same thing with financial services.

And we are so far away from that, the financial, in the services industry.

if you think about how did we get our folks on board, our and the board of

directors and our senior team, it's really with that true understanding of we are

gonna be left behind here very quickly.

If we don't start doing business in a different way, and we've gotta be so much

more proactive than we've ever been able to before, and I think being a certified

B corporation helped to drive that because we truly wanna make an impact.

And how can we best do it?

We're a bank.

It's all about finances.

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential: I'm seeing more often, especially when you

start to get down to the community bank level, whereas you don't get that feeling

when you're working with one of the top five, right, one of the top five.

They're like, yeah, it is what it is.

Um, we'll get to it eventually.

And I think that's really where the community banks, and especially

banks like yourself, that are really going into, how do I be proactive?

How do I manage this?

How do I give that level of customer service that is beyond is,

is why we're seeing such a shift

away from the big banks, especially for your small businesses and

your individual consumers.

Colton Pond - LoanPro: especially when you can marry that as you all at at mascoma

have with best in class technology,

you can marry the community element with best in class technology.

You got a superpower there.

There's something

really that community banks can leverage and take advantage of.

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential: So in our last episode, we had Brent Beardall

on, uh, the CEO and President of WaFd, and we spent a lot of time talking about

how to decide where the focus goes,

how to do prioritization.

We tried to touch on the, how to be efficient about it, but

as you well know, the priorities change, importance levels change.

help us all understand really what you've done as far as the team and

unique structure and how you're influencing that prioritization of the

technology within the bank's four walls.

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Rapheal Reznek -Mascoma Bank: Wow.

That is a, that is really hitting the nail on the head right there to that.

That's a tough one.

And it, it changes daily, right?

Because of the things you, you've mentioned, we've got outside

influences that are driving some of those decisions, internal influences.

Uh, contracts, uh, changes in technology, changes in customer preference.

One of the first things we did is we worked on our team refactoring

the team, bringing in some new team members, taking people from different

positions in the bank with a lot of subject matter expertise and creating

a team that, could use, uh, situational awareness and, uh, the ability to,

dig into the information so that they could make an informed decision, and then

being able to pivot when they needed to.

How we're trying to prioritize is taking all of the information we have

and trying to understand how does it impact us if we do X or Y or Z,

in a time box effort, in the next two weeks we want to do these

things and do these things, meet the criteria that we've laid out.

So that's, that's one of the ways we try and prioritize.

But it is a very difficult task and

there

is no like perfect thing.

Colton Pond - LoanPro: yeah, I, I love

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential: it's never easy.

Colton Pond - LoanPro: It's never easy and it's difficult.

And what I love about what you said, Rafael, is it changes on a daily basis.

And I think that feedback loop, that iterative innovation and also the ability

that Mascoma has been able to do, and

you've developed technology called, uh, core Switch, but it really unlocks the

handcuffs, provides a path to freedom and allows, uh, a real sustainable

path to make a core conversion.

Um, help us understand that, that thought process, that development process,

um, how you went through that journey and how it's worked for Mascoma Bank.

Rapheal Reznek -Mascoma Bank: coming into the, the banking industry.

From a, from a tech background looking at, how systems are implemented in the, age of

the technology that we were dealing with.

it didn't make sense.

It didn't make sense that your migration, you know, took 18 months to plan out and

test and, cleanse the data, et cetera.

And then you just did it over a weekend and you hoped, I mean,

obviously you've done a lot of work and so it's a little more than

hope, but it's not a good strategy.

Right.

So

it just, it

didn't

Tedd Huff, Fintech Confidential - Host (Detached audio): a bit of prayer in there too.

Rapheal Reznek -Mascoma Bank: Yeah, exactly.

Uh, but, but there's, you know, it, and it also impacts your customers.

So for a period of time, you have to shut the system down.

If Apple had to shut their system down while I did an upgrade, customers are

not gonna be happy that they can't watch their movies or listen to iTunes or.

You know, buy a computer.

The same with Amazon.

Amazon does not, their site does not shut down unless there's some catastrophe.

But, uh, you can always order and get your, your thing in

two to four hours or a day.

but that's the way technology should be.

That's the way, you know, we're talking about people's money.

So financial services, we, we shouldn't have to shut down.

So our goal was to be able to migrate a single account in real time.

That was our goal.

We said if we can build the technology to migrate an account from system A

to system B while the customer's in their digital banking platform, and

they're not impacted at all, and the system continues to operate and it

migrates successfully, then we will,

so that's what we built with Core Switch.

The platform that allows us to migrate an account from one system to the other.

and Not impact the customer nor the rest of the team members

in the bank for that matter.

So we, we've built out as part of Core Switch a real, real-time repository

for that data so that we have control over where that data goes and we

can route it appropriately to the proper core or transaction engine.

Uh, we can have multiple cores running in parallel.

And all of the rest of the systems in our tech stack believe that

they're deal dealing with one core.

We've essentially, uh, disintermediated or abstracted the, a portion of the tech

stack away from the cores so that we can use the cores for what they're good

for and use best in breed technology in other areas in the institution.

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential: Sam, all I can think of is, you know, how is this

decision to create course switch and to be able to do these changes so qu fast and

quickly, and do this in inter iterative process, how is that impacting your, your

customers, the, the, the bank customers as, as they're working through this?

What, what does that do for, for their perception of the bank?

Sam Pause - Mascoma Bank: Overall, it, it, I don't think there, it

changes their perception of the bank at all, except that we are providing

them with better information at their fingertips when they need it.

And we can help, um, I guess and enhance our relationship with them.

I think from a customer perspective, that's what they're going to see.

It doesn't matter to our customers, oh, we've got this cool core switch

thing and we're thinking technology Customers don't care anything about that.

wanna make sure that their relationship with their bank is

providing them with what they need.

So if you look at it from a customer standpoint, that's what they're gonna

see without even really understanding that, that it's happening to them.

Some aspect, they do have to go through some change.

As with any migration, there's gonna be some change for the customer experience.

That's always difficult for customers.

Some customers will embrace it, some don't.

So there's those little pain points along the way, but throughout the entire

journey, the fact that we can better serve their needs in a way that they don't

even understand that's even happening behind, behind the scenes is gonna be

where the, where the difference is.

Colton Pond - LoanPro: One, one of my big, uh, favorite aspects

about Mascoma and what you all are doing is focus on the customer.

Rafael, Sam as you evaluated what Mascoma does on the lending side today.

Um, and a lot of the modernization y'all focused on or have and will focus

on has been improving aspects there.

help us understand the biggest pain points that, that you feel like are

experienced today with lending in lending and can be potentially solvable

and addressed by technology, especially for community banks of Mascoma assets.

Sam Pause - Mascoma Bank: Colton, the complexity.

Lending itself is complex, but the platforms that we

have make it even more complex

so I think the biggest pain point is just how super complex it is and

we just, as a banker, we just can't, we, we know it runs and that's,

that's the best we can get with it.

Rapheal Reznek -Mascoma Bank: And the, the rigidity of the, the platforms, right?

They're not, they're not mutable.

You can't really change them or do plug and play.

And that's, that was really important for us.

Uh, the ability to have a platform that gave, again, gave us choice and

allowed us to implement iteratively.

Our Legacy loan platform handled all of our loans and, and loan servicing.

in its fashion, in the fashion that that vendor chose.

And, you know, a platform like Loan Pro gives that choice back to us as

an institution so we can implement it.

How we best see it serving the customer.

Giving us the choice back that we didn't have before.

The ability to make a decision whether to do something or not to do it.

Colton Pond - LoanPro: and once again, to your earlier point, you made the change.

'cause we want the power ourselves.

We want to take control ourselves to be able to tailor and customize and

personalize things for your audience.

Rapheal Reznek -Mascoma Bank: If you were, if able to communicate with your customer

as a transaction is occurring at a point of sale where they're buying something

of, you know, relative significance and you're able to offer them some, you know,

a service, like let's say they have,

in their bill payment system, they're paying a bill in two days and they're

about to spend enough money so that it won't happen, that bill pay won't happen

because they won't have enough money.

You can, you can help them.

You can say, here are three ways that you can do this and still

make that bill payment in two days.

We are able to communicate, in flight with the customer as

the transaction's occurring.

There are, uh, fis and providers that are able to communicate with the

customer, uh, from a fraud standpoint when you're doing a transaction.

But they don't have all that data.

They don't have all of the data around when the, uh, around the customer's

cash flow around when they're, they are paying their bills and we do so we

can help them in a way that, uh, other institutions and issuers cannot help them.

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential: A lot of financial institutions do not have the

intestinal fortitude to move forward with building their own technology platform.

But one of the things that, that I've heard you say is that this has

opened up new opportunities for you to enhance all of your services.

And of course I wanna talk more about lending, but what has it done to help you?

On the

data analysis and customer service customizations.

And I really love the fact that you pointed out that you are giving positive

notifications, just not the negative ones,

Rapheal Reznek -Mascoma Bank: One of the things that we were able to build out

notifications for our customers through, through the realtime transaction platform,

through Salesforce Marketing Cloud.

So now Sam's team

is responsible and in control of the notifications going to our customers

and is able to see them and analyze what's happening as it's occurring.

That's just one small piece of what we're doing.

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential: Sam, I mean, I'm, I'm listening to, to Raphael

and all I can think of is how this is improving not only the operational

efficiency for all the people within the bank, but also the customer experience.

How is this helping you maintain alignment with that B Corp certification?

Sam Pause - Mascoma Bank: It goes back to supporting our customers in

the best way possible and having the ability to, in the moment, reach out

to our customers when there is activity happening where we can best support them

with, Hey, it's, you're not, not gonna be able to make that bill payment that

you have scheduled two days from now.

So here's some options for you.

Or, Hey, we can see that you're getting notified.

On a regular basis about a low balance amount, how can

we support you through that?

Here's some other options that we can help you with.

So it's really about impacting our customer in the best way possible to

help them with their financial wellness.

And you tie that back to B Corp are really about what is the impact on your making

your customers and your communities.

This is the best way we can do that.

Colton Pond - LoanPro: So along those lines, when we talk about metrics

and success, you all, uh, Rafael, Samantha have been six years on this

journey and six years and still going,

what are the metrics that you are evaluating that will determine success

and what will success actually look like?

Rapheal Reznek -Mascoma Bank: do we have, uh, some say in our technology destiny,

can we, can we, uh, create new products?

Can we differentiate ourselves through products and customer experience?

Can we automate all of these manual and semi-manual processes in the bank?

Can we,

Implement, first contact resolution.

Because our systems are automated, can we bring forward the capability so

the, the person who's working with the customer can solve the problem 95% of

the time instead of transferring them?

Are we able to reduce our cost and provide a better product?

That's also one of the metrics, but more importantly, it's the customer

experience and the team member experience.

Are we providing a better service?

Can we provide a better service?

Colton Pond - LoanPro: What I love in there is, is themes around, we have

things on this, uh, series around optimization and personalization.

Those are two key components of what you talked about, Raphael, on how do we

optimize, how do we drive efficiency, how do we automate, but how do we

differentiate, how do we personalize?

Every community bank that's of your size is thinking about that.

How do I differentiate relative to chase B of a, um, the big guys, but

also other community banks that are coming in or super regional banks.

Sam Pause - Mascoma Bank: One more that, that Rafael didn't, didn't

mention is really the ability to pull data from various systems into

one holistic view of our customer to truly understand our customer.

Rapheal Reznek -Mascoma Bank: That's a good point, Sam.

That is, that is definitely.

Implicit in what we're doing is, is creating a, a single pane of glass

where all of our phone conversations, we have a system that actually

turns speech into text, so, and then attaches that transcription to the

customer record all of our emails,

all of the customers financial transactions, all in one place that

the person, the team member that's working with the customer can see

and they don't have to go to separate systems to see that information.

And then from a reporting and analytics standpoint, Sam is going to be, Sam

is gonna have access to not just a piece of data or a type of data.

She'll have access to all of the data about a customer.

Colton Pond - LoanPro: So, you're

telling me that when I call in and if I have a mortgage and a personal loan,

you'll be able to help me and actually see it in one system, which is awesome.

Those types of things, those little things matter so much for the customer

experience and driving customer delight.

Rapheal Reznek -Mascoma Bank: Absolutely.

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential: By bringing all that data together.

That opens up a whole different can of worms when it comes to compliance

and risk and data integrity.

How are you guys balancing that while you're driving this fast innovation?

Rapheal Reznek -Mascoma Bank: that's a really

Raphae Reznek -Mascoma Bank: good point, Tedd.

Um, there

Rapheal Reznek -Mascoma Bank: are, you know, we have technical means of.

of.

handling some of that and that, and that is that we, you know, our, our systems,

uh, our, our core, our new core system does not store any customer data at all.

So it is, you don't have financial transaction data and customer

data in a single repository.

There are actual multiple repositories, and this is all cloud-based.

So we have multiple repositories that there's, there are

separate, uh, encryption keys for each of those repositories.

They don't share an encryption key.

Uh, and so getting access to one doesn't mean you have access to another.

So from a technology standpoint, we're able to secure the data.

It's encrypted at rust and in transit.

Uh, from A-A-P-C-I standpoint, we don't pass the primary account number around.

We tokenize that.

So from a PCI standpoint, we're not moving that data, uh, in,

in any type of visible fashion.

And then from a a compliance and risk standpoint, we, we bring our risk

and compliance team in early into our efforts and early for one person

is, is not early for another person.

So this is always a practice, right?

You know, when to bring someone or some department into an effort.

And, and what we've learned over those six years is that you bring them in right at

the beginning and you let them make the decision whether that's the right time.

And that's from a team member standpoint or a people standpoint that we, we have

found that that works best is let let that department, um, make that decision.

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential: Sam, I'd love to hear your perspective on

Sam Pause - Mascoma Bank: Yeah, I just want, I just.

I wanna add onto this because at the very beginning, Colton, you, you made

a comment about kind of Rafael and my working together and kind of that

was the, the secret special sauce.

It's really the entire team and what Rafael is pointing out here is

we, we decided this early on, and you're, and he's absolutely right.

It's a practice.

We're always trying to tweak it, but the teams that we have

made up that are working on this project is there's representation

from everyone around the bank.

It's not just technology, taking some information from the bankers, putting

something together and delivering it.

We have bankers embedded in these teams and risk is embedded

in the team and compliance.

So it's really that holistic view from technology and

banking all the way through.

Colton Pond - LoanPro: what's, awesome about what you all have been able to

do is infuse technologists in there.

Because that's the missing piece that a lot of folks don't have,

is how do you marry compliance and innovation and technology?

They don't need to be separated, and I love that insight actually.

They can be together and work hand in hand and be early in the

conversations together around what we do to drive innovation, uh, forward.

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential: So I'm, I'm gonna ask

Sam, pull it out of the, the closet or Rafael outta your bottom drawer in your

office there, I want you to pull out your, your, crystal ball because I'm gonna ask

you, what do you see as future trends in lending and banking technologies?

It could be everything from the potential upside and risk of artificial

intelligence, how you're going to be able to deliver a better human experience

and many, many other different things.

Sam Pause - Mascoma Bank: I need the crystal ball 'cause I'm sitting here in

the dark and a little light would be nice.

Um, from my view, it's, it's gonna be completely around data and artificial

intelligence and how that's gonna drive, how we work differently into the future.

So I think that is gonna be the game changer going forward.

but building a very strong data governance model around that.

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential: I have to ask the question, does that

mean less people or does that mean different roles for those people?

Sam Pause - Mascoma Bank: It means different roles for those people.

we're gonna need people.

Without a doubt.

The roles are gonna, are gonna change and the expertise is gonna change,

and what we're delivering to our customers is gonna change as well.

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential: How do you see that transforming?

Rapheal Reznek -Mascoma Bank: We have team members that work in the back

office and customers don't talk to them.

Uh, and automation will certainly change their roles, but with artificial

intelligence and data analytics, you're gonna need people that are supervising.

So there's, there'll be supervisor roles and, uh, training roles because

you have to train those models.

from a compliance standpoint, you have to make sure that, uh, any,

any models or any modeling that you're doing, uh, is actually making

a decision that is not biased.

So we have to have people reviewing that.

As always, we can prognosticate and try and guess and hypothesize,

and we're going to be wrong.

A lot of the time things are going to, and things will, things

will appear out of nowhere.

We just had no idea that this would be a role and, and here we are.

I would build on what Sam is saying around data and ai and say that, um,

delivery of the service, consumption of the service by, uh, customers

is going to completely change.

I think that, uh, what is, I think implicit interaction

with financial services.

Loans or banking or whatever it is, will become the norm.

So as you are driving your car down the road, you're talking to whomever

it is, Alex, Lex, or Siri, and, um, you're, you're having a conversation

about the loan you want to, or the, not, not even really about the loan.

You're talking about, I need X amount of dollars at, at this time,

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential: For a certain thing.

Yeah.

So you're, you're talking more the, uh, conversational commerce, I think

is what it's been called in the past.

Rapheal Reznek -Mascoma Bank: Yes, and it's, it's more

around implicit interaction.

So you're not explicitly going somewhere to apply for a loan, whether it be your

phone or your computer or the branch.

You're doing it as, as you're watching TV and you're, you are doing it.

It's, it's not a thing where you have to go gather paper and, and, and do

something in an explicit fashion.

You're doing it as part of what you do on a normal basis.

Daily

Colton Pond - LoanPro: what's awesome about that is it turns financial

services into taking data, understanding consumers, and personalizing based

on their needs and based on how to

help them.

And tying back to

the, the first thing we talked about with Mascoma being mission driven and

B Corp and how to help the communities you serve, that's how you do so.

Right?

And I love this

answer on the future.

It's a really good note to, to finish up this episode

thank you both

for hopping on with us.

For sure.

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential: it's been great to have you guys.

Rapheal Reznek -Mascoma Bank: you.

Thanks.

Thanks, Colton.

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential: So today we had the, the great conversations

around how, how Mascoma Bank is doing their personalization, how they're

doing, their modernization, their optimization, and all the ations.

They're really hitting it really hard, especially by

building their own technology.

And I'm excited to see them continue on this modernization project going forward.

And one of the things that I kind of subtext heard you guys say when

we were talking about AI is that it's gonna go less about the actions

and more about the relationships.

So I'm really looking forward to seeing how you guys attack that.

Colton Pond - LoanPro: I, I couldn't agree more.

Thanks for the time, Rafael.

Samantha, once again, turning data into insights and relationships, but the

key starts on, as a community bank, how do you modernize your infrastructure?

How do you do so in a reliable way that isn't going to.

To blow up things on the the banking side, right?

You all have found a way to do so.

I would recommend anyone to go find Rafael and Samantha and ask them

about their journey, and there's a lot of insights that I know both of

you have taken from that journey to share with the entire banking industry.

So thank you.

Rapheal Reznek -Mascoma Bank: Thank you.

Tedd Huff - Fintech Confidential: So if you've enjoyed the conversation, if you've

found this insightful and very helpful, be sure to go ahead and subscribe to

our newsletter as well as the YouTube channel and our podcast, so you can be

alerted when the next episode drops.

You'll never guess who's next.

So until then.

Have fun exploring the world of LendTech.

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