Midsize bank uses cloud-based solutions from SAS to tackle
regulatory compliance, navigate risk and wow its members
CARY,
N.C., May 22, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Six years
ago, TowneBank faced a challenge: new accounting
regulations and reporting requirements. As the community bank
prepared for the looming current expected credit loss (CECL)
accounting standard, its staff was lean and its technology very
much in progress. The Virginia-based commercial bank chose data and
AI leader SAS to help it meet the compliance deadline.
TowneBank chose SAS for regulatory
compliance help. It found a powerful #data framework that scales
across the business.
Today, TowneBank has a powerful, cloud-based framework for
regulatory compliance, and it's set for success with a technology
partner that can scale insights and decision making across the
business – whatever the future brings in risk management, fraud and
financial crimes, and their members' needs and expectations.
A compliance journey in the cloud
Founded in 1999,
TowneBank operates 51 branches in Virginia and North
Carolina, with $17 billion in
assets.
Erich Reuter joined the bank in
2018 and was charged with implementing a program to meet the
impending CECL reporting standard. The regulation aims to guard
against underestimating credit losses, thus ensuring that banks
maintain adequate reserves.
"One of the biggest challenges with CECL (was that it was) a
brand-new regulation," said Reuter, TowneBank's Executive Vice
President of Quantitative Analytics and Enterprise Stress Testing.
"There was not an industry standard, and there wasn't a lot of
guidance on how to implement it."
Development of capabilities was critical. To meet CECL's
complexities with the necessary precision, TowneBank's compliance
framework needed to deliver:
- Fast, secure access to data from multiple departments.
- Sophisticated data systems capable of managing 15 years of
historical and forecasting data and performing complex statistical
modeling.
- Verifiable data quality and integrity to ensure fair,
transparent and accurate reports.
As Reuter and his team considered potential technology
providers, SAS quickly rose to the top for its unparalleled
industry acumen and out-of-the-box capabilities. Implementing SAS'
CECL solutions in the cloud ensured that TowneBank's compliance
platform was up and running well ahead of deadline.
"We really needed to look to the industry leaders," he said. "We
needed to look to professionals outside of the organization to help
us implement the solution. And that's where SAS came in. … SAS has
provided us the opportunity to implement that standard, stay ahead
of the curve and know that whatever comes ahead of us, SAS has
already been there and done that."
Future-ready, from risk and compliance to member experience
and beyond
Having mastered CECL, TowneBank is doing much
more with its SAS investments. "With 15 years' worth of data
sitting in our SAS warehouse, we've been able to quickly answer
questions throughout the organization," said Reuter. "That's really
allowed us to take the framework that we've built for one purpose
and use it for other purposes."
For example, with each of 2023's bank failures, Reuter and team
were showered with rapid-fire questions from TowneBank's
executives, members and shareholders, recalled Reuter.
"It was, how are we going to get our arms around this? What's
our position relative to our peers? Historically, what does our
position look like?" said Reuter.
"It was important to get that insight and communicate it to
others, and our SAS solutions helped us do just that. We have a
tool in the SAS platform to get those answers in hours instead of
days or months."
TowneBank also relies on SAS to improve its member
relationships. "Using SAS as a platform has enabled us to better
understand our members' needs," said Reuter. "Now when a member
comes in, we're not just taking a single point of contact. We're
able to look at them in the context of many thousands of other
members to try to anticipate their needs and approach them with
potential solutions that maybe they haven't even thought of asking
about yet."
These and other strategies have transformed TowneBank from a
hometown success story to a regional heavyweight. TowneBank ranked
ninth on Forbes' America's Best Banks List in 2022, and it
consistently performs well in member surveys.
"Another great benefit is that we know that we'll never be able
to outgrow SAS," said Reuter. "When we looked at these other
vendors, we felt like if we hadn't outgrown them already, in a very
short amount of time we probably would have. With SAS, we know that
we can continue to grow and leverage the solution to provide
analytics and insight, and to help us tell the story no matter how
big we get."
"TowneBank is a great example of what can happen when a smart,
growing financial services organization harnesses SAS' powerful,
AI-driven platform and diverse software solutions," said
Stu Bradley, Senior Vice President
of Risk, Fraud and Compliance Solutions at SAS. "Preparing for CECL
wasn't a simple task for any bank. With SAS at its side, TowneBank
not only did it, but the bank is now more resilient and adaptable
than ever, come what may."
Learn more about SAS banking solutions at sas.com/banking.
About TowneBank
Founded in 1999, TowneBank is a company built on relationships,
offering a full range of banking and other financial services, with
a focus on serving others and enriching lives. Dedicated to a
culture of caring, Towne values all employees and members by
embracing their diverse talents, perspectives, and experiences.
Now celebrating 25 years, TowneBank operates 51 banking offices
throughout Hampton Roads and
Central Virginia, as well as
Northeastern and Central North
Carolina – serving as a local leader in promoting the
social, cultural, and economic growth in each community. Towne
offers a competitive array of business and personal banking
solutions, delivered with only the highest ethical standards.
Experienced local bankers providing a higher level of expertise and
personal attention with local decision-making are key to the
TowneBank strategy. Towne has grown its capabilities beyond banking
to provide expertise through its affiliated companies that include
Towne Wealth Management, Towne Insurance Agency, Towne Benefits,
TowneBank Mortgage, TowneBank Commercial Mortgage, Berkshire
Hathaway HomeServices RW Towne Realty, Towne 1031 Exchange, and
Towne Vacations. With total assets of $16.84
billion as of Dec. 31, 2023,
TowneBank is one of the largest banks headquartered in Virginia.
About SAS
SAS is a global leader in data and AI. With SAS software and
industry-specific solutions, organizations transform data into
trusted decisions. SAS gives you THE POWER TO KNOW®.
SAS and all other SAS Institute Inc. product or service names
are registered trademarks or trademarks of SAS Institute Inc. in
the USA and other countries. ®
indicates USA registration. Other
brand and product names are trademarks of their respective
companies. Copyright © 2024 SAS Institute Inc. All rights
reserved.
Editorial
Contacts:
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Trey
Whittenton
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Danielle
Bates
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Trey.Whittenton@sas.com
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Danielle.Bates@sas.com
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919-531-2250
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919-531-1959
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sas.com/news
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SOURCE SAS