Independent Banker - May 2023 - 59

Launching a digital branch
American Commerce Bank in Georgia recently launched Monesty, a " digital branch "
focused on security and customer engagement. By Anna Burgess Yang
ack in 2019, American Commerce
Bank in Bremen, Ga., began to
ponder its customer demographics.
With only three locations-one in
tony Johns Creek north of Atlanta,
one in legal-centric Tallahassee and
a small-town Georgia headquarters-
the bank's deposit-gathering efforts
became a challenge. Its markets were
too diverse, and the 2020 pandemic
affirmed-and accelerated-the
realization that potential customers
were increasingly willing to give up
brick-and-mortar interactions for
convenient online service.
The $490 million-asset community
bank saw a separately branded,
online " branch " as a way to expand
its presence.
After crafting its market strategy
with a branding firm, American
Commerce Bank brought on Richard
Rotondo in March 2021 to manage
the project. " The bank had considered
ways to stay relevant and decided
that a digital channel was a good
B
" A digital brand with broad appeal would allow
the distant branches to cater to local needs
while still pursuing overall deposit goals. "
-RICHARD ROTONDO, MONESTY
initiative, " he says. " A digital brand
with broad appeal would allow the
distant branches to cater to local
needs while still pursuing overall
deposit goals. "
Name:
Monesty,
a division of American
Commerce Bank
Assets:
$490 million
Location:
Bremen, Ga.
The online model would offer
" high touch " service with activity
monitoring to consumers who were
begrudgingly accepting the need to
go online. " Everyone's lobbies were
closed, and banking still needed to get
done, " Rotondo says. " We decided to
take that all-important community
bank service reputation online. We
decided that it fit our model. "
After two years of vendor selection,
implementation and testing, Monesty
launched as a division of American
Commerce Bank in November
2022. Rotondo holds the title of vice
president and digital bank manager
for Monesty.
Identifying a target market
American Commerce Bank focused
Monesty's strategy on consumers
interested in higher rates, security
tools and fraud alerts. The community
bank considered factors like if a
lower overhead of an online " branch "
offset higher-cost deposits or if
customers would pay a modest fee
for monitoring and for adding a
" trusted advocate. "
Angelia Alred, 1st SVP, deposit
operations, is the bank's most senior
officer on the project. She spent many
hours testing, correcting and proving
out the " sandbox " environment before
Monesty's account-opening channel
went live. " I managed a version of
this technology earlier in my career, "
Alred says. " Contemporary security
enhancements, combined with
mapping customer applications to our
Jack Henry 20/20 core, presented a
unique challenge for our small bank.
We learned that there aren't any
banks our size that have implemented
a fully automated service. We literally
had to work with software developers
through our implementation team. "
Rotondo says one of Monesty's
goals is to educate the public about
issues like fraud, financial crimes and
bank security. It uses social media
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Independent Banker - May 2023

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