California-Based $95B Asset Bank Enhances Payment Security and Efficiency with Alkami’s Positive Pay Solutions

A $95 billion asset bank in California (the bank), is a pioneer in the financial industry and is renowned for its commitment to innovation and dedication to serving its extensive client base. The bank provides commercialand private banking to individuals and high-growth companies and investors in the technology, life science and healthcare, and private equity and venture capital industries. With a growing number of active Positive Pay users, the bank continuously raises the bar in banking standards, striving to deliver comprehensive, purpose-built solutions that meet evolving customer needs.

Challenges: Modernizing Payment Security

Prior to implementing Alkami's Positive Pay Solutions, the bank faced significant challenges in modernizing its payment processes and fraud prevention infrastructure. The outdated Check Positive Pay user experience resulted in frequent processing delays, causing frustration among business users. Additionally, the bank lacked an ACH Positive Pay Solution, which forced customers to manually provide block and filter instructions via paper and fax. This manual process was not only cumbersome but also prone to errors and inefficiencies, leading to a less than optimal customer experience.

The previous Positive Pay system also presented considerable operational difficulties for the bank. The user interface and decision engine for Check Positive Pay were at the end of their lifecycle, resulting in system downtimes that disrupted daily operations. To manage the volume of manual blocks and filters, the bank had to hire additional contracting resources, further straining their operational budget and workforce. The low adoption rate of Positive Pay features due to these inefficiencies contributed to an increased risk of payment fraud for their customers.

Setting Objectives for Modernization

The bank embarked on a strategic initiative to overhaul its payment fraud prevention infrastructure with three primary objectives.

• First, the bank aimed to retire outdated, end-of-life systems to ensure reliability, enhance operational efficiency and improve user experience.
• Second, the bank sought to reallocate contracting resources previously tied up in manual processes to more strategic, revenue-generating initiatives, thereby empowering its workforce to focus on value-added activities that enhance customer satisfaction.
• Third, the bank prioritized implementing a comprehensive ACH Positive Pay Solution and modernizing the Check Positive Pay Solution to bolster its defenses against financial fraud in the digital banking era.

Achieving Transformation: Implementation and Success

The bank selected Alkami's Positive Pay Solutions due to its market leading features and flexibility in aligning with the bank's digital strategy. Alkami's willingness to develop application programming interfaces (APIs) that expose all of their feature functionalities was a key factor in the decision. The implementation was a multi-year initiative, broken into phases to manage complexity. Initially the bank focused on building all bank administrative features on their front end, while user features were accessed via single sign-on (SSO). Once customer migration was complete, the remaining solution was developed. The migration process began with Check Positive Pay customers, followed by ACH Positive Pay customers. Additionally, the bank's existing ACH origination module and a new online banking solution had to be integrated with the Alkami solutions, adding further complexity to the migration waves.

To ease change management for both users and employees, the bank assembled a large cross-functional team of customer-facing, operations, tech, product, delivery, and go-to-market experts. They developed detailed plans to deliver and migrate clients in manageable phases, incorporating tools into the Alkami solution to ease the transition for customers and allow the bank to monitor user activities closely. This approach enabled quick responses to any issues that arose during the migration.

Partnering with Alkami has been pivotal for the bank's transformation journey.The Positive Pay & ACH Reporting platform has significantly enhanced the bank's ability to address business requests and pain points. Key features like Check Positive Pay and ACH Positive Pay have made a substantial impact on the bank's business, including gaining operational efficiency and improving customer satisfaction. The transition from end-of-life check positive pay systems to cutting-edge technology was crucial for streamlining processes, including a scrubbing/cleanup process allowing multiple operators to be assigned specific accounts as needed. Not only has the bank gained operational efficiencies, but the ability to rely on one system versus multiple systems has allowed them to offer a seamless solution for its customers and internal team.

The manual ACH positive pay process, which previously required up to 12 full-time employees to support, was automated, freeing up resources and improving overall productivity. Additionally, the bank has used the Entitlement and Enrollment API offered by Alkami, enabling the bank and its customers to manage all entitlements within online banking rather than using Alkami's platform to set up services. By implementing Alkami's solutions, the bank has successfully modernized its fraud prevention measures and enhanced the user experience for its customers.

Measuring Success: Metrics and Reflection

The bank efforts yielded measurable successes:

Check Positive Pay:

• Total Transactions Monitored: 2,163,117
• Average Transaction Monitored: $2,719
• Total Returned Items: 13,031
• Average Returned Item: $3,118

ACH Positive Pay:

• Total Transactions Monitored: 763,915
• Average Transaction Monitored: $20,687
• Total Returned Items: 7,996
• Average Returned Item: $17,051

*Transactions monitored and returned items over an eight month period.

These figures showcase the extensive capabilities of Alkami's solutions in monitoring transactions. Alkami's approach has been instrumental in allowing the bank to uphold high standards in transaction processing and customer satisfaction. By modernizing payment security and streamlining operations, Alkami has significantly contributed to the bank's ongoing commitment to excellence and customer experience improvement.

A Partnership Forged in Innovation: Alkami's Role

Throughout the partnership, Alkami demonstrated unwavering commitment to the bank's success. Proactive customer service, responsiveness to feedback, and continuous innovation solidified Alkami as a trusted ally rather than just a vendor. Alkami's collaborative approach ensured the bank's evolving needs were not only met but exceeded, driving technological excellence in banking.

Looking Forward: A Vision of Innovation

As the bank navigates the dynamic and fluid industry, its partnership with Alkami remains pivotal. With confidence in Alkami's capabilities to support future goals and objectives, the bank anticipates further growth. The foundation of security, efficiency, and customer-centric innovation established through this partnership positions the bank to lead in financial services innovation for years to come.

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