Growing online accounts with seamless customer experiences
Iowa City, USA
At a Glance
• Digital account openings have more than doubled, with mobile accounting for two-thirds
• Online contributing 8% of the bank’s account portfolio (increasing from the peer average of 5.75% pre-Temenos)
• 90% of applications have been decided automatically
• 48 hours of manual work saved through automations
• Application to decision journey cut from 15 mins to 2 mins
• Time to new account funding cut from 2-3 days to 4.5 mins
Founded in 1934, MidWestOne Bank is headquartered in Iowa City and operates over 50 branches in Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Colorado. MidWestOne provides a range of services in the retail, small business, and commercial sectors. These include banking, credit, mortgages, and wealth management. It has 140,000 customers and $6.6bn in assets, making it the third-largest bank in Iowa.
Its aim is to be the preeminent relationship-driven community bank, where its expertise and proactive approach generate meaningful impact for its customers and stakeholders.
Details matter
For Heather DeStefano, the bank’s SVP and Director of Digital Innovation, trust is the vehicle for that growth. “We don’t want to be a transactional institution. We really want to help and guide people. How we get potential customers to understand that is a challenge for us.”
She explains it’s about a carefully balanced approach. “We really want to differentiate ourselves in the fact that we’re small enough to really care, but big enough to deliver all of your needs.”
In practical terms, it’s about “reaching our customers where they want us to, when they want us to,” she says. Technology can deliver convenience, but what’s key is to do that better than the competition.
It’s not just about having a pretty user interface anymore, innovation is really about looking at every aspect of the customer experience, from start to finish, and finding automations that make everything more seamless.”
Heather DeStefano, SVP and Director of Digital Innovation at MidWestOne Bank
This approach was evident when the bank recently launched its digital account opening platform. “We really looked at every detail—the experiences of our customers and our back office employees—to make everybody’s lives easier.”
One aspect of the new platform is to create profiles of valuable customers upfront and enable auto-decisioning for suitable applicants. “We’ve got the process down to just four minutes from application to funding,” says Heather. The technology is also applied to ‘unqualified’ applicants, so they don’t waste time online but can instead go into the branch.
100% Digital
MidWestOne’s new account opening solution has been built with Temenos’ Digital Onboarding product. Heather recalls: “When we started thinking about the customer experience, it became clear that our incumbent vendor was not the right partner for us.” Despite the ‘digital’ name tag, their solution required all applications to be individually reviewed, which meant lots of manual data inputting and checking. Decisions were then messaged to customers manually by a bank employee.
In contrast, Temenos’ proposal demonstrated the automation capabilities that MidWestOne was looking for: the flexibility to deploy an out-of-the-box solution with the controls to customize it; API connectivity with the bank’s existing core system; ease of use; and a team of people it trusted to deliver.
Usability was particularly important, explains Heather, because MidWestOne did not have an in-house development team to call on.
We had to have a system that our back office and operations teams could use. It’s been extremely easy for them to manage the applications and decisioning processes.”
Heather DeStefano, SVP and Director of Digital Innovation at MidWestOne Bank
No problem too small
The bank’s choice of Temenos has also been vindicated by the commitment of its support team. “I have direct lines of communication with their key people, who have encouraged me to reach out with questions. Or I can create a service ticket, and usually get a response back from them within an hour or two, even on low-priority tickets. They are very responsive.”
Fast improvement
The bank went live with Temenos Digital Onboarding as SaaS (running on AWS) in November 2023, with the support of RCG Global Services for the implementation. The returns have come quickly. Online account openings have almost tripled compared to pre-Temenos rates (without any marketing spend), and online account opening rates have surpassed their peer median groups. Two-thirds of these are performed on a mobile device, and over 90% of applications have been decided automatically. Heather estimates that automating Qualifile denials alone has saved the bank over 48 manhours since launch.
Speed is another benefit. On average, it takes applicants under two minutes to complete an application and receive a decision. Previously, applications would take closer to 20 minutes, with decisions coming one to two business days later. For approved customers, funding is now completed in just four and a half minutes, whereas in the past customers would have had to wait two to three days to complete the micro deposit verification process.
MidWestOne has also taken advantage of the platform’s vendor ecosystem by connecting to a third-party ID verification solution and integrating it into its onboarding experience.
Increased customer satisfaction has followed, both for those who open accounts online and in-store.
Open up the throttle
The bank is understandably keen to keep up this momentum. It has just started a project – with its implementation partner RCG – to incorporate banker referrals into the platform, which will help drive more customers online. And it plans to expand the range of products it offers, including high yield savings accounts and private wealth products.
Heather says they plan to add more products from different business lines as they mature with the platform.
Year one has proved what Temenos can help us deliver. We like it, our employees like it, and most importantly of all, our customers like it.”
Heather DeStefano, SVP and Director of Digital Innovation at MidWestOne Bank
