- Key insight: CSI has purchased Qolo, a commercial payments fintech, to bring its technology to community banks.
- Expert quote: "Businesses now measure their bank's treasury tools against the software they already run everywhere else." CCG Catalyst's Paul Schaus
- Forward look: Qolo will continue to support its existing and active bank customers, according to a company spokesperson.
As community banks face stiff competition from larger banks and fintechs for commercial clients, one bank software provider is purchasing treasury technology to offer them as a potential draw.
Core banking provider Computer Services announced on Tuesday that it acquired the treasury and payments fintech Qolo. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, and a company representative declined to comment.
CSI will immediately begin integrating Qolo's treasury management and payments technology into its broader portfolio, according to a company statement. A company representative told American Banker that Qolo will continue to support its existing and active customers, which includes large regional banks such as Huntington Bank and
This deal closed approximately a year after CSI made a similar purchase of retail digital banking provider
CSI is aiming to give community banks upgraded commercial banking capabilities for their business customers through the acquisition, according to CEO Nancy Langer. CSI's bank customers include
"With Qolo, CSI is helping community banks bring those capabilities to market in ways that help them grow commercial relationships and become more central to how businesses operate," Langer said in a statement. "At the same time, it expands our ability to support fintechs and B2B payments providers as demand grows for financial services embedded directly into everyday business workflows."
Paul Schaus, managing partner at bank consulting firm CCG Catalyst, told American Banker that the acquisition of Qolo is adding "treasury grade plumbing" to CSI, but the impact on CSI's client base of banks may be uneven.
"The vast majority of CSI banks tend to be smaller community banks, and most won't utilize the functionality any time soon," he said. "The reason is they don't have the commercial book or the treasury sales muscle to use it. The real near-term value lands with the commercially oriented banks in the low billions that have business deposit relationships worth defending."
CSI has bank clients in that tier, according to Schaus, but it is not the majority of their customer base. "For this group it is a legitimate way to punch above their weight against a fintech," he said. "Below that, it's capability ahead of demand."
Qolo co-founder and CEO Patricia Montesi said in a statement that the distinction between traditional banking and embedded finance is "becoming increasingly blurred."
"Whether you're a community bank modernizing your commercial offering or a fintech building embedded finance products, you're often running into the same challenges: fragmented vendors, disconnected payment rails and manual workarounds that limit growth," she said. "By joining CSI, we can invest more deeply in the infrastructure that powers modern financial experiences and help our customers become a more seamless part of how businesses manage and move money every day."
Schaus said that community banks don't always need to offer embedded finance to differentiate themselves, and should instead focus on their operating accounts.
"Businesses now measure their bank's treasury tools against the software they already run everywhere else, and they are moving relationships to fintechs that have the products," he said. "Where a bank has a real commercial franchise, modern real-time treasury is worth defending. Where it doesn't, chasing embedded finance is a distraction from the fundamentals."
