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Aleda DeMaria might seem like a traditional banker on paper, with more than 25 years in banking dating back to her first job at a community bank in high school. But her drive for innovation—overseeing nine conversions and revamping the entire operation at PeoplesBank as its COO—is anything but ordinary.
Last year, she led the bank's largest technology transformation in its history: Replacing a legacy system dating back to the 1980s with a modern, cloud-native core banking platform for the $4.5 billion-asset institution based in Holyoke, Mass. The five-year project, completed ahead of schedule with more than 24,000 customers enrolled on the first day, positions PeoplesBank into the next century, DeMaria said. It has 100 new digital initiatives in the works, including implementing AI and software robots.
"The passion was always there in me," DeMaria said about her drive for innovation as a community banker. "I was always looking for ways to do process improvements through: How can we leverage the technology that we already have? Or are there new technologies that are out there that are low barrier, low cost to entry that I could deploy to do some process improvements?"
But getting to this point involved an enterprise-wide technological feat far beyond just transitioning a core platform. DeMaria first needed buy-in from leadership and regulators as well as widespread employee willingness to adopt advanced digital platforms they've never used before.
"My approach to technology is to make sure the foundation is there before we build the house," she said. "Bringing people into the uncomfortable conversations early…is really how we got this done as successfully as we did. We didn't hide from it. We didn't try to shy away from it."
DeMaria initially sought a fintech partner, landing with Nymbus, to create a digital core banking platform to help PeoplesBank launch its first digital-only brand, called ZYNLO Bank, in 2020. Since then, ZYNLO has grown to $200 million in deposits and more than 7,500 customers nationwide. That growth also became the proof of concept for modernizing all of PeoplesBank.
In the past year, DeMaria led nearly 30 digital transformations and converted the bank's systems, including its core banking, consumer and small-business digital platforms. With those conversions a success, PeoplesBank has mapped out an aggressive 12-month advanced technology plan that includes implementing agentic AI, robotic process automation, new CRM systems, instant payments, and expansion into previously inaccessible business lines.
"Now that we're on Nymbus, [we are] leveraging AI, faster payments, new technology to help us achieve some of the goals that we weren't able to achieve before," she said. "So 2026 is a huge year for us."
