The banking sector faces increasing pressure to modernize operations while maintaining strict compliance. Many institutions struggle with legacy systems that cannot support dynamic regulatory changes, real-time data processing, or intelligent customer engagement. This case study examines how one regional bank partnered with Cyntexa to modernize its operations through strategic Salesforce implementation.
Client Introduction
Our client, a regional commercial bank with $4B in assets, needed to overhaul its commercial lending and customer onboarding processes. However, the complexity of the project, coupled with the need for specialized expertise and faster implementation. Plus, their existing Salesforce implementation was underutilized, and their internal IT team currently did not possess the specialized skills to build advanced automation.
Challenges
1. Dynamic Regulatory Compliance
The bank faced mounting pressure to keep up with frequently changing financial regulations, which varied by state and loan type. They needed automated workflows that could:
- Adapt to state-specific lending laws (e.g., interest rate caps, disclosure requirements).
- Comply with evolving Beneficial Ownership (BOI) rules, which require real-time verification of business owners.
- Detect and flag fraudulent transactions instantly, rather than relying on manual reviews.
- Without these capabilities, the bank risked compliance violations, regulatory fines, and reputational damage.
2. Intelligent Loan Origination
The existing loan approval process was slow, manual, and error-prone. The bank needed a system that could:
- Auto-calculate risk scores by pulling data from internal systems (customer history) and external sources (credit bureaus).
- Seamlessly sync with Equifax and Experian to fetch real-time credit reports.
- Route applications differently; the SBA loans required stricter checks than conventional loans, but the system treated them the same.
- These inefficiencies caused delays (5+ days per loan), customer frustration, and missed lending opportunities.
3. Unified Customer 360° View
Wealth management, retail banking, and commercial lending teams used separate CRMs. This meant they had:
- No single source of truth for customer risk profiles.
- Missed cross-selling opportunities
- Inconsistent customer experiences
4. Audit & Reporting Issues
The bank’s manual reporting processes created major inefficiencies:
- Monthly regulatory reports took 100+ hours to compile, as teams manually extracted data from multiple systems.
- No automated audit trails for loan documents, making it difficult to track changes or prove compliance during exams.
- Human errors in reports led to compliance risks and potential fines.
- These bottlenecks diverted staff from revenue-generating work and increased operational costs.
Solution and Reasons for Collaboration
Cyntexa provided Salesforce professionals who seamlessly integrated with the bank’s in-house IT team to address these challenges.
The client chose to hire Salesforce developers and architects from Cyntexa for the following reasons:
- Niche Financial Services Expertise: Our developers had prior experience in banking-specific Salesforce implementations.
- Flexible Scaling: They needed immediate support without long hiring cycles.
- Seamless Integration: Our developers could embed with their in-house team and follow their agile processes.
Collaboration
Role of Our Augmented Developers
Lead Developer: Built Apex triggers for loan automation and integrated Equifax/Experian APIs to enable real-time credit checks.
Solutions Architect: Designed a compliance object model and configured Financial Services Cloud (FSC) household relationships to unify customer data.
Senior Developers: Developed Screen Flows for loan officers, implemented DocuSign for digital document collection, and created Einstein Analytics dashboards for smarter decision-making.
Key Contributions and Communication
- Bi-weekly sprints ensured alignment with the client’s priorities.
- Daily standups kept communication transparent between Cyntexa’s developers and the bank’s internal team.
- Shared documentation guaranteed adherence to the client’s governance policies.
- Weekly knowledge transfer sessions upskilled the in-house team for long-term sustainability.
- This structured collaboration ensured that the project stayed on track while embedding Cyntexa’s expertise into the bank’s operations.
Results and Impact
The partnership delivered measurable improvements across the bank’s operations:
- Approval times reduced from 5 days to 1.5 days, resulting in faster loan processing.
- Automated workflows significantly reduced compliance violations, and real-time fraud detection and audit trails minimize regulatory risks.
- A 360° customer view in FSC improved cross-selling, resulting in new revenue opportunities.
- Operational efficiency was also boosted with the AI advancements made with the expertise of our developers.
