Ponce Bank

6 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 9, ISSUE 6 Summit Technology Group (STG) was founded over 14 years ago with the mission of modernizing regional and community banking institutions in the United States. Through the years STG has built a boutique consulting, outsourced services, and software practice – enabling community lending institutions to focus on their strengths, while eliminating their barriers to growth. STG quietly powers software solutions for thousands of banking organizations in the United States and has operated some of the largest lending programs in operation today. In 2019, STG decided to brand their go-to-market strategy as Lenders Cooperative which consists of their Loan Origination System (LOS) product and Shared Services Business - Credit Underwriting, SBA LSP Services, Compliance & Risk and Bank Operations. The Lenders Cooperative business model has evolved into a combination of both LOS technology and shared services over the last 2 years. “We always knew that we would build out our SBA LSP Services Team as we stood up the SBA 7a Lending Products in our LOS. Typically, our clients do not have the required specific SBA skill set on staff,” said Cary Cooper, Partner at STG. “Ponce Bank is a great example of a client who will leverage both our LOS Platform for Small Business and SBA Products as well as partner with our SBA services team to help drive loan growth.” The Lenders Cooperative underwriting organization was built to combat an increasingly tight labor market for community banking talent. Specifically, bankers across the United States are finding credit talent the most difficult to find and retain. The formation of our centralized credit underwriting group in our Birmingham, AL office focuses on assisting Lenders in underwriting both new money origination and annual reviews. Currently, Lenders Cooperative works with financial institutions in seventeen different states – serving organizations with less than $20 billion in total asset size. “Our clients directly inform the products and services we build and scale,” commented Ben Wallace, CEO. “We are building tools for our bankers to grow assets, drive franchise value and improve the efficiency of their organizations. Over the next several years, I fully expect our service offerings to broaden into an end-to-end business lending shop – enabling clients to fully outsource marketing, originations, and loan servicing. We want members of Lenders Cooperative to focus on supporting their local communities and taking care of clients – leave the back-office heavy lifting to us.” ...... For more information, please visit our website TheSummitGRP.com