Back in March 2022, we announced a relaunch of the company and expansion of our goal to serve the business and innovation economy called “Grasshopper 2.0.” Since then, we have added new lines of business to reach an expanded client base and introduced new, leading-edge products and technologies that enable us to support financial technology (fintech) segments through modern and easy to use APIs, as well as small businesses through an industry leading product and user experience.
Prior to the relaunch, our team performed a holistic, strategic review of our infrastructure to determine the changes and enhancements required to not only meet, but exceed the expectations of our venture, business and fintech clients. With their needs always being top of mind, here are the key improvements we have made over the last six months:
Core Banking Platform
We converted our core banking platform to the Fidelity Information Services (FIS) Integrated Banking Solution (IBS) at the end of 2021. This was the first step in rebuilding our technology stack and kicked off a larger relationship with FIS. The conversion to IBS provides us with a more stable and reliable system with the ability to connect more products and services via application programming interfaces (APIs) in the future.
API Middleware
In conjunction with another strategic technology partner, Treasury Prime, we wrapped our core with APIs to enable a new Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) and Corporate API Banking platform. Treasury Prime’s modern APIs make it quick and easy for fintechs to deliver banking services to their end clients. Through our partnerships with Treasury Prime and FIS, Grasshopper became the first financial institution to tap into FIS’ embedded finance services and served as the pilot bank in building out this platform.
Key features include:
- Digital deposit account opening
- Balance and activity data
- Bill Pay
- Debit card issuance
- Paper check issuance
- ACH, wires & book transfers
- Electronic statements & more.
We also partnered with Alloy to offer transaction monitoring and Know Your Customer (KYC) services to serve clients compliance in a modern, API driven way. Grasshopper is now able to support a “For the Benefit Of” (FBO) partnership structure or an individual on-core account model for fintech partnerships.
Digital Account Opening
Grasshopper is now able to provide small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) with the ability to open a fully digital, paperless deposit account in under 10 minutes from any device! This service was built in partnership with Treasury Prime and Alloy to provide an automated application underwriting decision in seconds.
Digital Banking Front-End Platforms
The next challenge was providing our clients with an easy, intuitive platform to manage their finances across any device they wish. To accomplish this goal, we partnered with Narmi to offer business online and mobile banking, as well as FIS for our venture and commercial clients.
Small businesses and startups now have a modern, reliable platform designed for their specific needs with real-time balances, ways to pay their vendors and employees, deposit checks, send and receive wires, access their monthly statements, order paper checks, contact Client Services and more. We’ve also partnered with Autobooks to make it easy for small businesses to receive payments from their clients.
Our venture and commercial platform offers all of the features listed above with a user experience designer for larger businesses, including the ability to upload ACH and wires in bulk, send international wires, and utilize a broader range of reporting and entitlement structures that reflect the increased complexity of these businesses.
Additionally, we have included Alloy and Hummingbird as partners on the back-end to help keep our clients’ accounts and funds safe.
Innovator Checking + Visa® Business Debit Card
Launched in March 2022, Innovator Checking is the perfect account for businesses looking to manage their finances digitally. It comes equipped with a contactless, chip-enabled Visa rewards debit card, unlimited 1% cash back on online and signature-based purchases, unlimited ACH and incoming wires, earns up to 1.00% APY and offers fee-free cash withdrawals at any ATM bearing the NYCE SUM and MoneyPass logos. Plus, it includes 24/7 access to all the great features in the business online and mobile banking platforms outlined above.
The Innovator Checking account is the first product available through our digital account opening system and we’re excited to add more products to this list over time.
New Commercial Lending Products
As a complement to our deposit offerings, we also introduced new technologies to support our Small Business Administration (SBA), Commercial Real Estate (CRE) and Yacht Lending teams working with clients who are seeking credit solutions. Over the last few months, we have greatly decreased our turnaround times for underwriting and closing, and we look forward to providing an update as we continue to improve and layer in new technologies to make this process even more efficient.
Expanded Client Services Offerings
Last but not least, our Client Services department has grown in size, channels supported and hours of operation. Since April 2022, we have added 20 additional support hours a week, going from being available Monday-Friday 9AM-6PM ET to Monday-Friday 9AM-11PM ET. In addition, our friendly, US-based Client Services team now provides support via secure message, phone, email, chat and SMS.
We are also excited to announce that we will be sharing more product and technology updates in the coming weeks/months, so be sure to check back often for the latest on what’s happening here at Grasshopper Bank.
Only Forward!
By Chris Tremont & Pete Chapman in Product/Technology Update
