When Matt Speare, chief information officer, joined Carter Bank & Trust’s executive team in 2017, the customer and employee experience at Carter Bank & Trust looked somewhat different. There was no online or mobile banking available and many simple processes were still being performed manually and were paper-based. Fast forward to 2020, Carter Bank & Trust is leveraging artificial intelligence to drive processes and efficiencies internally and customers are taking advantage of leading banking technology to manage their finances – all thanks to the guidance of Speare’s expertise.

About Matt Speare

Matt Speare is an accomplished senior information technology manager who joined us after serving as chief information officer at Regions Bank and CTO at M&T Bank before that. Speare is a frustrated golfer and an avid pilot who flew attack helicopters for the U.S. Army for 23 years.

Spearheading a Digital Transformation

Carter Bank & Trust has a tradition of providing excellent customer service. This reputation was built on face to face interactions at our branches and drive thrus. In 2019, we took that legacy a step further by rolling out online and mobile banking. In partnership with Fiserv, Carter Bank & Trust began to provide online and mobile banking with features like mobile check deposit, online bill pay and eStatements, revolutionizing the way our customers manage their money.

In a spotlight on Fiserv’s website, Speare is quoted as saying: “Digital channels and real-time capabilities are critical for our bank. It’s all about convenience….if a customer makes a deposit at 11:59 p.m., they want to see real-time posting of that transaction.”

In the first month, approximately 10,000 customers signed up for online and mobile banking. Since then, over 37,500 customers have enrolled to take advantage of the new financial management technologies the platform offers. Speare expects to see that number continue to grow as more features like eStatements and peer to peer payments are released.

Automated Processes Improve the Customer Experience

Online banking wasn’t Speare’s only technology overhaul initiative. In order to continue to support a legacy of top quality products and services, we needed to streamline technologies behind the scenes, too. It was clear that a new automation system was needed. Workfusion was that solution.

“We leveraged intelligent automation heavily in preparation for conversion,” says Speare. “But we continue to see an ongoing benefit in building out a wide variety of automated processes that save us time and human hours that can be redirected towards providing a better customer experience.”

Carter Bank & Trust’s partnership with Workfusion has proved to be fruitful. Automated processes can be as complex as pulling a 150 page report and extracting key action items for each day or as simple as setting up a new employee login on up to 27 different platforms. To date, Speare estimates approximately $2.7 million in labor. That saved labor is redirected towards tasks that add value to the customer experience and the technology empowers those employees to provide service with more confidence and efficiency.

The partnership has been so successful, Speare took the opportunity to sing the platform’s praises at the American Bankers Association’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Conference in December. Here, he joined Kirill Meleshevich of Workfusion to discuss how the automation tools empowered Carter Bank & Trust to create a better customer and employee experiences without sacrificing auditability and traceability. Speare is also quoted in an Independent Banker article saying, “with the robotic process of automation, it can help a bank be more nimble and defensible.”

What’s Next?

As with everything in the age of information technology, the changes won’t stop there. Now that Carter Bank & Trust’s technological transformation has been set into motion, Speare has set his sights on embracing more opportunities to provide the same great service Carter Bank & Trust customers know and love in new ways. Stay tuned as we continue to announce more news that proves our focus is on the future – your future.