A collaboration between the Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) and The Venture Center in Little Rock, Arkansas has resulted in the ICBA ThinkTech Accelerator.
Officials said the innovation is a landmark community bank-focused fintech accelerator program providing an outlet for community banks to directly engage and partner with early-stage fintech companies focusing exclusively on community bank product development.
ThinkTech Accelerator themes include next-generation lending, artificial intelligence and machine learning, blockchain, payments, advanced analytics and big data, regulatory compliance tools, cybersecurity, authentication, and streamlining customer experience, among others, officials said.
“ICBA has promoted community bank and fintech partnerships for quite some time, but our desire and commitment to create a more community bank-focused fintech solution is what ultimately yielded our partnership with The Venture Center and our new ICBA ThinkTech Accelerator,” Kevin Tweddle, ICBA Group executive vice president of Innovation and Technology, said. “This is the next step in our industry’s innovation journey, and by combining community banking and fintech, we’ll be cultivating a high-tech meets high touch banking experience for consumers. And this, ultimately, will be the community banking difference in the years to come.”
ICBA officials said selection committee members would serve a key role in selecting up to 10 candidates for the ICBA ThinkTech Accelerator program, noting ICBA will invest in each accelerator participant.
Finalists will present their solutions to community banks at the ThinkTech showcase at ICBA LIVE 2019 convention, scheduled for March 18-22 in Nashville.