United Central Bank to Deploy Core Banking From Fiserv

United Central Bank, a $2.6-billion Texas-based community bank with locations in eight states, has selected the Premier bank platform from Fiserv to provide an outsourced, enterprise-wide technology solution. The bank says it chose Premier in part for its lending solutions, which Fiserv says processes more SBA loans than any other core banking solution in the financial industry.

With the July 2009 acquisition of $1.2-billion Chicago-based Mutual Bank, United Central Bank nearly doubled its size and gained 12 locations in Illinois, New York and New Jersey. "It's been a great acquisition for us," said Luke Lively, president and chief executive officer of the bank. "It's a win for everyone, especially our customers. We're making loans and supporting the community like they've never been served before."

A multi-lingual community bank serving primarily the Asian community, United Central Bank's mission is to provide financial services to meet the needs of its diverse customer base, which has traditionally been underserved. "Many of our customers would not have been able to obtain loans without a bank like United Central Bank," said Lively, adding that approximately 35 languages are spoken throughout the organization.

Converting both the United Central Bank and the former Mutual Bank systems to one common, new platform is a tall order, but one the bank is committed to taking on. "If what we were looking for was the short-term, easy route, it might have been tempting to stay with one of the previous systems," said Tim White, chief operations officer for the bank, "but we were looking for a long-term partner. Fiserv has the scalability to serve us as we continue to grow. It's never been a measure by dollars for us, but a measure by customer and client satisfaction."