Open Solutions is a provider of integrated relational technologies for banks and credit unions across the United States and Canada.

1st Security Bank, founded in 1936 as a credit union and converted to a mutual savings bank in April 2004, has 12 branches and $250 million in assets. After receiving its bank charter, 1st Security needed a provider that would address its evolving customer needs as well as the increased regulatory scrutiny that comes with being a bank. Greg Coward, vice president of Information Technology and project manager at 1st Security Bank, said, "The entire industry has experienced an increased level of accountability for data security, regulatory compliance and transaction transparency. We need to access our data and present it quickly and accurately."

In addition to The Complete Banking Solution, 1st Security will implement Open Solutions' Loan Origination Systems (consumer and mortgage); Report Wizard; Asset Collections Management; Real-time ATM; and the Financial Accounting Suite (general ledger, accounts payable and fixed assets).

"We reviewed other vendors and their solutions; however, the internal team at the bank preferred the Open Solutions platform," Coward said. "We liked the open architecture, front-end interface, advanced collections systems, reporting capabilities and in-house perspective."

With The Complete Banking Solution, community financial institutions can select either an in-house or an outsourced processing option to support its growth strategy. The in-house option offers complete control over sensitive customer data while the outsourced, hosted option provides both equipment and technology support through a secure data processing center. Adding the systems flexibility and ROI, institutions depending on their needs may convert from outsourced to in-house processing, or vice versa, without changing systems.

Louis Hernandez, Jr., Open Solutions chairman and CEO, said, "We've designed our banking product and service offerings to be user-friendly and further enable banks to offer more personalized products to their customers and marketplace. In this day and age of increasing regulatory compliance and accountability, we realize our clients need even more information at their fingertips and need the ability to quickly access that information. We are pleased that Open Solutions has been selected to help 1st Security Bank to better compete, provide a higher level of customer service and support their future growth strategies in today's ever-changing industry. We look forward to a long, mutually beneficial relationship with 1st Security Bank."