What’s up fraud fighters, and welcome back to Fraud Forward!

Community banks know they need digital transformation in banking to stay competitive. They also know one bad launch can overwhelm a fraud team, frustrate customers, and torch years of trust. So today we're going beyond the headline case study to unpack how one community bank actually pulled it off.

I'm joined by Omar Hamden, Chief Experience Officer at Vault.Bank, and Jorge Garcia, CEO of Linker Finance, to talk about how a 120-year-old community bank in Broadhead, Wisconsin turned itself into a digital brand, without opening the door to the fraud everyone assumes comes with it.

Omar didn’t want a system that approved everyone or treated every customer like a suspect. He wanted risk-based account opening that could actually tell the difference, and it worked. Fraud losses in digital banking at Vault have stayed close to zero since launch, with onboarding now taking about three minutes, funding included.

Most banks assume digital growth means a bigger fraud team. Vault runs its entire fraud and onboarding operation with two people. That's it. No army of analysts, just the right core banking integration and automation in place from day one.

Jorge breaks down why vendor selection for community bank leaders, not the technology, is usually the real blocker for community banks trying to launch digitally, and how Linker built a turnkey approach so Vault didn't have to stitch together a dozen point solutions on its own.

The numbers back all of it up. Vault grew deposits 16% year over year, five times its prior growth rate, and customer retention rate sits close to 90%. If your institution is weighing a digital brand launch in community banking, this digital banking case study is the one to send to your board.

• How Vault.Bank and Linker Finance came together to launch a digital-only brand for a community bank under $300 million in assets.
• Why risk-based account opening matters more than trying to hit zero fraud alerts.
• How identity verification and KYC digital onboarding got built to satisfy auditors without slowing down real customers.
• Why Vault runs its entire fraud and onboarding operation with a team of two people, and how core banking integration and automated decisioning make that possible.
• How vendor selection for community bank leaders became the real blocker in digital brand launches, more than the technology itself.
• The deposit growth strategies for banks that helped Vault grow deposits 16% year over year, five times its prior growth rate.
• Why customer retention rate matters just as much as acquisition, and how nearly 90% retention changed the growth conversation.
• What's next as Vault plans national digital banking expansion beyond Wisconsin.

• Community bank leaders considering a digital brand launch in community banking.
• Fraud and risk professionals evaluating fraud losses in digital banking and looking for real, verifiable numbers.
• Bank executives weighing vendor selection for community bank technology partnerships.
• Anyone curious how lean fraud team operations actually work without a large analyst team.
• Community banks exploring small business lending and neobank technology in community banks as growth levers.
• Boards and leadership teams trying to build the business case for bank compliance automation and best of breed banking technology.