ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--As the need of credit unions and community banks to accelerate their digital journey has skyrocketed post COVID, Agora Services, the challenger bank technology platform for community banks and credit unions, has developed two challenger style bank products for community banks and credit unions – Agora Teenz and Agora SMB. Built on Agora’s cutting-edge Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) platform, banks can deploy these products in five weeks without core integration for as little as $5,000 and no monthly fee for the first quarter.
Agora can disrupt Banking-as-a-Service because its platform is built on three key pillars, a modular banking setup, Microservices Architecture and leveraging cloud banking. Agora’s founder is an industry veteran, having served as part of the founding & management team of a digital bank jumpstarting the first wave of challenger banks. He grew this company to more than $20 billion in deposits within a few years.
Agora controls the entire chain of value, not limited just to its back-end platform. It has also developed challenger bank style banking apps that can serve as transactional websites. With its technology that banks can white label, Agora is well-positioned to fit the needs and growth of all community financial institutions.
Teenz Power by Agora is more than a prepaid card, it serves as a demand deposit account that allows parents to open a teen bank account for their children in one minute. Key features include:
- App for parents to manage and monitor their children’s money, including transaction notifications.
- Virtual card issued instantly, no need to wait for the plastic card to start banking
- Security settings that will enable parents to control how a card is used.
- Digitally native experience with Android and iOS apps for both parents and teens.
- Enhanced user engagement, automatic chores and allowance system, pocket accounts for teens to manage their money, a rewards marketplace, P2P transactions between users, and more. For more information, visit www.teenzpower.club.
Agora SMB features a mobile banking app for employers to digitally manage company users for business expenses, payroll, and more. Employers can have access to physical and virtual cards and create new accounts for their employees in real time that, within one minute, can start banking with a virtual card. To facilitate approved spending, users can self-issue virtual card for business expenses and manage expense reimbursement with a simple click. Other features include matching receipt management sub accounts for tax purposes, dedicated rewards platform with cash back at over 20,000 restaurants, 5,000 hotels on fuel and more, real-time notifications and other key business tools.
“The nation’s smallest community banks need the ability to offer the same digital banking services as challenger banks and national banks, but the obstacle has always been the expense, technology infrastructure and time needed to roll out new products” said Arcady Lapiro, founder and CEO of Agora Services. “Agora is removing the barrier to entry to all local financial institutions under $500 million by offering a low-cost, fast implementation. This will help thousands of financial institutions to remain relevant and offer the same cutting-edge offerings as any large bank in the country to attract and retain new customers.”
Agora’s special initial pricing provides financial institutions under $500 million in assets its Agora-branded platform starting at $5,000 to include:
- The entire front and back-end implementation,
- The first 100 cards, and
- The first three months of service.
After the first three months, Agora will charge an average of $600 monthly minimum for the first year. With this offer, Financial Institutions are not committed to multi-year contracts nor outrageous minimum commitment.
Agora, which is not competing with cores but looking to work with them, is happy to announce that they have partnered with Finastra which is becoming the first financial services and core provider to offer Agora’s turnkey solutions through its FusionFabric.cloud marketplace.
Agora Teenz Power and SMB are currently in beta mode and are scheduled to launch in June 2021.
About Agora Services
Agora Services provides a game-changing suite of digital banking solutions to community financial institutions offering a white-label, fully customizable, cloud-based challenger bank solution that enables users the ability to manage their accounts real-time. Community banks and credit unions can become competitive, increase revenues and drive customer and member satisfaction by delivering a digital experience without replacing their core systems. For more information, visit www.agoraservices.us.
