Community and regional banks are facing something of a product “crisis.” Customers want it now, and by “it” we mean every banking service imaginable. Yet, as a small- to mid-sized bank, providing those real-time services, especially when tied to legacy core banking systems, is anything but easy.

Enter the IT vendors. With their massive IT resources, the major banking vendors are increasingly becoming the arbiters of which technologies are and are not being put into play in banking.

Consider, for example, Cleartouch Solutions, a unit of Fiserv. Cleartouch is Fiserv’s total IT outsourcing solution. It allows smaller banks to provide the type of apps and services traditionally the sole domain of the mega banks – services like mobility apps, electronic statements, real-time account information, and around-the-clock customer service that customers have come to expect.

What this comes down to is akin to a products and services “arms race.” Either banks keep their IT up to speed or they get squashed. And for smaller institutions, only the major tech providers can keep them apace. This is why Cleartouch has signed up eight new clients in just the last few weeks.   And Tom McBride, President and General Manager of the Cleartouch unit, told us that Cleartouch is expecting its sales wins to continue apace through yearend.

The game in banking, then, ends up being about service and not necessarily about the array of features on a mobile banking application. The smaller institutions sign up for Cleartouch or one of the other prepackaged banking solutions and stay on par with the IT at a multitude of other banks. We have to only hope that the major vendors are doing what they can to advance IT services to consumers’ benefit, and do so with great ardor.