Technology provider nCino Oct. 30 announced plans to acquire SaaS platform FullCircl for $135 million cash.  

The acquisition will create an entity that enables financial institution customers to “unify and intelligently manage the entire client lifecycle across information intake, document collection and customer due diligence in one place, regardless of the entity’s complexity,” Pierre Naude, chairman and chief executive of nCino, told Bank Automation News. “Commercial onboarding is a complex process that many institutions struggle to make efficient and scalable,” he said.

U.K.-based FullCircl and Wilmington, N.C.-based nCino first teamed up in 2023 when nCino tapped FullCircl’s data capabilities, according to an nCino Oct. 30 release. 

Along with providing the added offering to nCino clients, the acquisition also allows nCino to expand its European presence, Naude told BAN. 

Grasshopper Bank, Auto Club Trust planning merger 

Grasshopper Bank is looking to expand its BaaS offering through a merger deal with the federally chartered savings bank Auto Club Trust. 

The financial institutions on Oct. 8 announced a definitive merger agreement to bring together Auto Club Trust’s (ACT) $495 million institution with Grasshopper’s $835 million institution.  

The merger allows Grasshopper to tap into ACT’s established client base and allows ACT to serve its clients digitally, Grasshopper CEO Mike Butler said. 

“Today, we’re starting to think about how we can use our technology and our products with larger companies, more established companies that want to add banking services to their mix,” Butler said.  

That’s what Dearborn, Mich.-based ACT, a subsidiary of The Auto Club Group or AAA, was looking to do. 

“There’s a lot of banks out there struggling to get this digital platform up and running,” Butler said.  

The integration is “going to be easy,” Butler said, noting that both FIs are on the FIS Integrated Banking Solution core.  

With the same cores in place, it’s just a matter of plugging in Grasshopper’s established digital solutions, Butler said, adding that the merger will not be a “grind of an M&A deal.” 

Pending regulatory approval, the deal is expected to close in the first half of 2025, according to an Oct. 8 Grasshopper Bank release. 

Digital Federal Credit Union, First Tech Federal Credit Union to merge 

Digital Federal Credit Union and First Tech Federal Credit on Sept. 30 announced plans to merge.  

“We’re going to be able to bring together two ecosystems to be more efficient and to be able to deliver better service, faster,” Shruti Miyashiro, president and CEO of Digital Federal Credit Union, told BAN.  

While still in the early stages of planning, credit union leaders are determining the tech stack strengths for each institution, John Mason, chief technology officer at Digital Federal Credit Union, told BAN.  

For example, First Tech is on Fiserv’s DNA core platform while Digital Federal Credit Union has invested in the Adobe marketing stack and that could be maintained. 

The merger, which is pending regulatory approval and is expected to close in 2025, will result in a $28.7 billion credit union with nearly 2 million members, according to a Sept. 30 release. 

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