Umpqua has a brand-new core.

The Portland, Ore.-based Umpqua Holdings Corp. said yesterday that it had completed its core upgrade, which was first announced last summer. The core upgrade included the integration of core systems from Sterling Financial Systems, which Umpqua acquired in April 2014, making it, Umpqua said, the West Coast’s largest community bank at $22 billion in assets.

Umpqua is an FIS core banking customer, as was Sterling.

Because a bank can’t just shut down while critical systems are replaced (unless you’re Simple), updating a bank’s aging core software is often compared to open-heart surgery and is rarely attempted. BBVA Compass did it recently, and used it to offer real-time payments in partnership with Dwolla.

Umpqua’s CEO, Raymond Davis, announced the completion of the update in the context of the Sterling integration yesterday:

Turning back to integration, over this past weekend, we completed the conversion of our core banking systems. I want to again congratulate our teams as they successfully completed 18 separate conversions. This accomplishment is and was the major hurdle that we have now crossed in wrapping up the Sterling integration.

This event enables the company to quickly realize the remaining projected expense synergies and benefit from the flexibility that operating on one technology platform provides especially for a company like Umpqua where innovation is the major differentiator.

Umpqua is now in the position to leverage the same competitive advantage as BBVA Compass.

Umpqua had about $23 billion of assets at the end of last quarter.