How Community Banks Can Modernize Their Tech Stack

Elizabeth Judd/Independent Banker

Due in part to AI, technology and security risks are rapidly evolving, pushing community banks to think about technology planning beyond the traditional budget cycle. Several community banks told us how they’re balancing technology adoption, timing and investment priorities.

When Anthropic’s Claude Mythos, a security-focused AI
model, previewed this spring, many community bankers
were shocked by how AI could soon target decades-old vulnerabilities in their existing code based on how that code was written.

The arrival of Mythos and other groundbreaking AI solutions is a powerful example of a seismic change that is spurring community banks to reassess their technology stacks.

“I could suddenly see us investing in technologies that weren’t in the budget, because when we came up with our annual budget in late 2025, these threats didn’t exist,” says Anthony Ranghelli, chief information officer at $975 million-asset Potomac Bank in Charles Town, West Virginia. In fact, management consulting firm Bain & Company says the average company should increase its cybersecurity spending by two or more times their current levels given what AI is unleashing.

Ranghelli sees the tech space evolving so rapidly that “a true technologist at a bank is probably assessing tech needs every day.”

Should tech drive bank strategy?
Community bankers are finding that assessing their bank’s tech stack no longer fits neatly into the traditional budgeting paradigm.

One of the biggest changes, according to Wayne Miller, ICBA’s chief innovation officer, is that now more than ever, “the tech stack should reflect a bank’s strategy.” Understanding this, bankers are resisting shiny new objects, insisting that tech investments alleviate stubborn problems and help the organization reach its strategic goals.

Andrew E. Silsby, president and CEO of $1.8 billion-asset Kennebec Savings Bank in Augusta, Maine, exemplifies this trend. He relishes the fact that business line managers are now bringing tech ideas to the table. He describes the tech spend at his bank as both more dispersed and more strategic.

“Nowadays, you don’t start with the technology out there,” Silsby says. “You have to start with the problem you’re trying to solve.” 

He notes that allowing bank employees to propose tech projects generates a broader range of ideas. “I want the residential lending department to say, ‘Hey, we’ve got a potential new solution here. We think we can save some money and be more efficient,’” he says. “When that happens, it’s beautiful.”

However, community banks are often constrained by outside forces, such as the customary timetables for partnership agreements.

While most fintechs strive to lock in one- to three-year contracts, the average core banking contract runs for five to seven years, says Christian Ruppe, partner and chief strategy officer at tech consultancy impactFI Advisors in Atlanta.

Miller notes that even when a core contract is nearing its renewal date, many community bankers balk at making a change because of a widely acknowledged truth: Implementing a new technology can be daunting. He says that unlike other investments within the tech stack, core conversions have been likened to “a skeleton transplant” because of the sheer pain and disruption involved.

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