Stern Bank carved a niche for itself as a reliable B2B bespoke banking partner in the US, enabling small and medium-sized businesses in the manufacturing sector to access borderless banking and customized trade finance services.

The bank facilitates cross-border payments for clients to suppliers worldwide, provides multiple-currency business accounts, and offers liquidity on demand to enable clients to finance trades.

Challenges

Stern Bank wanted an all-in-one banking platform through which their clients could make cross-border payments, hold multiple currencies and access liquidity for trade financing.

This banking product was to be fitted with a switching network capable of routing and settling high-value, international multi-currency payments as well as the capacity to integrate with money transfer operators and local banks. Stern Bank also required a full-fledged, multi-administration backend system for managing daily business transactions, clients’ activities and reports.

Building such a platform from scratch risked delays and high expenses, further compounding the challenge as it would jeopardise Stern Bank’s ability to enter the competitive market quickly.

Faced with these obstacles, Stern Bank turned to FinCode — a technology incubator with a proven track record of delivering white-label financial technology solutions and consultative expertise — to help realise its vision.

The Solution

FinCode brought together a team of experts to work closely with Stern Bank’s requirements and delivered a robust cross-border banking platform with the capacity to support trade finance services. Key features include:

• Multi-Currency Business Accounts: Through which businesses could send, receive, and hold high-value funds in multiple currencies. Stern Bank could customise fees and exchange rate fixtures to stay competitive and meet their clients’ diverse needs.
• SWIFT Code Finder: To enable Stern Bank clients to access bank details for international transactions quickly.
• Overdraft Solutions: To allow Stern Bank to extend credit to businesses as part of their trade finance service, fostering loyalty and providing additional liquidity options for growth.
• Banking-as-a-Service: FinCode integrated with LHV’s core banking ledger to enable Stern Bank to offer banking services such as virtual business accounts, IBAN, real-time deposits, transfers and multi-currency accounts. The synchronisation ensured smooth API calls providing businesses with deposit, transfer and payment alerts.
• Highly Configurable Compliance Workflow: The platform featured an advanced compliance framework, integrating automated anti-money laundering (AML) systems, sanctions screening, fraud detection, and regulatory reporting tools like suspicious activity and currency transaction reports. Trade documentation validation and open APIs ensured smooth integration with local systems, banks, and regulators. With configurable workflows, Stern Bank could adapt compliance processes for specific countries, regions, or client profiles to meet evolving regulatory requirements.
• Transaction Monitoring System: For real-time oversight of financial activities, integration with third-party tools, and API callbacks for instant payment confirmations. These capabilities ensured both security and transparency in all transactions.
• Payment Workflow Functionality: The platform supported diverse payment methods, including SWIFT, SEPA, and Fedwire, with optional extensions for peer-to-peer and card payments. This gave Stern Bank full control over its transaction workflows while meeting its clients’ varied payment needs.
• 360-Degree Reporting System: This offered Stern Bank comprehensive insights into financial performance, compliance metrics, transaction trends, and customer activity for data-driven decision-making.
• Salesforce Tools: For Stern Bank’s salesforce to track performance, assign clients, and monitor earnings, improving overall efficiency and incentivising the team to drive results.
• Self-Service Customer Identification Management: Enabled Stern Bank to securely collect and manage customer identity data, ensuring compliance with KYC and AML regulations while delivering a seamless onboarding experience for clients.

FinCode’s master delivery of these technologies allowed Stern Bank to launch their online cross-border banking and trade finance services, quickly and cost-effectively, meeting the needs of SMBs and solidifying their market position.

The Result

The collaboration demonstrates FinCode’s capacity to deliver bespoke financial technological solutions for any market and served as a birthplace for fresh, innovative products that opened up new market opportunities.

You’re next!

Ready to start building the financial product your customers would love? Contact FinCode and let’s start configuring the next financial powerhouse — your business.