A Q&A with Nick Craven of TAB Bank

In an exclusive conversation with Plaid, Nick Craven, SVP Commercial & Consumer Banking, shares how they use Core Exchange to be at the center of their customers’ financial lives by providing them with real-time data connectivity. 

TAB Bank is a technology-driven, online bank that provides financial solutions uniquely designed to serve the needs of the underserved. Since opening its doors in 1998, it has provided financial access to thousands of small businesses, families, and individuals nationwide. 

With fintech adoption now at 80%–up from 58% in 2020–enabling data connectivity for customers is more important than ever. Nearly 7 in 10 users say that they would consider switching banks if their primary bank could not connect to their financial accounts. 

That shared commitment to reliable connectivity is what led TAB Bank to partner with Plaid to expand API connectivity and OAuth with Core Exchange. Now, TAB Bank customers can securely and reliably connect their data across the applications and services they use–enabling them to make better financial decisions. 

Here, Nick Craven, SVP Commercial & Consumer Banking, talks to Aly Yarris at Plaid about how they are using their Core Exchange integration to remove credential sharing, reduce support ticket volume, and improve their customers’ financial lives. 

Plaid: Can you tell us about TAB Bank and the services you offer? 

Nick: TAB Bank started off by providing financial services to over-the-road truckers back in 1998. Today, we’re meeting the financial needs of underserved communities all over the country with industry-leading products and services such as savings, checking, CD, and money market accounts all the way to treasury management services, business term loans, and more. 

Our mission is simple: to provide access to financial success for everyone by making sure they can capitalize on the opportunities that come their way. 

As an executive, why did you decide to prioritize API based data connectivity? 

Nick: As a bank, it’s important for our customers to have easy access to their money and be able to move it whenever, wherever. Plaid helps us do that in a way that’s fast, user-friendly, and most of all: secure. 

With Plaid, we’re able to give customers the option to link their external accounts in just minutes using their existing credentials. Before, they’d have to rely on micro-deposits, routing numbers, and other methods that made the process painful. Now it’s seamless–meaning customers get the same experience as if they were using their own account, username, password, and OTP. 

Technology is at the heart of what we do. It’s my job to make sure that as a bank, we have the  latest and greatest so that we can provide our customers with the best experience possible–with minimal upkeep and maintenance. 

When it comes to money movement, Plaid’s ecosystem is essential. 

Why did you go with Plaid’s Core Exchange solution to enable secure and reliable data access for your customers? 

Nick: Plaid’s Core Exchange is the best solution out there. Its easy-to-use APIs allowed us to plug in, start testing, and deliver meaningful solutions to our customers in no time at all. Other solutions out there would have required extensive staffing, product research, and QA but Core Exchange didn’t require any of that. The documentation was easy to understand and our team was able to link our APIs and start testing within weeks. Plaid was so quick to answer any questions we had along the way, run tests on their end, and release to production. The integration could not have been any easier. 

Most people think that in order to build an API program you need to be a large enterprise financial organization. But we watched your team build FDX aligned endpoints in just a few weeks! How were you able to move so quickly? 

Nick: Plaid was so helpful and gave us a direct line to their engineers to help answer questions and resolve bugs in real time. This made the entire integration process fast and easy. It was an ideal vendor relationship that had a direct impact both on our team and our customers. 

How has Core Exchange impacted your business? 

Nick: Since implementing Plaid, we’ve seen a significant decrease both in the number of support calls and the number of complaints we receive. With Plaid, our customers can easily choose who they share their data with and how they authenticate their accounts. Plaid has improved the entire experience for both our customers and employees. 

What advice would you give to other online banks that are considering enabling API connectivity to Plaid’s network? 

Nick: Reach out to Plaid as soon as you can. They can walk you through the process from start to finish and make sure that your integration is as successful as ours was. This was something our customer had been asking us for for a while–I only wish we started sooner. Core Exchange is the ideal solution for enabling API connectivity for your customers. 

What’s next for you and the team at TAB Bank? 

Nick: We’re on a mission to provide access to financial success for everyone–whether you’re a growing small business or busy consumer. We believe banking should be defined by relationships–not transactions–which is why we’re committed to building the solutions our customers need in order to stay secure and capitalize on whatever opportunities come their way. When they succeed, we succeed.