Episode Details

Vetting and assessing fintech partners can be a difficult task for community banks. In seeking a framework to assist community banks in this effort, a new organization called the Coalition for Financial Ecosystem Standards (CFES) was created in March of 2025. CFES has now rolled out the Standardized Assessment for Risk Management & Compliance or STARC framework. STARC can certify that a fintech has achieved dozens of measurable standards in core compliance areas ranging from BSA/AML to compliance management systems, operational risk, and compliant handling. Community bank relationships and usage of fintech’s are only going to grow in the future. Having a framework that provides more confidence around the vetting and assessment of fintech’s, before you sign a contract, is a major plus. Afterall, no community bank wants to end up in the regulatory penalty box because of poor vendor management due diligence. This episode reviewed an article from Independent Banker Magazine titled “STARC Framework for Bank-Fintech Risk Management.” A link to the article is included below.

Link: STARC Framework for Bank-Fintech Risk Management - Independent Banker - ICBA.org