How a Northeast Community Bank Doubled Business Account Openings with Ascent

Background

A $800 million-asset bank in the Northeast had long prided itself on its strong community ties and personalized service for businesses. But when it came to digital account opening and treasury onboarding, the bank found itself limited by outdated technology and paper-heavy workflows. These undercut both customer experience and growth.

“Our first-generation online business account opening software technically worked,” the chief banking officer recalled, “but the experience was clunky, and even the smallest change custom, expensive, and took months. We were losing more than half of applicants before they even finished the application.”

Even for customers who managed to complete an application, the onboarding journey was far from over. Signing up for treasury services like ACH, wire transfers, positive pay, and business debit and credit cards was all manual, requiring redundant paperwork and repeated back-and-forth between the bank and the customer. The process was error-plagued and could take a week or more to complete. Both customers and bankers were frustrated, and in an increasingly digital-first world, the bank sought to make a change.

Partnering with Ascent

To address these challenges, the bank turned to Ascent. The goal was to reduce application abandonment, streamline treasury onboarding, and deliver a modern digital experience that aligned with the bank’s growth ambitions.

Ascent deployed Business Account Opening and Treasury Onboarding–modules in Ascent’s Business Suite. Using Ascent’s no-code builder and starting with prepackaged best-practice workflows, Ascent tailored the account opening and treasury boarding applications and workflows to the bank’s needs. Prefill capabilities played a key role: by leveraging both third-party and internal bank data, Ascent was able to automatically populate as much as 90% of fields for applicants.

Another breakthrough came with Ascent’s unique “proxy” application process. Bankers could now collaborate directly with applicants—either by rescuing an abandoned application or by initiating an application on behalf of a customer and then passing it along for completion. “This ability to step in and help, without restarting the process, was a game-changer for us and for our customers,” the executive said.

From Abandonment to Completion

The impact was immediate. Application completion rates jumped from less than 50% to 80%, and full onboarding and funding rates increased from roughly 25% to 40% nearly doubling new business deposit acquisition. Treasury onboarding was also transformed. By embedding treasury products into the same flow, bankers could now collaborate with business customers to set up ACH, wires, and positive pay from day one. The result was less manual work for the deposit operations team and higher uptake of add-on products by new customers.

“Before Ascent, the account opening process was seriously hampering our growth objectives,” the executive explained. “Now we’ve turned that around. Twice as many businesses are completing the process, and we’re adding more fee-based products to those relationships right from the start.”

A Better Experience for All

The streamlined experience has benefited every stakeholder. For customers, the process is faster, easier, and less paper-intensive. For bankers, the proxy application and collaboration tools have turned abandoned opportunities into completed relationships. For the bank itself, the solution has unlocked meaningful growth in deposits while reducing operational strain.

“Ultimately, we wanted to meet our business customers where they are,” the executive reflected. “With Ascent, we’re finally able to deliver a digital onboarding experience that matches the quality of service we’ve always offered in person. It’s been a win across the board.”