First Northern Bank has joined Alloy Labs Alliance, a consortium of community banks cooperating to develop innovative technologies for smaller banks.
As part of the membership, the Dixon-based bank gets access to Payrailz, which offers a digital open payments technology called "CHUCK" that allows users to send money digitally to people who use other banks.
“Being a part of Alloy Labs Alliance has been a game changer for First Northern Bank. CHUCK is an innovative approach to peer-to-peer payments and allows community banks to strongly compete within the digital payments space,” said First Northern CEO Louise Walker, in a news release. She added that the technology has become a preferred delivery option for many day-to-day transactions. The bank will offer the technology in the first quarter of 2022.
Founded in 2018 by 12 community and mid-sized banks, Alloy Labs Alliance now has more than 50 member banks, according to its LinkedIn page.
First Northern is the first member bank in California.
Walker said that Alloy Labs allows the group to develop shared technology at a reasonable price.
“The members of Alloy Labs Alliance are committed to dispelling the myth that community banks can’t be cutting edge,” she said.
Payrailz allows community banks to access a service similar to Zelle, a product of Scottsdale, Arizona-based Early Warning Services LLC, which is in turn owned by Wells Fargo Bank, Bank of America, U.S. Bank, JPMorgan Chase and other large national banks. Zelle allows bank customers to send person-to-person, business-to-consumer and government-to-consumer payments digitally.
Founded in 1910, First Northern is the oldest local community bank. It has 11 branches from Fairfield to Auburn, including seven in the Sacramento area.
