Mercantile Bank of Michigan, which recently acquired its Michigan neighbor Firstbank, is preparing an overhaul of its consumer-facing digital banking systems to take place on October 23, 2013. At 7 AM on that date, the bank’s mobile, online and bill pay platforms will come together with a single sign-on.
“A unified look and feel with functionality consolidated within one UI is a big step in making [the site] easier to use,” CIO John Schulte told Bank Innovation.
Mercantile Bank, informally known as MercBank, is based in Grand Rapids, Mich. The bank is known for its tech leadership, particularly savvy partnerships with innovative companies such as PayPal, bill.com and MoneyDesktop.
The bank is preparing its customers for the switch via various channels including social media, such as this blog post. At the same time, the bank is dealing with its recent merger/acquisition of regional rival Firstbank.
Firstbank customers will migrate to the Mercbank platform in early 2014.
“First Bank customers will be getting a dramatic improvement with their migration to our digital delivery channels, and this is one of the big selling points to their customers about this merger,” Schulte said.
The combined bank will use the Mercantile name and will hold assets totaling $2.8 billion, loans of $2.0 billion and deposits of $2.4 billion. The new bank will field 53 branches to serve the combined customer base.