This week, two Wilmington-based financial technology companies announced they have entered new partnerships to enhance their products.
 
Apiture, a digital banking tech firm, unveiled a report designed to help banks and credit unions assess their data management capabilities and address shortcomings. The publication, Improving Your Financial Institution’s Data IQ, was developed through a research partnership with Scottsdale, Arizona-based Cornerstone Advisors. It establishes a new framework – called Data IQ – to enable financial institutions to benchmark their use of data against industry standards and identify areas needing improvement.
 
Cloud-based banking software provider nCino announced a partnership with Chicago-based Lamina aimed at simplifying syndication and participation loan processes. The technology, now available on nCino’s platform, uses “data aggregation, increased transparency among providers and comprehensive management of the entire loan lifecycle,” according to a news release.
 
Syndication and participation loan processes are used when multiple lenders want to provide funds to a single borrower, but each lender differs in how the loan is structured and in its relationship to the borrower. Lamina designs and deploys commercial loan syndication and participation portal technology that, according to the release, increases collaborative workflows and document management capabilities, leading to reduced operational bottlenecks, improved transparency and faster turnaround times.

“The integration with Lamina extends the options financial institutions have to simplify complex participation workflows, and we're proud to be partnered to offer these capabilities more seamlessly,” Petra Sheaffer, nCino’s associate director of global technology partnerships, said in the release.

On Wednesday, she added that her company’s new relationship with Lamina adds to nCino’s ability to manage complex transactions.

“nCino’s partner ecosystem consists of more than 150 technical and system integration partners globally. This breadth of partnerships – including recent partner announcements with Pinwheel, Participate and Lamina – allows us to deliver flexibility, localization, and innovation at scale.
 
“By curating a strategic partner ecosystem, we help enable our customers to digitally manage every step of the user journey on one connected platform," Sheaffer added. “For the end user, this translates to quicker decisions, fewer back-and-forths, and improved experiences with their financial institution.”

Across town, Apiture is touting its new Data IQ Report. The report is based on new research commissioned from Cornerstone Advisors, a consulting group to banks, credit unions and financial technology firms nationwide. Report findings show that nearly three-quarters of financial institutions “are not considered high performers when it comes to effective management of their data,” Apiture’s website states.

The report is based on a March 2025 online survey of 128 senior executives from U.S. financial institutions. They were asked to rate their institution’s effective use of data in five key categories: customer data, market data, transaction data, operational data and data governance. Most survey respondents believe their companies are operating at about half of their Data IQ potential, the news release stated.

How can other financial institutions benefit from the report? The Data IQ framework allows such officials to gauge how effectively their institution is managing and using data, Correll Davis, a senior consultant within Cornerstone’s lending and operations practice, said Wednesday. While the report and framework are probably most useful for regional banks and credit unions, he said, it can be helpful for any financial institution that wants to compare itself with industry standards and to address shortcomings.  

“The tone of the Data IQ survey we released with Apiture is a self-identification of how well an institution feels about their Data IQ; how they stack up and where they need improvement,” Davis said. “Something we learned that’s interesting is that tying all five [data] categories together and using your entire institution’s data is really tricky to do. That’s where a lot of the gaps occur. There are so many disparate systems; departments might be very good at managing their own data, but it’s siloed.”

Improving data management – setting goals, changing habits and finding the right technologies – should happen before a financial institution adopts an Artificial Intelligence system, Davis said.

“A lot of banks and credit unions are considering greater use of AI,” he said. “Before they do, they need to understand their Data IQ as a precursor.”