Kasasa®, formerly BancVue®, an award-winning financial technology and marketing provider, ended the year with record-setting sales. The company’s network of Kasasa clients has posted a 45 percent annual growth rate since 2009, with 2015 crowning this remarkable growth and beating the company’s own objective for new clients. As a result, the Kasasa brand now represents the sixth largest banking branch network in the nation.

In addition to its legacy product offerings that helped define the industry, Kasasa continues to enjoy popularity of its Kasasa-branded free, rewards-based consumer checking and savings products exclusively for credit unions and community banks. The company ended the year with a total of 374 signed CFIs that offer Kasasa accounts, representing 2,299 branches across 47 states and more than 968,000 accounts. If all of the CFIs who offer the Kasasa branded checking and savings account products were combined into a single bank, they would be the sixth largest bank in the country, as measured by branch reach.

Currently, the company has a client base of 779 signed and launched community financial institutions (CFIs) across all product offerings, representing 6,713 branches in all 50 states as well as Guam and D.C. The corporation more than doubled the number of new clients acquired compared to 2014.

“In a time where technology is constantly changing, community institutions are trying to resolve how to provide consumers with services they want with limited resources,” said Gabe Krajicek, CEO of Kasasa. “At Kasasa, we give smaller institutions the opportunity to provide products that compete with megabanks while leveraging their superior customer service. We’re passionate about the work we do for our customers and will continue to create products that consumers appreciate. We’re looking forward to even greater in 2016.”

Kasasa accounts reduce non-interest expense and have a 92 percent annual retention rate, which represents 33 percent lower attrition than the average free checking account. According to the 2015 Consumer Banking Insights (CBI) Study, the majority of consumers feel the most important factors when choosing an institution are no fees on checking and savings accounts, rewards and cash back. In fact, megabank customers are two times more likely than CFI customers to feel scammed by bank fees, and 23 percent say more or higher fees are a disadvantage of where they bank. To meet consumer needs and better compete with megabanks, Kasasa works with CFIs to provide products and services that deliver a compelling consumer value through its rewards and marketing services.

Gulf Coast Community Federal Credit Union is one of those CFIs. According to Debbie Pidek, Executive Vice President, Communications/CCO, at the credit union, “Consumer sentiment of megabanks continues to remain poor. In response, we must continue to leverage our key differentiators: a sense of community and personal service. That, coupled with Kasasa’s products, is enabling us to remain competitive and provide superior service to our members now and well into the future.”

Southern Bank can attest to these operational benefits. “The needs of our bank change just as often as our customers, and we needed products and services that addressed our objectives while still providing customers what they expect,” said Tiffany Williams, VP, Retail Products Officer at Southern Bank. “Kasasa’s products are customized to meet our bank’s needs while delivering substantial value to our customers. In turn, we saw overall customer engagement increase, we dramatically lowered cost of deposits and we increased profitability. Their products are truly unique and allow us to provide even better service to our communities.”

About Kasasa

Kasasa® is the innovative leader in branded, community-powered banking products proven to drive profit and growth for community financial institutions. With unprecedented access to training, compliance, research, support resources and customized consulting, Kasasa’s flagship suite provides a research-based strategy leveraging the power of a branded relationship platform. Kasasa is making community financial institutions the topic of conversation for happy consumers nationwide. For more information, please visit www.kasasa.com, or visit them on Twitter @Kasasa, Facebook, or LinkedIn.