Houston community banks lend to energy service companies, real estate developers and family businesses, and examiners look closely at the IT behind that work. ITServices.Tech supports the IT behind Houston community banks, with one team for support, security and backups.
Community banking in Houston
Houston community banks compete with national banks by knowing local industries well: energy services, commercial real estate, construction, healthcare and the many small businesses across Harris, Fort Bend and Montgomery counties. Most run a hosted core, a small branch network and a lean operations and IT staff, which puts the weight on vendor management, documentation and steady daily support.
Regulators and incident notification
State-chartered banks in Texas are supervised by the Texas Department of Banking together with the FDIC or the Federal Reserve, and national banks by the OCC. Federal rules require a bank to notify its primary regulator as soon as possible, and no later than a day and a half, after it determines that a significant computer security incident has occurred.
Your bank owns its risk assessment and information security program. We provide the documentation, patch and backup records and security controls examiners review, and we work with your core provider and your own IT staff.
Keeping branches open through storms
Hurricanes and the 2021 winter storm showed how quickly Houston branches can lose power and internet. Backup connections at each branch, a plan for staff to work securely from home and documented recovery steps for every system keep lending and deposit operations running while buildings are closed.
Teller systems and the back office
Teller workstations, receipt printers, check scanners and signature pads have to work with the core every morning, and the back office handles loan files, deposit operations and wire transfers that need tighter access than anything else in the bank. We separate those systems on the network, manage devices the same way at every branch and keep records of every change, which makes examination requests easier to answer.
IT services for Houston community banks
- Locked-down workstations for wire and ACH work
- Email protection and call-back rules against payment fraud
- Branch networks that keep teller traffic, guest Wi-Fi and cameras apart
- Records of patching, access reviews and monitoring for examiners
Everything runs under one managed IT agreement, with the help desk, monitoring, patching, Microsoft 365, security and backups handled by the same team.
Software we support
We support the workstations, branch networks and secure access around your core, such as Jack Henry SilverLake, Fiserv Premier and FIS Horizon, along with digital banking platforms like Q2, Alkami and Banno and the workstations used for FedLine and ACH origination. Each vendor supports its own platform, and we work the case with them when a problem crosses over.
Texas data rules to know
Under Texas law, a business must notify affected people of a breach of their sensitive personal information within 60 days, and the Texas Attorney General within 30 days when 250 or more Texans are affected.
Office hours in Houston
Office hours for Houston clients are Monday to Friday, 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM Central, in your own time zone.
Read more about IT for community banks, managed IT services in Houston or all IT services in Houston.
Sources
- FDIC computer security incident notification, 12 CFR Part 304 Subpart C
- FFIEC IT Examination Handbook
- FDIC Rules and Regulations, 12 CFR Part 364 (Standards for Safety and Soundness)
- CISA: Require multifactor authentication
- Texas Business and Commerce Code 521.053
- Texas Attorney General: data breach reporting