San Francisco community banks serve neighborhood merchants, Chinatown families, real estate investors and nonprofits in a city where two well-known banks failed in 2023. ITServices.Tech looks after IT for San Francisco community banks as a managed service: people get help when something breaks, systems are defended and backed up, and leadership gets a technology plan.
Community banking in the Bay Area
Local banks in San Francisco, Oakland, Marin and the East Bay lend to restaurants, shops, contractors, nonprofits and owners of apartment buildings. Several serve Chinese American customers in Chinatown and the Sunset.
Lessons from 2023
When a Santa Clara bank and then a San Francisco bank failed in spring 2023, depositors moved money fast through online banking. Community banks now prepare for spikes in traffic and calls, clear messaging and close monitoring of large balance changes.
Examinations and incident notice
Examiners from DFPI come in for state charters, paired with the FDIC or the Fed, and the OCC handles national charters. Under the interagency computer security rule, once leadership concludes an event is a notification incident, the regulator must hear about it within a day and a half. The risk assessment is the bank’s document. Our part is operating whatever controls leadership delegates and filing the evidence.
Apartment and TIC lending
Loans on rent-controlled buildings and tenancy-in-common properties come with rent rolls, rent board petitions, buyout records and fractional ownership agreements. A secure upload portal for borrowers and a consistent folder layout for each loan let underwriters find what they need.
Wire and check fraud
Mail theft and check washing have hit San Francisco hard, and wire fraud targets business customers. Positive pay, dual approval, hardware keys for payment staff and call-backs to known numbers stop most losses.
If the bridges close
An earthquake could keep staff from reaching the city. A tested recovery site and staff who can work securely from home protect operations.
Our share of the work
The core processor stays with its vendor. Teller PCs, branch switches, email, loan software and remote access are ours to patch, monitor and repair, and the board gets a short written summary each quarter.
IT services for San Francisco 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.
California data rules to know
California’s privacy laws, including the CCPA, give residents rights over their personal information and raise the stakes of a breach.
Office hours in San Francisco
Office hours for San Francisco clients are Monday to Friday, 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM Pacific, in your own time zone.
Read more about IT for community banks, managed IT services in San Francisco or all IT services in San Francisco.
Sources
- California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation
- 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
- California Attorney General: CCPA