Gate City Bank boosts digital use with Alkami tools

Alkami has reported new results from its work with Gate City Bank, covering the mutual bank's broader use of Alkami's digital banking, marketing and account opening products.

Gate City Bank, which has USD $4 billion in assets, reported a 63x average return on investment from data-driven marketing, a 61% increase in average monthly digital banking logins and about USD $650,000 in fraud losses deterred over the past six months.

The North Dakota-based lender first adopted Alkami for digital banking after reviewing more than 35 providers. It later added Alkami's data and marketing tools and MANTL account opening software as it worked to connect customer acquisition, onboarding and ongoing digital engagement.

The latest figures suggest the project went beyond a front-end app upgrade. The bank used the combined system to connect account opening, digital banking and marketing, while extending digital services across retail and commercial banking.

Marketing results

One of the clearest performance measures came from targeted marketing. Gate City launched more than 60 campaigns that influenced a face value of more than 29,000 customers and generated more than USD $541 million in cross-sell opportunities.

The bank attributed those results to its use of customer data to identify openings for additional products and services. Alkami presented the 63x average return on investment as evidence that community and regional banks can extract more value from existing customer relationships when marketing is integrated with digital banking data.

Digital use

Use of the bank's digital channels also increased after the migration. Average monthly digital banking logins rose 61% from the previous platform, while digital banking users increased by about 20%.

Gate City also reported that its mobile app reached a 4.9 store rating. While app ratings are only one measure of customer response, they add to the picture of stronger take-up after the platform change.

The update also highlighted commercial banking activity. Treasury ACH origination customers increased by 47.7% without any rise in full-time staffing, pointing to higher throughput rather than simple headcount growth.

Fraud controls

Fraud prevention was another area highlighted in the results. Through Alkami's partner network, Gate City used BioCatch to identify suspicious behaviour and reported a 97% account takeover capture rate.

Over the past six months, that approach helped deter about USD $650,000 in fraud losses. For banks weighing digital expansion, fraud monitoring remains central because higher digital use often increases exposure to account compromise and payment scams.

Account opening

Gate City most recently added digital account opening through MANTL Retail Account Opening. The system reduced average online retail account opening time to 4.65 minutes and gave staff better visibility into application status.

That matters because account opening often remains a weak point in retail banking journeys, especially when customers move between marketing prompts, application forms and online banking enrolment. By linking those steps more closely, the bank aimed to reduce drop-off and make it easier to bring new customers into its digital channels from the start.

Jessica Ebeling, Executive Vice President and Chief Digital and Payment Officer at Gate City Bank, described the bank's view of the project in direct terms.

"My team would go through a digital banking conversion again in a heartbeat if it meant we would be where we are today with the Alkami Digital Sales & Service Platform," said Ebeling. "We needed a true partner who could challenge us respectfully, bring digital best practices to the table, and help us build a platform for where we are going next. Alkami has helped our teams move from managing limitations to creating possibilities."

For Alkami, the case offers a reference point in a competitive market where banks often buy separate tools for onboarding, mobile banking, analytics and fraud detection. The company's argument is that a more unified setup can improve both customer activity and internal efficiency.

Benjamin Conant, Chief Product Officer at Alkami, said the Gate City programme showed the effects of combining those functions.

"Gate City Bank demonstrates what is possible when a financial institution moves beyond point solutions to a unified digital sales and service platform," said Conant. "By connecting account opening, digital banking, and data and marketing with Alkami, Gate City Bank is creating a continuous account holder journey that helps the bank acquire relationships more efficiently, engage account holders more intelligently, and grow lifetime value through every interaction. That's the future of digital banking, and it's exactly what the Alkami Digital Sales & Service Platform was built to deliver."