UMB Bank, n.a., a subsidiary of UMB Financial Corporation (Nasdaq: UMBF), announced today it has joined a consortium of community and mid-sized banks to more effectively and efficiently adopt technology. The goal of the consortium is to quicken the pace of innovation, helping to level the playing field and enable institutions like UMB to compete against large, national players.

Alloy Labs Alliance was launched in 2018 by twelve founding banks from across the country and has grown to over 50 institutional members.

“We are excited to join the Alliance and take advantage of the valuable opportunities it presents for us to interact, learn and share experiences and best practices with our peers who seek to stay on top of changing issues and trends in the banking industry,” said Austin Braithwait, executive vice president, executive director for Institutional & Fintech Banking Services at UMB. “By discussing how we deal with our common challenges and considering together how we might approach new ones, we hope to bring additional knowledge and insight to our teams and continually improve our organization, particularly as it relates to our Banking as a Service (BaaS) offering and clients.”

Members of the Alloy Labs Alliance accelerate their transformation agendas through proprietary insights and collaborative workgroups, tackling the challenges of differentiating themselves in a competitive industry. Members also participate in the group’s Concept Lab, a reverse accelerator program that builds partnerships between banks and startups that provide services outside of traditional banking.

“We are excited that UMB has joined the Alloy Labs Alliance,” said Jason Henrichs, CEO of the Alloy Labs Alliance. “They bring a strong commitment to serving their customers, and also a strong commitment to continuous improvement. We are looking forward to their contributions to the group’s efforts.”

“No bank can afford not to innovate in this day and age, but it’s not very efficient or even very effective for them to try to do it all themselves internally,” added Alloy Labs cofounder JP Nicols. “Member banks share the costs and the risks of testing and trying new things in a structured and managed process, and maybe most importantly they share the learnings so they can get to market more quickly.”

About the Alloy Labs Alliance:

Alloy Labs is a member-driven shared innovation lab that helps banks operationalize innovation. Leveraging the network effects of over 50 institutions, our members are able to reduce risks, lower costs, and shorten the time between ideas and results. We do this by generating proprietary insights, developing partnerships, and making strategic investments. Alloy Labs also operates The Concept Lab, a reverse accelerator that helps banks cement relationships with startups accepted into the program, and the Alloy Alchemist Fund, a strategic investment group that invests in startup partners. For more information visit www.alloylabs.com.

About UMB:

UMB Financial Corporation (Nasdaq: UMBF) is a financial services company headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri. UMB offers commercial banking, which includes comprehensive deposit, lending and investment services, personal banking, which includes wealth management and financial planning services, and institutional banking, which includes asset servicing, corporate trust solutions, investment banking, and healthcare services. UMB operates branches throughout Missouri, Illinois, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Arizona and Texas, and serves business and institutional clients nationwide. For more information, visit UMB.com, UMB Blog, UMB Facebook and UMB LinkedIn, or follow us on Twitter at @UMBBank. For information about UMB’s operations, approach and relief measures during the COVID-19 pandemic, please visit umb.com/COVID-19.

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