I spent 22 years inside a $1.2B credit union, the last eight running digital banking. Now at ebankIT, I help banks and credit unions make digital platform decisions they can defend to their board and their members.
From the buyer's chair
01 · Both sides of the table
Most people in digital banking have worked on one side. I spent two decades inside a financial institution, then moved to a digital banking platform. That gives me a view of the same decision from both chairs.
Inside the FI · 2003 to 2025
Twenty-two years inside the institution, from the network that ran it to the digital channel members used most. I know what a platform decision feels like when your name is on it.
At the vendor · 2025 to today
I work with banks and credit unions on the decisions I used to make myself: where the digital channel needs to go, what it should cost, and which partners belong in it. I know the questions a board will ask because I have answered them.
02 · What I do today at ebankIT
ebankIT builds an omnichannel digital banking platform for banks and credit unions. Here is how I'd talk through each part with your team.
ebankIT's direction is AI in every banking interaction, personalized for each member and customer.
“Can we explain what the AI just did, to a member and to an examiner?”
The question is never whether AI is impressive. It is whether a member feels understood, and whether the institution can explain what the AI did.
Onboarding, everyday banking, payments, and support, designed as one journey.
“Which of these features will our members actually use every week?”
The features that mattered most were the ones members used weekly. Adoption is the real scoreboard. A beautiful feature nobody opens is a cost, not an asset.
No platform does everything alone. The right fintech partners extend what an institution can offer.
“What does this partner change for members, and what does it cost to stop?”
Every new partner is another contract, another integration, and another exit fee someday.
A clear login, a fraud alert that makes sense, a fast answer when something looks wrong.
“Will members feel safer, or just more friction?”
Members rarely notice security when it works. They notice the friction and the silence when it does not. Good digital trust is security that explains itself.
03 · The journey
Every step taught me something I still use with institutions today.
1997 to 1999
The Johns Hopkins Hospital
Where I learned to stay calm with people who are not.
1999 to 2003
Honda of America Mfg.
Secure network operations for more than 7,000 users.
2003 to 2017
Honda Federal Credit Union
Fourteen years securing data centers and the network behind digital banking. Where I learned to hold a vendor to what it sold.
2017
Honda Federal Credit Union
Built the digital banking department from zero and led its team for eight years.
The platform decision
A nine-month, board-sponsored evaluation with a normalized cost model, peer calls on every side of the decision, and a recommendation I put my name on. Then I led the conversion.
Alongside the day job
Six years in Q2 governance, including two holding the Voice of the Credit Union seat on its Executive Team. Seats on the FIS Digital Payments Advisory Board and the Corporate One and Sherpa Technologies CUSO Innovation Council.
2025 to today
Digital banking platform for banks and credit unions
The other side of the same table. Helping institutions make the decisions I used to make, with the honesty I wanted from vendors back then.
04 · How I think about members and customers
Tap a step to see what I look for. These are the moments where trust is earned or lost.
On boardsYour board isn't buying software, it's buying confidence.
On business casesA business case that names the risk is the one that survives the meeting.
On numbersA model that cannot survive a skeptical CFO is not worth presenting.
On peopleTrust begins when people feel understood.
05 · The five-year picture
A quick look at how I frame a stay-or-switch decision. Move the sliders. Nothing is stored and nothing leaves this page.
Illustrative only. Assumes a $1.2B institution with 48,000 digital users, a 5% annual increase to stay, a similar annual cost to switch rising 4%, $38 of value per active digital user, and adoption ramping over five years. A real model is built on your contract and your numbers.
Talk through the full model06 · Follow the conversation
#JerryReeseBanking
I write and speak for the people who have to run digital banking: practitioners, executives, and the teams who support members after go-live. No vendor-speak. I keep learning in public too, with certificates in generative AI from Anthropic and AWS, plus product and UX training.
07 · Connect
If you are building for financial institutions, weighing a platform decision, or just want to talk about how members and customers really use digital banking, I would like to hear from you.
