Over the last few years a small CDFI bank in Kansas, CBW Bank, has become a secret weapon for fintech companies. These tech innovators rely on both CBW’s technology and status as a state-chartered bank to build their own businesses. The bank’s tech roots started when Suresh Ramamurthi, an ex-Google engineer, and his wife Suchitra Padmanabhan, a former Wall Street banker, purchased CBW Bank. Frustrated with the bank’s cumbersome back office software, Ramamuthi decided to build the tech tools he needed himself. After several years, he had built a platform layered on top of the bank’s older architecture that unglues customer bank accounts from segmented pay pipes. That makes activity within the account more transparent and enables CBW to gather real-time information on transactions.