Member Spotlight: Horicon Bank

A Community Bank Offers a Seamless, Personalized Savings Solution

A Community Bank Offers a Seamless, Personalized Savings Solution

The progressive leaders at Horicon Bank, a community financial institution in Wisconsin and Macha/PAR member, decided to make savings a cinch for their members.

Horicon Bank introduced RoboSave, a completely automatic savings tool, in March 2020 after bringing in talent from the fintech company who developed RoboSave’s software. RoboSave pulls the account holder’s transaction history and continually analyzes spending patterns to help them build a savings net and reach personal savings goals. The optional Auto Save Feature will automatically transfer funds every two days based on the user’s checking account balance and daily spending.

Christian Ruppe, Vice President of Digital Banking at Horicon Bank, is one of RoboSave’s developers. Ruppe observed that, while there were budgeting tools available like Acorns or Digit, there were no solutions with personalized automated savings tools for financial institutions to offer their members.

“People trust their financial institutions,” begins Ruppe, “and that’s where their money is being held. Third-party apps have to be connected to the person’s bank account and moving their money takes time. RoboSave is fully integrated into our users’ bank accounts and they have access to their money in real-time. We wanted them to have access to their money when they need it. That’s the point of a savings net.”

Mark Nelson is the Executive Vice President and CIO/COO at Horicon Bank, Chairman on PAR’s Board of Directors, and a member of the Macha Board of Directors. He adds that RoboSave is not only fast, it’s flexible and more personalized than a split deposit.

Nelson shares, “The average employer savings program often encourages employees to roll $5 or another small amount over from each paycheck, but what if they have more they can put aside?” RoboSave users don’t have to put any extra thought into it than they would a split deposit, and it will simply roll over what each member can afford. If the person needs the money out of their savings account, they can easily transfer it back or make a withdrawal any time.

Ruppe and Nelson express their desire to do more to educate and enable their customers to increase their savings and, therefore, their overall financial stability.

“We are the financial center of many of our customers’ lives,” Ruppe acknowledges. “We want to make their lives easier and we want them to feel safe. As technology improves, we want to offer them better solutions.”

As a dedicated thought leader in the payments space, Nelson has always believed in connecting banks with their customers in better ways. He agrees financial institutions like Horicon Bank should keep taking steps to make it easier for people to work with their banks, which includes financial literacy and providing solutions like RoboSave.

Since its launch, RoboSave has helped its users save over $40,000 collectively. This includes members from other community banks who saw the opportunity in the tool and started offering it to their customers as well.

Community financial institutions like Horicon Bank make a huge impact when they step forward, developing and offering the best solutions available and putting their customers’ needs first.

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