Cornerstone Advisors Announces 2024 GonzoBanker Award Winners

Company Hosts Awards Live for First Time

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., Dec. 31, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Cornerstone Advisors, a leading management and technology consultancy for banks, credit unions and fintech firms, has announced its 24th Annual GonzoBanker Awards, the company's iconic tribute to notable people, companies, technologies and deals in the banking and fintech industries.

According to Steve Williams, Cornerstone CEO, banks and credit unions demonstrated remarkable performance this year in the face of accelerating complexity on many fronts, not the least of which was a difficult economic environment. "We salute the 'troublemakers' in the industry who balanced fundamental and complex challenges while continuing to improve customers' financial lives," said Williams.

Award categories included the Smarter Banks Awards, designed to celebrate extraordinary financial institutions that have modernized their businesses and grown in focused and strategic ways. These included:

• The Smarter Bank Hyper-Efficient Award, recognizing groundbreaking efficiency driven by digital self-service, process automation and artificial intelligence, went to Space Coast Credit Union in Melbourne, Fla. Under the leadership of CEO Tim Antonition, the credit union has demonstrated how leaning into new approaches to efficiency can yield a 2.5% non-interest expense/asset ratio in a full-service community credit union.
• The Smarter Bank Differentiated Award, recognizing institutions that forge distinct competitive positions and segmented brands, went to CEO Ken Vecchione and the team at Western Alliance Bancorporation. This $80 billion diverse franchise pursues unique niches with specific industry and credit expertise and has turned out a 3.61% net interest margin with only a .45% non-performing loan ratio.
• The Smarter Bank Nimble Award, recognizing banks and credit unions that understand the need to continually balance structure with "getting stuff out the door fast," went to CEO Anthony Notoand the team at SoFi in San Francisco. With breakout growth in its third-party loan platform and expansion of its Galileo technology platform, SoFi has many engines for future value creation, all while growing to more than 9 million today.

Other standouts:

• GonzoBanker of the Year (Regional Bank):Kevin Blair, chairman, CEO and president of Synovus, Columbus, Ga. Blair built a regional commercial bank whose stock is up 55% this year. Blair has shown a keen appreciation for how culture, customer loyalty, technology and product management are critical in creating value. His strategy for franchise value has yielded a 17% return on tangible common equity and double-digit growth in noninterest income for the past five years.
• GonzoBanker of the Year (Mid-Size Bank): Malcolm Holland, founder, chairman and CEO of Veritex Holdings, Dallas. Holland's category-killer dream has grown into a dynamic, efficient organization with $1.6 billion in market cap. The bank is delivering on its mission of "Bringing Truth, Transparency, and Integrity to Banking."
• GonzoBanker of the Year (Credit Union):Kim Sponem, CEO and president of Summit Credit Union, Cottage Grove, Wis. Sponem has led Summit from $200 million in assets to more than $7.5 billion, including the purchase of $835 million Commerce State Bank in West Bend, Wis. She has focused Summit on a core mission of empowering women, and others, to build financial security, wealth and avoid poverty in retirement.
• Bank Technology of the Year: Account opening fraud management. 2024 saw all kinds of progress in account opening fraud management from bank tech vendors that also helps save financial institutions from manual review work. Alloy, Sardine and Effective (acquired by Socure) are leaders in the fight for account opening fraud management.
• Fintech Startup Innovation of the Year: Laurel Taylor, founder and CEO of Candidly, launched the Student Loan Retirement Match Solution, enabling employers to match contributions to employees' retirement plans when their employees make student debt payments. The product helps people build long-term savings and employers improve talent retention.

For the first time, Cornerstone aired a live video version of select awards hosted by podcast hosts Ron Shevlin, Al Dominick, Steve Williams, Sam Kilmer and Mary Wisniewski. The program is available here. See the full list of awards on Cornerstone's blog.

About Cornerstone Advisors

For over 20 years, Cornerstone Advisors has delivered gritty insights, bold strategies and data-driven solutions to build smarter banks, credit unions and fintechs. For more information, visit www.crnrstone.com.

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SOURCE Cornerstone Advisors