Eastern Bank Named 2016 “Model Bank of the Year”

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Eastern Bank has won the top honor amongst more than 100 banks from across the world to earn Celent’s “Model Bank of the Year” for its Express Business Loan, which delivers working capital up to $100,000 within five minutes to small business owners. Eastern was recognized at Celent’s flagship event, Innovation and Insight Day, held at the Museum of American Finance in New York.

“We’re not aware of a faster and easier way to borrow money in the world – the tech we built is unlike anything else in the market,” said Dan O’Malley, Eastern Labs Founder and Eastern Bank’s Chief Digital Officer. “We’re proud to see Eastern’s work validated by Celent and look forward to working on more technology that challenges the status quo in banking.”

Celent, a global research and advisory firm for the financial service industry, annually recognizes “model banks” for their achievements in strategic development, degree of innovation, and business and customer impact of banking technology.

“Eastern has accomplished a significant feat in building an entirely new loan origination system from scratch in 14 months, using internal resources, and showed game changing results on par with anything that the most disruptive fintech company has achieved in this space,” said Dan Latimore, Senior Vice President at Celent. “We offer our sincere congratulations to Eastern Bank and Eastern Labs as Celent’s Model Bank of the Year.”

Eastern Labs, the bank’s technology incubator, earlier this year gained national attention when it eliminated the lengthy and cumbersome process of traditional small business lending with the introduction of the Express Business Loan.  The loan application can be completed in 1-2 minutes or an additional 2-3 minutes if a U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) guarantee.  Funds are then immediately deposited into the customer’s account.

Eastern Labs is in talks with several banks from across the United States to license the express platform, allowing them to compete and win in their communities.