Core banking
Guides to core banking: the ledger systems behind bank accounts, core conversions and API banking.
Core banking migration checklist: data to cutover
A practical checklist for data mapping, rehearsal, reconciliation, cutover and go-live control.
FedNow participation: how banks and cores connect
FedNow participation is set per routing number, and the core must post around the clock.
Ledger as a service: how fintechs keep the books
What a ledger API records, how it differs from a bank core, and why sponsor banks ask for its balances.
How to Choose a Core Banking System: A Selection Guide
Deployment, APIs, sub-accounts and exit terms decide core fit, and regulators now watch vendor contracts too.
Core banking migration: how banks switch core systems
Regulators now weigh deconversion fees and exit terms when they decide how closely to supervise core providers.
What Is API Banking? Bank APIs, BaaS and Open Banking
Three ways banks open accounts and payments to software, and where the CFPB open banking rule stands in 2026.
What Is Core Banking? Systems, Providers, Conversions
The ledger behind every bank account, who supplies it in the US, and why moving to a new core is a major project.
The core is the system of record that holds a bank’s accounts, balances and transactions. What is core banking covers the US core providers named in SEC filings, cloud and sidecar cores, and what a core conversion involves. API banking explains how banks expose accounts and payments through APIs, how that differs from BaaS platforms and open banking, and where the CFPB’s Section 1033 rule stands. Ledger as a service covers the program ledger a fintech keeps behind a pooled FBO account and what sponsor banks ask of it. FedNow participation covers participation types per routing number, master account settlement, certified service providers and the 24x7 posting a core needs for instant payments.
Two guides cover changing the core. How to choose a core banking system walks through deployment models, APIs, sub-accounts for fintech programs and exit terms, with what core vendors publish. Core banking migration covers conversion approaches, the steps, deconversion fees, the September 2026 regulator statement on core providers and what a fintech should ask when its sponsor bank converts.
Fintech programs meet the core through their sponsor bank: see what is banking as a service and best embedded finance apis.
Questions
What is a core banking system? The bank’s ledger: it opens accounts, posts transactions, calculates interest and fees, and holds the balances the bank reports.
What is a sidecar core? A second, newer core a bank runs next to its main system, often for a digital or fintech program.
What is a deconversion fee? The amount a core provider charges when a bank leaves before its contract ends.
What is API banking? Access to a bank’s accounts and payments through documented APIs, either directly from the bank or through a BaaS platform.