Builtwell Bank · Executive Brief

Builtwell earns more on every relationship than its peers. The opportunity is having more of them.

A $2.3 billion Chattanooga community bank with a 4.71% net interest margin, a 45.3% efficiency ratio, and 65,286 deposit relationships that are each worth roughly $1,434 a year.
MX · Empowering the world to be financially strong
The Case in Brief

The margin is already won. The next lever is the number of relationships behind it.

Builtwell turns a dollar of funding into earnings better than almost anyone in its peer group. Net interest margin runs 4.71% against a peer 3.82%. The efficiency ratio is 45.32% against 62.33%. Cost of funding is 1.55% where peers pay 2.01%, and 100% of deposits are relationship money rather than wholesale. All of it says the same thing: a customer is worth more at Builtwell than at the bank down the street.

Which is why the relationship count is the number worth watching. At an average balance of $30,443 and that same margin, one deposit relationship carries roughly $1,434 a year in net interest income. Over the twelve months ending March 31, 2026, the account base moved from about 66,500 to 65,286 while core deposits grew 0.10% against a peer 4.68%. The balance sheet is ready for whatever comes back: at 76.55% loan to deposit, there is room to put new money to work.

The core finding

Builtwell's economics reward relationship volume more than almost any peer in its class. Growing core deposits at the peer rate would represent roughly $91 million in new deposits, which at Builtwell's own margin is about $4.3 million a year in net interest income. That counts no fee income, no interchange, and none of the lending it would fund.

"make banking better and easier for all of our customers across this expanded footprint"
Patti W. Steele, Chairman and CEO, Builtwell Bancorp, on the Bank of Cleveland partnership
Where Builtwell Stands

Seven numbers, measured against peers

Regulatory financial data for the period ending March 31, 2026. Peer group is FI Navigator's strategic focus cohort of medium commercial real estate lenders.

MetricBuiltwellWhat it signals
Net interest margin, tax equivalentPeer group: 3.82%4.71%Every deposit dollar earns more here than at a peer bank. This is the multiplier behind the whole model.
Efficiency ratioPeer group: 62.33%45.32%Already best in class. There is no cost story to tell here, which is why the growth story is the one that matters.
Loan to deposit ratioPeer group: 81.46%76.55%Funding is ample and liquidity is strong. New relationships can be deployed rather than parked.
Core deposit growth, twelve monthsPeer group: 4.68%0.10%The single largest gap to peers, and the one with the most direct path to earnings.
Change in deposit accounts, twelve monthsPeer group: -0.27%-1.77%About 1,176 relationships. At Builtwell's own margin that is roughly $1.7 million of annual net interest income to win back.
Average deposit balancePeer group: $45,273$30,443Room to deepen. Balance per relationship is where primacy shows up on the balance sheet.
Mobile banking enrollmentPeer group: 37.92%53.63%The front door is already open and well ahead of peers. The opportunity is what happens once customers are inside.
The Growth Story

Five levers, one mechanism

All five run on the same thing: clean, categorized transaction data about where a customer's money actually lives, delivered inside the digital experience Builtwell already owns.

01 · Deposits

Find the paychecks landing somewhere else

Enriched transaction data shows which account holders route payroll elsewhere and which hold balances outside the bank. Those customers get a guided switch inside digital banking rather than a branch form.

100% of Builtwell deposits are relationship deposits. No wholesale cushion, so growth has to come from primary relationships.
02 · Loans

Turn 65,286 account holders into a pipeline

Cash flow, income and obligation data identifies who is carrying a loan elsewhere and who can support one now. Instant account verification shortens funding and reduces application abandonment.

Loan commitments moved -5.55% over the period while peers grew 3.36%, and at 76.55% loan to deposit there is capacity waiting.
03 · Interchange

Move recurring spend onto the Builtwell card

Transaction data reveals where card spend and recurring bills go today. Targeted placement inside digital banking moves those payments onto the Builtwell card, lifting interchange and deepening the operating relationship at once.

Noninterest income already runs at 0.77% of average earning assets against a peer 0.39%. The card lever compounds a strength.
04 · Primacy

Close the balance depth gap

Primacy is not enrollment, it is behavior: direct deposit, bill pay, card on file, and a reason to open the app between paydays. Builtwell already has the enrollment. Depth is the next step.

Mobile enrollment 53.63% and online enrollment 60.23%, both well ahead of peers, while average balance sits 33% below the peer figure.
05 · Longevity

Hold the relationships the franchise just acquired

Account attrition steepened through the quarters following the Bank of Cleveland integration, the normal pattern for an acquired book. Customers with a direct deposit and an active digital habit behave very differently from passive ones.

Account change by quarter: +0.73%, -0.16%, -1.25%, -1.52%, -1.77% across the five periods ending March 31, 2026.
The through line

One data layer, five outcomes

Deposits, loans, interchange, primacy and longevity are not five projects. They are five reports off the same enriched data set, delivered through the digital banking platform Builtwell already runs.

MX processes more than 150 million transactions a day across 13,000 or more institution and fintech connections.
The Model

One assumption, one published rate

The only variable is how much deposit growth Builtwell believes it can capture. Everything else comes from Builtwell's own reported figures.

$1,434
Annual net interest income carried by one average deposit relationship
$91M
Additional deposits if core deposit growth matched the peer rate
$4.3M
Annual net interest income at Builtwell's own reported margin

The arithmetic is simple enough to check without a spreadsheet. 65,286 accounts at an average balance of $30,443 is about $1.99 billion in deposits. Peers grew core deposits 4.68% against Builtwell's 0.10%, and that 4.58 point difference on the deposit base is roughly $91 million. At a 4.71% margin, about $4.3 million a year.

Model Inputs

Net interest margin, tax equivalentReported
4.71%
Deposit accountsReported
65,286
Average deposit balanceReported
$30,443
Total depositsDerived, accounts times average balance
$1.99B
Peer core deposit growthReported
4.68%
Builtwell core deposit growthReported
0.10%

Projected Annual Impact

$4.3M
Annual net interest income from closing the deposit growth gap to the peer rate
Winning back the 1,176 relationships that came off the books
$1.7M
Matching the peer core deposit growth rate, about $91M
$4.3M
Peer rate plus a 5% deepening of existing balances, about $190M
$9.0M
Why this number is conservative

The model counts no fee income, no interchange, and no compounding from the lending that new funding supports. It credits nothing to the loan, card and retention levers above. Where it may run ahead of itself: at 76.55% loan to deposit, a marginal deposit dollar is not immediately deployed at the full portfolio margin, so the near term figure is lower and rises as that dollar funds loans.

Published Results

The same mechanism, at other institutions

Every figure below is published and attributable. These are client outcomes, not projections for Builtwell.

Deposits
40x
Global Credit Union
Increase in direct deposits added within 72 hours of implementing MX Direct Deposit. Insights identified members holding deposits elsewhere, and the switch happened inside digital banking rather than at a branch.
Maps to Builtwell: with 100% relationship funding and 0.10% core deposit growth, the fastest available deposit dollar is the paycheck already belonging to an existing customer.
Source: MX Technologies news release, March 6, 2025
Interchange
$1.5M
Global Credit Union
Annual recurring revenue from a roughly four month card campaign, plus more than 1,700 new card accounts. Targeted messaging inside mobile banking prompted cardholders to move recurring bills onto the card.
Maps to Builtwell: noninterest income is already a strength at roughly double the peer rate, and card spend is the one revenue line that grows without adding a dollar of balance sheet.
Source: MX client case study, mx.com
Primacy and longevity
15%
Mercantile Bank
Consumers who consistently viewed MX Insights held approximately 15% higher deposit balances and opened new deposit accounts at twice the rate of those who did not. They were also twice as likely to return within a day, 46% against 23%.
Maps to Builtwell: average balance runs 33% below peers and the acquired book is in its most vulnerable period. Depth and return frequency are the two behaviors in question.
Source: MX client case study, mx.com
Builtwell has already built the hard part: a 4.71% margin, a 45% efficiency ratio and a digital channel ahead of its peers. What is left is the part data solves, which is knowing which customer to talk to, about what, and when.
Stack Fit

A layer on the stack, not a replacement for it

MX operates as a data layer inside the digital banking experience Builtwell already runs. No core conversion, no platform migration, no change to the card program, no new front end for customers to learn. Builtwell is roughly four years into its current mobile banking vendor relationship against a peer average closer to nine, so the only project worth considering right now is one that adds capability rather than replacing a platform.

Core processingUnchanged. No conversion and no data migration
Retail digitalYour existing platform, with MX running as an embedded layer
Business digitalUnchanged, with Autobooks already handling invoicing
Card programMastercard issued through Velera, untouched
Lending systemsICE Encompass for mortgage, Finastra for consumer
Customer viewYour existing CRM, fed by enriched transaction data
Why this is low risk right now

Nine acquisitions sit in Builtwell's history, the most recent closing in 2025, and acquired customer records rarely arrive clean. Cleansed transaction data is what makes a single view of a customer possible across books that were never designed to talk to each other. That work pays off in all five levers, and it does not wait on a core roadmap.

Next Steps

Let's replace these estimates with your actual numbers.

1
A 30 minute working session to run this model against your real deposit mix, balances and account trends.
2
A walkthrough of Insights and Direct Deposit switching inside your existing digital banking experience.
3
A phased plan sequenced around the integration calendar, starting with the acquired book.
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