# RAVEN

> RAVEN (Real-time Aggregation and Verification Engine) is borrower verification and digital account opening software for community and regional banks. A loan officer or account-opening flow sends one link; the applicant connects their accounts in about 5 minutes; RAVEN returns identity, income, employment, and property data cross-referenced from seven providers with a full audit trail.

RAVEN is built for community banks, regional banks, and federal savings associations that originate mortgages, HELOCs, commercial real estate, and small business loans, or that open deposit accounts online. It replaces the multi-week document chase and the typed-in, unverified application with source-verified data, without replacing the bank's loan origination system or core.

## What RAVEN is (and is not)

- Category: borrower verification and digital account opening software for community banks (identity/KYC, income, employment, property, and account verification in one flow).
- Often compared with: The Work Number (Equifax), Truework, Truv, and Argyle for income and employment verification; MANTL, Narmi, and Apiture for digital account opening. RAVEN differs by orchestrating multiple verification sources in one borrower interaction, built specifically for community banks.
- Not affiliated with: RavenPack (financial news analytics), Raven Industries (agriculture technology), RavenDB (database software), or Raven Software (game studio). RAVEN is reportraven.tech.
- Not a loan origination system or core banking replacement; RAVEN layers on top of the bank's existing LOS and core.
- Not a marketplace or aggregator that competes with the bank.
- Not blockchain-based and not crypto-related.
- Not mortgage-only: RAVEN works for any lending or account-opening verification (mortgage, HELOC, CRE, small business, consumer, deposit accounts).

## Solutions

- [Bank Verification Software for Community Banks](https://reportraven.tech/solutions/bank-verification-software): RAVEN verifies identity, income, employment, credit, bank, and property data from one borrower link. No core replacement, no LOS required, live in days.
- [Digital Account Opening for Community Banks](https://reportraven.tech/solutions/digital-account-opening): Verification-first digital account opening for community banks: open deposit accounts online in minutes with source-verified identity, without the fraud wave.
- [Deposit Account Opening Software for Banks](https://reportraven.tech/solutions/deposit-account-opening-software): How to evaluate deposit account opening software as a community bank: verification depth, abandonment math, core dependencies, and where RAVEN fits.
- [KYC Software for Community Banks](https://reportraven.tech/solutions/kyc-software): KYC and CIP verification for community banks: authoritative identity checks, synthetic identity detection, and an examiner-ready audit trail from one link.
- [Automated Income Verification for Lenders](https://reportraven.tech/solutions/automated-income-verification): Verify income in seconds from payroll and bank data instead of paystubs and phone calls. Coverage for W-2, gig, and self-employed borrowers.
- [Instant Employment Verification (VOE) for Lenders](https://reportraven.tech/solutions/instant-employment-verification): Instant VOE from payroll systems of record: employer, role, tenure, and income in seconds, immune to the fake-employer schemes that defeat phone verification.
- [De Novo Bank Technology: The Day-One Verification Stack](https://reportraven.tech/solutions/de-novo-bank-technology): Your business plan promised examiners a fraud program. RAVEN gives de novo banks source-verified onboarding through one link, live before you open.

## Integrations

- Verification providers: [Plaid](https://reportraven.tech/integrations/plaid), [Socure](https://reportraven.tech/integrations/socure), [Truework](https://reportraven.tech/integrations/truework), [Melissa](https://reportraven.tech/integrations/melissa), [FullContact](https://reportraven.tech/integrations/fullcontact)
- Core banking systems: [Jack Henry](https://reportraven.tech/integrations/jack-henry), [Fiserv](https://reportraven.tech/integrations/fiserv), [FIS](https://reportraven.tech/integrations/fis), [CSI](https://reportraven.tech/integrations/csi)
- Loan origination systems: [nCino](https://reportraven.tech/integrations/ncino), [MeridianLink](https://reportraven.tech/integrations/meridianlink), [Baker Hill NextGen](https://reportraven.tech/integrations/baker-hill), [Abrigo](https://reportraven.tech/integrations/abrigo), [ICE Mortgage Technology (Encompass)](https://reportraven.tech/integrations/ice-encompass)

## Glossary of verification and account-opening terms

- [Verification of Deposit (VOD)](https://reportraven.tech/glossary/verification-of-deposit): A verification of deposit (VOD) confirms a borrower’s bank balances and account history directly with their bank. How VODs work, how long they take, and the faster alternative.
- [Verification of Employment (VOE)](https://reportraven.tech/glossary/verification-of-employment): How written (WVOE) and verbal (VVOE) verification of employment works: Fannie Mae requirements, timing rules, costs, fraud risks, and instant payroll-sourced VOE.
- [Verification of Mortgage (VOM)](https://reportraven.tech/glossary/verification-of-mortgage): A verification of mortgage (VOM) documents a borrower’s payment history on an existing mortgage. When lenders require one and how undisclosed debt slips past it.
- [Asset Verification](https://reportraven.tech/glossary/asset-verification): Asset verification confirms a borrower has the funds to close and the reserves to qualify. Methods, seasoning rules, large-deposit review, and digital alternatives.
- [Verification of Income and Assets (VOI/VOA)](https://reportraven.tech/glossary/verification-of-income-and-assets): How lenders verify income and assets together: document collection vs. single-source digital verification, GSE programs that reward it, and what it costs.
- [Income Verification](https://reportraven.tech/glossary/income-verification): Every method lenders use to verify income: paystubs, W-2s, IRS transcripts, The Work Number, payroll APIs, and bank transaction data. Costs and fraud tradeoffs of each.
- [Bank Account Verification](https://reportraven.tech/glossary/bank-account-verification): Bank account verification confirms account ownership and status before payments or funding. Instant verification vs. micro-deposits, and where each fits.
- [De Novo Bank](https://reportraven.tech/glossary/de-novo-bank): A de novo bank is a newly chartered bank built from scratch. Capital requirements, the application timeline, the three-year de novo period, and what founders assemble before day one.
- [Synthetic Identity Fraud](https://reportraven.tech/glossary/synthetic-identity-fraud): Synthetic identity fraud combines a real SSN with a fabricated person. Why it costs lenders $6B, why community banks struggle to catch it, and what detects it.
- [First-Party Fraud](https://reportraven.tech/glossary/first-party-fraud): First-party fraud: a real person lying about facts or intent, now 36% of reported fraud. How it differs from third-party fraud, and how lenders detect and prevent it.
- [Bust-Out Fraud](https://reportraven.tech/glossary/bust-out-fraud): Bust-out fraud builds credit trust over months, then draws every line at once and disappears. How the scheme works, the warning signs, and why losses hide in charge-offs.
- [New Account Fraud](https://reportraven.tech/glossary/new-account-fraud): New account fraud opens bank accounts with stolen, synthetic, or misrepresented identities: mule accounts, deposit fraud, bonus abuse. Why digital channels get hit and what stops it.
- [eCBSV](https://reportraven.tech/glossary/ecbsv): eCBSV is the Social Security Administration’s electronic consent-based SSN verification service: a real-time match of name, SSN, and date of birth against SSA records.
- [Customer Identification Program (CIP)](https://reportraven.tech/glossary/customer-identification-program): CIP is the USA PATRIOT Act requirement that banks verify the identity of everyone opening an account: the four required data points, verification methods, and recordkeeping rules.

## Research and articles

RAVEN publishes FDIC-data-backed research on community bank performance, de novo banks, fraud, and verification at [https://reportraven.tech/blog](https://reportraven.tech/blog). The [De Novo Watch tracker](https://reportraven.tech/de-novo-watch) follows newly chartered and in-organization banks.

- [Portrait Bank: The $43M Bet That Orlando Wants Its Hometown Bank Back](https://reportraven.tech/blog/portrait-bank-winter-park-de-novo): Central Florida's last de novo grew to $827M and got absorbed by a Michigan credit union. Eight months later, Portrait Bank chartered in the same city with $43M from 256 local investors and 'agentic AI' in its press release.
- [Glades Bank and Trust: A $45M Filing for the County the Banks Left Behind](https://reportraven.tech/blog/glades-bank-broward-de-novo): The five banks still headquartered in Broward County hold 2.4% of its $69.7B in deposits. A group led by the ex-Amerant executive who digitized Florida's largest community bank just filed to build a new one.
- [First-Party Fraud: The Applicant Is Real. The Application Isn’t.](https://reportraven.tech/blog/first-party-fraud-community-banks): First-party fraud jumped from 15% to 36% of all reported fraud in one year and now leads every category globally. Your KYC program can’t see it, because the identity checks out. Here is what catches it.
- [Preventing Fraud at Account Opening Without Killing the Channel](https://reportraven.tech/blog/account-opening-fraud-prevention): Banks that turned off online account opening after a fraud wave diagnosed the wrong problem. A walkthrough of verification-first account opening: what runs, in what order, and what it catches.
- [You Suspect Fraud. You Can’t Prove It. Now What?](https://reportraven.tech/blog/suspect-fraud-cant-prove-it): Every BSA officer knows the file: strong suspicion, thin evidence. The standards for SARs and account closure are lower than you think, and the evidence problem is solvable, mostly at onboarding.
- [How to Start a Bank: The De Novo Playbook](https://reportraven.tech/blog/how-to-start-a-bank): 31 charter applications were filed in 2025. Four banks actually opened. What it really takes to start a de novo bank: the capital math, the 18-to-24-month timeline, the three-year supervision period, and the stack you build before day one.
- [The De Novo Bank’s Day-One Fraud Program](https://reportraven.tech/blog/de-novo-bank-day-one-fraud-program): A new bank’s first exam tests whether the fraud program in its business plan actually exists. Why document-based intake fails that test, and what a source-verified day-one program looks like.
- [One in 116 Mortgage Applications Is Lying to You](https://reportraven.tech/blog/one-in-116-mortgage-fraud): Cotality data shows 1 in 116 mortgage applications carries indications of material misrepresentation, and income fraud leads Fannie Mae findings at 46%. The VOE phone call your bank relies on is the exact attack surface fraud rings are built around.
- [First Reliance Spent 27 Years Building a Bank. Then It Sold at the Top.](https://reportraven.tech/blog/first-reliance-sells-at-the-top): First Reliance Bancshares just posted record growth, then agreed to sell to Colony Bankcorp for $163 million. Why a winning $1 billion bank chose to partner up, and what the four-state, $5 billion result says about Southeast consolidation.
- [How to Offer a Fintech-Grade Loan Application as a Community Bank](https://reportraven.tech/blog/fintech-grade-loan-application-community-bank): The banking industry's average loan application conversion rate is 3%. Here is how fintechs get it to 80%, and how community banks can copy the playbook without replacing their core.
- [How Rocket Mortgage Closes in 22 Days](https://reportraven.tech/blog/rocket-mortgage-22-days-how): Independent mortgage banks now originate 84% of U.S. mortgages. Banks gave that market away one slow VOE call at a time. A step-by-step breakdown of what Rocket does differently, and what community banks can actually copy.
- [The Boat Bank of Beaufort County](https://reportraven.tech/blog/coastal-states-bank-boat-bank): Coastal States Bank out-deposits Wells Fargo and Bank of America in Beaufort County, but nearly 19% of its loans are boats. Inside the island bank that became a national specialty lender, and the 42-mortgage footnote in its HMDA data.
- [The Quiet Comeback at Oconee Federal](https://reportraven.tech/blog/oconee-federal-quiet-comeback): The 102-year-old Seneca thrift saw core earnings triple while the headline number said decline. How a long-duration mortgage book repriced its way out of the rate shock, and why the next leg is harder.
- [What Neobanks Get Right (and What Community Banks Already Have That They Don't)](https://reportraven.tech/blog/what-neobanks-get-right-community-banks): Neobanks won on UX. Community banks won on trust, deposits, and relationships. 70% of small businesses prefer community banks but only 31% use one. The gap is digital capability, not preference.
- [The Bank That Depression Built](https://reportraven.tech/blog/arthur-state-bank-upstate-bet): Arthur State Bank has run a 4.44% net interest margin and 16% ROE out of a declining South Carolina county for 93 years. The secret is portfolio lending, a booming Upstate geography, and a family that has never needed to sell.
- [The Two-Second Loan](https://reportraven.tech/blog/affirm-vs-community-bank-personal-loans): Affirm approved 24 million Americans for credit last year using real-time cash flow data and ML underwriting. Your community bank probably took a week. Here is what that gap actually means, and what banks can do about it.
- [The $3.6 Trillion Question](https://reportraven.tech/blog/trillion-dollar-ipo-wave-2026): SpaceX prices on June 12. OpenAI targets September. Anthropic filed confidentially on June 1. Three companies worth a combined $3.6 trillion are going public at once. Here is what that means for banks, investors, and the market segments caught in between.
- [The ROI of Modernizing Your Community Bank Borrower Experience](https://reportraven.tech/blog/community-bank-borrower-experience-roi): Blend's third-party ROI study found a 10.15x return per loan and $914 in cost savings per file. A documented community bank case study showed 50% faster processing and 25% higher revenue. These are not projections.
- [From Tobacco Warehouses to Myrtle Beach: The Quiet Dominance of Anderson Brothers Bank](https://reportraven.tech/blog/anderson-brothers-bank-myrtle-beach-bet): Anderson Brothers Bank runs a 6.1% net interest margin, a 16.7% ROE, and grew from $500M to $2.19B in assets in a decade without a single acquisition. The story is Myrtle Beach, a 60% deposit monopoly in rural SC, and 92 years of patience.
- [The $70 Phone Call: How Fintechs Are Killing the Income Verification Tax](https://reportraven.tech/blog/income-verification-fintech-vs-bank): Community banks pay $55–$280 per file to verify borrower income through The Work Number and IRS transcripts. Plaid does it in seconds for $1–$3. The gap is not regulatory necessity — it's infrastructure debt.
- [What to Look for in a Community Bank Digital Lending Platform](https://reportraven.tech/blog/community-bank-digital-lending-platform-guide): There are five platforms most community banks evaluate when they go shopping for a loan origination system. Pricing runs $50K to $500K annually. Here is what to ask before you sign anything.
- [The Foreclosure Wave Is Already Here. Your Bank Just Can't See It Yet.](https://reportraven.tech/blog/foreclosure-wave-hiding-in-plain-sight): 118,727 households entered foreclosure in Q1 2026, up 26% from a year ago. Your call report probably looks fine. Here's why that's the problem.
- [The Bank That Bet on Upstate South Carolina (And Won)](https://reportraven.tech/blog/southern-first-bank-upstate-sc-bet): Southern First Bancshares just reported Q4 EPS up 73% year-over-year. The story behind that number is 30 people a day moving to Greenville-Spartanburg, a $1.7 billion BMW investment, and a 26-year relationship banking bet that's finally paying off.
- [The Community Bank CEO's Guide to Digital Lending in 2026](https://reportraven.tech/blog/community-bank-ceo-digital-lending-2026): 94% of community bank CEOs say they would adopt digital lending if the economics made sense. Most haven't. Here is the decision framework for 2026 that skips the $2B core replacement debate.
- [Why Community Banks Lose Loans to Fintechs (and How to Win Them Back)](https://reportraven.tech/blog/community-banks-lose-loans-fintechs): Non-bank lenders now hold 66% of the U.S. mortgage market. Community banks dropped from 42.5% to 30.1% in six years. The gap isn't rates or trust. It's the application experience.
- [How Community Banks Can Compete With Neobanks Without Replacing Their Core](https://reportraven.tech/blog/community-bank-compete-neobank-core): Chime spent $519M on marketing last year and added 22M customers. Community banks don't need to replace their core to fight back. Here's the third option most vendors don't want to sell you.
- [First Community Bank SC: The $2.4B CRE Bet Hiding in Plain Sight](https://reportraven.tech/blog/first-community-bank-sc-cre-merger-growth): First Community Bankshares SC just completed a $1.6B merger and is running a 46% CRE concentration in a market where commercial real estate is simultaneously the best growth story and the biggest risk. Here is what the numbers show.
- [Countybank's SBA Playbook: How a Greenwood, SC Bank Thinks About Small Business](https://reportraven.tech/blog/countybank-greenwood-sc-sba-deep-dive): Countybank runs a 17.6% ROE and a 55% efficiency ratio from Greenwood, SC, and its SBA lending volume punches well above its weight class. A deep dive into how a $900M community bank competes for business borrowers in a shrinking market.
- [Optus Bank: Columbia's CDFI Institution Betting on Scale](https://reportraven.tech/blog/optus-bank-cdfi-columbia-growth): Optus Bank is South Carolina's only Black-owned CDFI bank, and it is in the middle of a growth push that has taken it from $130M to over $250M in assets in three years. The challenge is running CDFI mission economics at a scale that requires modern infrastructure.
- [Beacon Community Bank: Growth at the Edge of Capacity](https://reportraven.tech/blog/beacon-community-bank-charleston-growth-capacity): Beacon Community Bank grew from $36M to $972M in assets in seven years without building a digital front door. In a market adding 8,500 households a year, a 404 mortgage page is a strategy problem, not a website bug.
- [First Palmetto Bank: 120 Years Old, $1B in Assets, Zero Excuses](https://reportraven.tech/blog/first-palmetto-bank-sc-performance-deep-dive): First Palmetto Bank has run a 1.07% ROA and 53% efficiency ratio for 22 offices across South Carolina while its four Grand Strand branches sit inside one of the fastest-growing metros in the country. The performance is real. The manual mortgage workflow is a risk.
- [Queensborough's Long Runway: A $2.3B Georgia Bank Built to Last](https://reportraven.tech/blog/queensborough-national-bank-trust-deep-dive): Queensborough National Bank & Trust has grown to $2.34B in assets across a 27-branch corridor from Louisville to Savannah without a single acquisition. A $477M commercial real estate book with no digital front door, 57 VA loans in 2024, and a mortgage operation still running on paper.
- [Why It Takes 42 Days to Close a Mortgage (And What That's Costing Your Bank)](https://reportraven.tech/blog/why-it-takes-42-days-to-close-a-mortgage): The average mortgage takes 42 days to close. FHA loans take 77. The average file is 500 pages thick. Every one of those days costs money in staff time, borrower patience, and loans that never close.
- [Community Banks Are Losing the Lending Race. Here's How to Catch Up.](https://reportraven.tech/blog/community-banks-are-losing-the-lending-race): Banks originated 42.5% of mortgages in 2018. By 2024, that fell to 30.1%. Non-bank lenders now close more than half of all home loans. This is a structural shift, and it is accelerating.
- [Your Next Generation of Borrowers Won't Wait 42 Days](https://reportraven.tech/blog/next-generation-borrowers-wont-wait): 54% of Gen Z rely primarily on non-traditional financial providers. 61% switched banks in the last two years. Only 14% trust traditional banks "a lot." Your future borrowers are already gone.
- [The $59 Billion Compliance Burden — And How Automation Is Cutting It in Half](https://reportraven.tech/blog/59-billion-compliance-burden): U.S. banks spend $59 billion a year on BSA/AML compliance alone. For community banks under $100 million in assets, compliance eats 8.7% of noninterest expenses — three times the rate at larger banks.
- [How Figure Closes a HELOC in 5 Days (And What Community Banks Can Learn)](https://reportraven.tech/blog/how-figure-closes-heloc-in-5-days): Figure originates at $730 per loan versus the industry average of $11,230. Their S-1 reveals the speed comes from automated data aggregation, not blockchain. The playbook is more replicable than you think.
- [One Link, Complete Verification: How RAVEN Works for Community Banks](https://reportraven.tech/blog/one-link-complete-verification): What if verifying a borrower took 5 minutes instead of 5 weeks? One link, one borrower interaction, complete verification data back to the bank in minutes from seven providers with a full audit trail.

## Company and contact

- Founder: Isaac Welch (isaac@reportraven.tech). RAVEN is headquartered in South Carolina and serves community banks across the Southeast and nationally.
- [About RAVEN](https://reportraven.tech/about)
- [Information for AI assistants](https://reportraven.tech/ai-info)
- Phone: (229) 379-6131
- Web: https://reportraven.tech

## Legal

- [Security](https://app.reportraven.tech/legal/security)
- [Privacy Policy](https://app.reportraven.tech/legal/privacy-policy)
- [Terms of Service](https://app.reportraven.tech/legal/terms-of-service)