Pacific West Bank Scales Fintech Partnerships Without Growing Its Compliance Team
Pacific West Bank
"The ability to add separate workspaces for digital partners is huge. I feel safe giving access to my fintech partners. They can work in their space, in the areas I designate, and I don't worry they're going to access something else."
- Ben Mansheim, SVP, Chief Operating Officer
Pacific West Bank built its reputation on conservative, relationship-driven commercial banking. As it expanded into fintech partnerships, leadership recognized new compliance risks their existing tools weren't equipped to handle. With a small compliance team and a growing partner portfolio, the bank adopted Themis, and has since onboarded six new fintech partners without adding a single headcount.
Before Themis, Pacific West's compliance program ran on Excel, Microsoft Teams, and individual reminder methods each team member used on their own. "Bankers seem to love Excel anytime you're trying to make a list, but that's not really what it's intended for," Ben said. The bank had also moved off an earlier tool that wasn't built for the job. "The ability to move away from a tool that wasn't being used as intended to a tool that is designed specifically for what we're using it for was a big advantage for us," Ben noted.
This patchwork created a handful of recurring problems:
Pacific West wasn't a fintech-native bank feeling growing pains. It was a conservative lender deliberately entering unfamiliar territory, where the margin for error was slim. "We learned a lot from looking at regulatory action taken against other institutions," Ben noted. "One of the key findings was not just what was not being done, but the risk management portion of entering this new space."
Pacific West selected Themis as its central platform for risk and compliance, deploying it across both its fintech partner program and broader commercial banking operations, consolidating a fragmented set of tools into one environment.
The most-used modules at Pacific West are Audits and Issue Management. A well-mapped repository now generates an Audit Plan, tracks remediation, and reports to governance committees with confidence. "Now it's easier to pull that report once a month and deliver it to whatever committee it needs to go to," Ben said. The structured repository has brought the team a new sense of comfort heading into audit season.
TPRM and Controls give Pacific West a single location to manage vendor relationships, assess third-party risk, and maintain controls, replacing the old spreadsheet-driven approach. The bank is now extending that same discipline to general corporate policy reviews.
Each fintech partner gets a dedicated workspace with standardized questionnaires and due diligence requests. "We can make it identical and just drop it in each space and say, go," Ben said. Partners access only their own workspace, keeping sensitive information appropriately separated.
Partners submit materials for review directly in Themis; the team checks them against a checklist and maintains a permanent audit trail: no email chains, no version confusion. "It's easy to just provide feedback in a specific area and say, right here, this is where you need the disclosure," Ben noted.
Since adopting Themis, Pacific West has seen outcomes well beyond process efficiency:
Pacific West values the relationship with the Themis team, which works closely with users to develop improvements, something the bank has found incredibly valuable.
Store audit reports and audit issues across IT, Compliance and Finance so risk managers and board members have access to all outstanding company issues.
Track issues, create action plans, link risks and controls, and gather evidence to enhance efficiency and reduce risks.
Manage vendors, assess risks, and store contracts and details for a secure, informed relationship.
Improve risk mitigation and efficiency by inventorying controls, scoring effectiveness, assigning ownership, and linking to risks.
Ensure marketing compliance with a central repository of creatives that streamlines communication, collaboration, approvals, and maintains an audit trail.
