Breaking Barriers in Compliance: Zolve’s Journey with Continental Bank & Themis
Zolve is a fintech company with over 200 employees and $250+ million. They provide FDIC-insured U.S. bank accounts and credit cards to immigrants without requiring a Social Security number. Zolve aims to improve financial service access for expatriates moving to countries like the U.S., offering banking solutions from the moment they arrive, regardless of their local credit history. Zolve has been a Themis customer since July 2024.
As a fast-growing fintech company working with Continental Bank as its sponsor, Zolve sought a compliance solution to streamline risk assessments, manage policies efficiently, and accelerate approval workflows.
Continental Bank, founded in 2003 and headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, is a privately owned FDIC-insured bank. Through its national strategic partnership platforms, the bank issues consumer and small business credit, payment, and deposit products through retailers, manufacturers, finance companies, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) providers, and fintechs. The bank helps its strategic partners drive financial innovation and inclusion by embedding digital financing and banking products into new platforms and experiences.
With increasing regulatory scrutiny and the need for strong operational governance, both Zolve and Continental Bank turned to Themis as their centralized Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) platform. Themis enabled both organizations to increase collaboration, reduce compliance review times, and ensure a clear audit trail.
Before adopting Themis, both Zolve and Continental Bank faced challenges in managing their GRC processes:
Zolve's Challenges:
Continental Bank's Challenges:
Continental Bank faced inefficiencies in partner onboarding, marketing approvals, and vendor management. Learn about Continental Bank's Challenges with here.
Both organizations needed a centralized compliance platform to automate and streamline these processes while ensuring regulatory alignment.
Zolve and Continental Bank selected Themis to establish a structured and efficient compliance program that aligned with their operational needs. By adopting Themis, they were able to:
Zolve’s Most Used Modules: Risk Register, Control Mapping, Documents and Vendor Due Diligence.
Themis has helped both Zolve and Continental Bank enhance their compliance processes, resulting in measurable efficiency gains and improved collaboration:
Zolve's Achievements:
Continental Bank's Achievements:
Learn about Continental Bank's Achievements with Themis here
"With Themis, we have a structured, transparent compliance process that ensures our risks, controls, and policies are well-managed and aligned with Continental Bank’s expectations. We’ve reduced risk and control review time by 20%, giving our team valuable time back.
Internal collaboration and approvals are much more efficient compared to email, and the built-in audit trails provide a clear record of changes and decisions. Themis has made it easier for both Zolve and Continental Bank to work together and streamline compliance workflows." – Prudhvi Varma, Head - Business Ops & Growth
Create an inventory of potential company risk, assign inherent and residual ratings and link company controls used to mitigate risk.
Create an inventory of controls, identify effectiveness & perform attestation of controls to meet applicable regulatory and contractual requirements.
Store important documents such as legal agreements, pricing sheets and terms and conditions so all stakeholders have access to the latest versions.
Identify and track firm-wide issues to determine appropriate action plans, risk rate issues and create alerts.
