Linda Fischer, chief operating officer for CSI, was recently honored with a Stevie Award for “Most Innovative Woman of the Year” in the technology category. We sat down with her to discuss customer relationships, innovation in banking technology, and the leadership lessons that have shaped her approach.

When people say you’re innovative, what do you think they’re really recognizing—what does “innovation” mean in your role?

“To me, innovation means solving the problems that actually threaten community banking and the millions of people who rely on it—not chasing technology for its own sake or chasing hype. When someone calls our work innovative, I believe they’re recognizing that we’ve taken one of those challenges and turned it into an opportunity for our customers. The institutions we serve face serious competition from fintech challengers and the largest U.S. institutions, but they also have something irreplaceable: real relationships with their customers. Our job is to build technology that makes those relationships stronger and easier to scale.

Our innovation is purposeful. We’re building technology that helps financial institutions stay ahead of what their account holders need—not just respond to it. That’s the kind of innovation that actually matters when you’re competing against institutions with 10 times your resources.”

You mention that community and regional institutions are facing growing competition from fintech disruptors and megabanks expanding down-market. As a technology leader, what’s your view on what institutions need to do to survive?

“We’re in the middle of a perfect storm. Fintechs are providing superior personalization and features that appeal to younger consumers, while megabanks are aggressively moving into community or even regional bank territory. But the real challenge is the technology gap. Many community institutions run on legacy systems from the 1960s and ’70s. During that time, architectures were built around accounts, not customers. These systems excel at executing transactions but can’t manage the interactions or relationships that define community banking.

Our acquisitions of Apiture and Velocity Solutions were driven by what our customers need to compete. We’re helping them deepen engagement with account holders – both consumer and business alike. Behavioral intelligence for personalization, commercial banking excellence, and payments innovation – including real-time capabilities – are all part of that mission.

Technology only matters if it makes relationships stronger—and relationships only get stronger when you bring real, tangible value to the table. For us, that means helping community banks become a natural part of their customers’ everyday lives, and a trusted, embedded partner in the financial supply chains of the businesses they serve. When banks have the right capabilities and the right level of engagement, they can meet people where they are, support what actually matters to them and build relationships that last.

Banking technology lives at the intersection of innovation and regulation. How do you balance increasing market pressures with the need to push boundaries and the reality that your clients operate in one of the world’s most regulated industries?

“The competitive pressure from megabanks has fundamentally reshaped what community financial institutions need from their technology partners. It’s one of the most interesting tensions in our business. Community and regional financial institutions are being asked to deliver digital experiences that rival the megabanks, but they’re doing it with a fraction of the resources and under the same regulatory microscope. Our job is to give them innovation that doesn’t create compliance risk while helping them compete through personalized retail and business banking experiences and digital capabilities.

That means we invest heavily in areas like fraud protection, open banking partnerships and data intelligence to help institutions deliver an experience that deepens account holder loyalty. Those priorities are core to our strategy centering on what we call ‘lifestyle banking,’ which focuses on meeting consumers wherever they are in their financial journey.

Our recent acquisitions were intentional steps to support that vision. Apiture brings advanced digital retail and business banking capabilities and an AI-enhanced user experience, while Velocity’s Retail Performance Engine™ gives financial institutions the tools to compete with national players on deposit growth, lending and customer experience. Our TruProtect™ and TruDetect™ platforms use AI to help institutions detect and prevent fraud in real-time, protecting both the institutions and their account holders from increasingly sophisticated threats. Together, these tools give institutions the kind of competitive edge that used to be available only to the megabanks.

We’re pushing boundaries, but doing so within frameworks that have been stress-tested in the most regulated environment in the world. The key is understanding that innovation without stability isn’t innovation—it’s disruption that our clients can’t afford.”

CSI is known for its commitment to customer success. What is your philosophy behind building lasting relationships with financial institutions?

“I tell our team that I’d spend all day with our customers if it meant making a positive impact on their institution’s goals. That’s not hyperbole. It’s just how I think about CSI’s role as a partner in our customers’ paths to growth and the responsibility my team and I have within that journey. We’re not just providing software—we’re partnering with financial institutions to help them compete against threats and seize opportunities as fast as they emerge. The best partnerships are built on the right combination of listening and building—understanding what our customers are up against and delivering technology that helps them win.

Loyalty comes from showing up consistently, especially when things get difficult. Technology partnerships that last for decades aren’t built on perfect implementations. They’re built on how you handle the imperfect moments. Our customers know we’re in it with them for the long term, and that we’ll adapt as their needs evolve.”

What’s one CSI capability today that simply didn’t exist a few years ago—and what customer problem did it solve?

“Our real-time check fraud detection through TruProtect and TruDetect is a perfect example. Check fraud has been surging industry-wide even as check usage declines, and we saw our customers losing thousands of dollars at the teller line with no way to stop it in real time. Because our platform connects the core, the teller system, and the fraud solution, we built something very few providers can offer: the ability to detect a fraudulent check in real time at the teller line before the money walks out the door.

The adoption has been extraordinary. One bank caught a $6,500 fraudulent check from a known, trusted customer—exactly the kind of transaction a teller might have approved on instinct. Another stopped three fraudulent checks totaling nearly $7,000 against a board member’s account in their first week. That’s the kind of immediate, tangible impact that defines meaningful innovation.”

What will banking tech look like in the next two to three years, and how will innovation at CSI help institutions get there?

“The institutions that win over the next two to three years won’t be the ones with the most technology—they’ll be the ones with the most flexibility. The old model of locking into a single vendor for everything is breaking down. Financial institutions want to choose the best solutions for their specific markets, integrate them without a two-year implementation and swap them out when something better comes along.

That’s why we’ve built CSI around open architecture and a tech ecosystem that can meet the needs of a $100 million community bank just as easily as a $10 billion regional one. Our acquisitions of Apiture and Velocity Solutions aren’t just about adding capabilities. They’re about giving institutions more ways to connect, more partners to choose from and more freedom to build the technology stack that fits their strategy. Apiture alone integrates with more than 200 fintech partners. The institutions that thrive will use technology to deepen relationships, and we’re making sure our customers have every tool they need to do that.”

What does this recognition mean to you at this stage of your career?

“It might sound a little ironic, but after 35 years in enterprise technology, I’ve learned that the most meaningful recognition comes from the relationships and teams you build, not only the products you develop. This award is really a reflection of the innovators I’ve had the privilege to work alongside—both my colleagues at CSI and our thousands of customers who bring us their hardest challenges. It comes at a moment when our industry is hungry for innovation. Being recognized for helping banks and credit unions navigate incredibly competitive terrain at such a pivotal time is truly special.”