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It may not roll off the tongue, but Kasasa sure is bringing in the deposits. BY ANTHONY MALAKIAN
When Larry Brown, the chief executive at Bank of Little Rock, first heard the name Kasasa, a new checking product offered through third-party vendor BancVue, he thought the conversation had turned from rewards checking to what's for dinner.
"First impression: I wanted to know if it came with chips," says Brown, jokingly.
Still, funny name or not, Brown liked what BancVue officials were pitching: a high-interest free checking account that would help small banks like the $168 million-asset Bank of Little Rock better compete for deposits against larger banks. His was among the first banks to sign up for Kasasa- and Brown says he couldn't be hap- pier with the results. In the two months after it rolled out Kasasa's checking product- called Kasasa Cash- on May 1, total deposits in- creased more than 10 percent Kasasa customers are also generating more interchange income for the bank be- cause they use debit cards, on aver- age, for 25 purchases per month, compared to about 17 debit purchases per month for the bank's regular customers.
"It's proven to...