New Jersey’s Cross River Bank Picks Up Analytics Company PeerIQ

CRB Group has acquired PeerIQ, a data and risk analytics company that helps lending institutions analyze, assess and manage risk. CRB, based in Fort Lee, New Jersey, is the parent company of Cross River Bank, a state-chartered community bank.

In a press release, CRB said the deal will build on what Cross River has to offer by adding PeerIQ’s analytics to its overall package — “ultimately providing more transparency to the marketplace and the industry at large.”

Cross River is a member of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC), which protects most bank deposits should the financial institution (FI) fail. FDIC insurance covers $250,000 per depositor, per insured bank.

“Cross River is constantly adapting to the evolving landscape of financial services with an insatiable thirst to innovate,” said Gilles Gade, the bank’s founder and CEO. He said the acquisition will make the bank an “even more compelling” choice.

“With this acquisition, Cross River’s clients, partners and the industry will be able to access PeerIQ’s industry-leading analytics,” said Ram Ahluwalia, founder of PeerIQ.

The release said that PeerIQ was founded to “bridge the gap between originators, lenders and the capital markets” as technology advanced in the lending industry. The company offers cash-flow analytics, portfolio management tools, reporting services and independent views on risk.

Jesse Honigberg, technology chief of staff at Cross River, talked with PYMNTS about real-time payments (RTP), which are initiated and settled nearly instantaneously. To implement this technology, companies must meet certain requirements so The Clearing House will certify them for using the system.

“Integrating to the network required certification in multiple environments, with multiple different test cases,” Honigberg said. “It was quite a bit of work.” He said that FIs should “be prepared for some complexity, but with the right level of tech competence, it can be done.”

A real-time payments “rail” is the digital infrastructure that facilitates such payments. Such setups usually process transfers 24 hours a day. Financial players can either integrate directly with payment rails or gain access by going through third parties that already have those integrations.