One Vertical at a Time: How Northern Bank Scaled With ZEscrow

Industry

Multiple commercial verticals

Challenge

Northern Bank wasn’t looking for a new project; the team was looking for a better way to say yes to clients. When a property management client asked about digital escrow sub-accounting, the bank listened. What followed was an honest look at a paper-heavy, manual process and an opportunity to identify a more scalable client experience.

Results

Northern Bank shows how a community bank can start with a focused client need, prove value quickly, and scale deliberately. The result is $78,723 in documented cost savings, 213% deposit growth, and expansion from property management into 1031 exchanges with more growth on the horizon.

Key Product

ZEscrow

www.nbtc.com/

$9.9M

Commercial Deposits

870

Staff Hours Saved

$78K+

Documented Cost Savings

Commercial Client Growth

You're almost a reflection of us: Big bank capabilities, small bank atmosphere. We saw the traction, we saw the roadmap items being delivered. And I know people across ZSuite that I've never directly interacted with because the introductions never stop.

Sean Cullinane

Head of Product - VP

About Northern Bank

Founded in 1960 by entrepreneurs who believed traditional banks weren't doing enough for their communities, Northern Bank & Trust Company has been privately held and family-run for over 64 years. Headquartered in Woburn, MA, with $3.17 billion in assets, the bank serves businesses and consumers across Massachusetts, New England, and nationally — combining neighborhood-level relationships with the capabilities of a much larger institution. Northern Bank has been recognized among the Top 100 Best-Performing Community Banks for over a decade. Northern Bank is an Equal Housing Lender and Member FDIC.

The Challenge

Northern Bank wasn't looking for a new project — the team was looking for a better way to say yes to clients. When a property management client asked about digital escrow subaccounting, the bank took an honest look at its paper-heavy, manual process and recognized an opportunity to build something more scalable. Manual workflows limited how quickly the bank could onboard new commercial clients and required staff time that simply didn't scale with growth.

The Solution

Northern Bank implemented ZEscrow, initially focused on property management and later expanded into 1031 exchanges and additional commercial verticals. Combined with ZRent, the platform gave the bank the infrastructure to grow without rebuilding from scratch. With ZEscrow, the bank eliminated manual paper-passing between staff and clients, provided real-time visibility and self-service SSO access, automated subaccount openings, and built a foundation ready to support new verticals without additional overhead.

The Results

Northern Bank didn't try to do everything at once. The team started with a focused use case, proved value quickly, then expanded one vertical at a time — reaching 1,800+ subaccounts across 68 clients without adding headcount.

In property management, the bank scaled to 1,800+ subaccounts, and clients who had previously moved their business elsewhere returned. In 1031 exchanges, the bank grew from 1 to 18 subaccounts between January and March 2026. Using a conservative estimate of 15 minutes saved per subaccount opening and $1.91 less in monthly fees per subaccount, Northern Bank calculated 870 staff hours returned and more than $78,000 in documented savings. The real-time API integration eliminated manual override steps in the deposit ledger entirely. What once would have required additional staff now runs on the same team.