Emprise Bank has partnered with Maximum to modernise its core banking infrastructure, with the first platform traffic expected by late 2026.
US-based Emprise Bank has entered a design partnership with Maximum, an AI-native banking infrastructure company, to transform its core banking system. Emprise expects the investment to change its economics, enabling it to grow its customer base tenfold within the next 24 months while improving efficiency margins. The bank serves consumer customers through banking centres in Kansas, provides lending across the Midwest, and supports embedded banking partners and customers nationwide. It holds total assets of more than USD 2.8 billion and has around 450 employees.
Replacing legacy infrastructure
According to Emprise, adding AI to infrastructure built for a different era is not sufficient. Maximum’s platform is designed from the ground up to replace fragmented legacy technology with a unified system for data, operations, intelligence, and financial products. Core banking functions will remain deterministic, secure, and fully auditable, while the surrounding operations become increasingly automated. AI agents will operate within defined permissions and governance frameworks, and banks can build and deploy custom agents to automate operational workflows and gain real-time visibility into customer activity.
Matt Michaelis, Chairman and CEO of Emprise Bank, stated that the bank’s highest priority is empowering its customers, which requires the strategic and operational freedom to deliver what is best for them rather than waiting on another company’s roadmap. According to Michaelis, Emprise found this in Maximum, a partner that shares its focus on customers, partners, and employees.
Phased migration and funding
Emprise expects to move its first traffic onto the platform by the end of 2026, with broader migration taking place in phases. Existing systems will continue to run alongside the new platform throughout the transition, an approach intended to protect operational continuity and minimise disruption for customers. Maximum closed a USD 30 million seed round in late 2025 and aims to replace the decades-old infrastructure that underpins much of the banking industry.
Randy Fernando, founder and CEO of Maximum, stated that banks need technology that expands what is possible rather than systems that constrain future development, and described Emprise, which has operated for more than 100 years, as the type of institution Maximum was built for. Caitlin Bolnick Rellas, general partner at CRV, stated that the firm’s conviction in Maximum is based on the belief that AI-native infrastructure will open a new era of banking, and that the Emprise partnership supports this view. By running legacy and new systems in parallel, the phased approach is designed to limit the operational risks typically associated with replacing a core banking system.
