Online-Only Bank ZYNLO Drives Growth for PeoplesBank

Founded in 1885, PeoplesBank has a deep history in western Massachusetts, but its focus these days is firmly on the future. The $4.4 billion-asset bank in Holyoke is positioning itself as a leader in innovation with a growing digital banking footprint.

In May 2020, PeoplesBank launched ZYNLO Bank, an online-only division. The new online arm was aimed at solving a common problem facing many community banks: how to attract a younger, more digitally savvy customer base and grow deposits in an area where population growth remains flat. 

That strategy has paid off. Since launching, ZYNLO has grown to nearly $300 million in assets. “We like to say that we punch above our weight class when it comes to innovation,” says Aleda De Maria, executive vice president and COO at PeoplesBank.

Rather than operating as a digital extension of PeoplesBank, ZYNLO has its own brand, separate business model and core banking platform. The digital bank offers high-yield accounts and no monthly fees on checking, savings, money markets and certificates of deposit. ZYNLO has been featured in publications such as Fortune and Bankrate, and it was recently recognized by NerdWallet in its annual “Best Of” feature for having one of the best money market accounts for 2026.

ZYNLO attracts customers from across the country, with a big portion coming from California, Texas and Florida, as well as customers in rural areas who want a digital banking solution. Although it does appeal to younger customers, ZYNLO’s deposits are evenly split into three categories: Gen Z, millennials and Gen X or older.

Not all ‘sparkles and ponies’

ZYNLO’s launch amid the COVID-19 pandemic created an added challenge due to the public’s general sense of uncertainty. At the same time, there was an opportunity to capture customers who were more willing to make transactions online. 

“It wasn’t all sparkles and ponies in the beginning,” says De Maria. “We worked hard, but we also really believed in it.”

During its first two years, ZYNLO undertook three major redesigns to its website as it honed its strategy and value proposition to better compete with other high-profile online banks like Chime and Ally Bank. Once ZYNLO started to get noticed for its high APYs on interest-bearing accounts and value for customers, it gained momentum.

ZYNLO attracts customers with high-yield accounts and incentives. The bank pairs its checking and savings accounts with a round up and match feature called ZYNG. Whenever a customer swipes a debit card, for example, the account automatically rounds up to the nearest dollar and deposits the difference into the customer’s savings account. ZYNG also matches those roundups at up to 100%. 

It’s easy for a bank to attract “hot money”—those customers who are constantly chasing the highest rates. However, retention and engagement are the hard parts, says Brittny Williams, senior vice president of digital growth and partnerships at PeoplesBank. “It’s exciting to celebrate a campaign that gets a lot of activity,” she says. “But if you never deposit and you don’t transact, then it’s not a value. We’re very focused on the bottom line.”

Connecting with online customers

Building the brand and gaining customers’ trust took time and money. That work included good old-fashioned advertising and marketing, but only on social channels such as TikTok and Instagram to cater to ZYNLO’s target demographic. The bank also put effort into listening to its digital customers and soliciting feedback on what customers wanted from a digital bank.

Surprisingly, one of the things customers wanted was CDs. Williams attributes that to personal finance influencers who are talking to a younger generation about strategies like how to ladder CDs. ZYNLO now offers four CD products with term options of six, 12, 18 or 24 months. 

“That younger demographic wants digital tools, and they want to learn on a digital platform,” says Williams. Those customers don’t necessarily need a physical branch, because they’re not likely to use it. Instead, ZYNLO offers digital tools and features, such as the ability to create different “folders” for savings and goals, as well as direct deposit and transaction monitoring. “We really lean into how we can be a brick-and-mortar [bank] on your phone,” she adds.

Williams also attributes a part of ZYNLO’s success to its ability to find the right partnerships for paid media. It focuses on channels that its target customers use to make sure it’s spending its marketing dollars in an optimal way. That involves monitoring analytics to better understand what campaigns are not only driving clicks and also yielding the best results in conversions, account openings and deposits.

Digital channel growth

Although ZYNLO operates as a separate brand, PeoplesBank benefits from the added liquidity management and the insights ZYNLO provides into different areas of technology and digital banking. For example, the community bank partnered with technology solutions company Nymbus to build ZYNLO on a sidecar core that could operate alongside PeoplesBank’s legacy core. At the time, its core didn’t have the capability to do everything ZYNLO needed. Last year, PeoplesBank also moved to the Nymbus core.

ZYNLO has also led to PeoplesBank’s expansion into banking as a service (BaaS) channels. “We are a sponsor bank, and we would not have even considered that if we didn’t do ZYNLO first,” says De Maria.

Building on the success of ZYNLO, PeoplesBank’s goal is to continue to grow a portfolio of digital brands through bank-owned brands or BaaS partnerships. Last year, the community bank launched Union Workers Financial Services, a digital brand that serves union workers. 

“Our directive with the digital side of the house is to be agile and innovative,” says De Maria. “We find partnerships through the digital bank, or through our banking as a service, and we bring them back to PeoplesBank to deploy and use.”

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