Maspeth Federal Savings Bank opens new tech center

New York-based Maspeth Federal Savings Bank officially opened its new building dedicated to bank technology employees on Wednesday.

In a ribbon-cutting ceremony, Maspeth President and CEO Thomas Rudzewick called the new tech center “a testament to our unwavering commitment to innovation, cybersecurity and community leadership.”

The new Maspeth Federal Savings Tech Center will be the primary workspace for employees in the mutual bank’s information technology, cybersecurity, data science and core banking departments, according to Rudzewick.

“Here in this space we’ll be developing and implementing leading-edge tech security measures including fraud prevention, rapid incident response and enhanced risk management,” Rudzewick said in his opening remarks at the event. “It’s an investment in the protection of our members’ financial well-being and the safeguarding of their hard earned savings.”

Melinda Huspen/American Banker

Bank employees and members of the community filled the building as Rudzewick spoke about the role Maspeth Federal’s new tech center would serve in the small residential community of Maspeth, located in the New York City borough of Queens, around five miles from midtown Manhattan.

“This state of the art facility in the heart of Maspeth is a testament to our unwavering commitment to innovation, cybersecurity and community leadership,” Rudzewick said. “Today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape of cybersecurity and artificial intelligence is no longer a futuristic concept. It’s an urgent priority. This center represents our pledge to proactively address the challenges that these technologies bring and harness their potential so that we are ensuring the financial safety and stability of our association’s members and the communities that we serve.”

Members of Maspeth Federal Savings’ board of directors who attended the event believe that the new tech center is valuable for the community bank’s future.

“We believe that this is a strong step towards the future of Maspeth Federal,” said board member Michael Demetriou. “It’s going to help us technology wise, and it should be very, very good for folks.”

“I think technology is forever rapidly moving,” said board member Lisa Masone. “This will be a hub for all of our technology pieces to come together to solve any issues or come up with new project solutions that we need.”

The new tech center building is located next door to the bank’s loan center and across from the main branch office. Notably, the building is situated right in the heart of Maspeth, on a main road full of storefronts and small businesses and operating as a community-facing office space for a department that typically works behind the scenes.

Maspeth Federal Savings

“Putting the facility up shows the community how dedicated we are to making sure their accounts are safe,” Rudzewick told American Banker in an interview. “Our cybersecurity is top notch in the industry, and now the neighborhood is going to see that this is what Maspeth Federal really invests in to protect their savings.”

The space also brings together employees that were previously not working in the same environment.

“The technology departments were spread across four offices in an adjacent building to the main office, and there was no connectivity between them,” Rudzewick said. “This brings them all together so they can collaborate.”

Rudzewick believes that this in-person collaboration will help Maspeth Federal to be a leader in the banking technology space.

Melinda Huspen/American Banker

“I think that technology and banking is something that is going to be and has been a focus for the last two decades,” he said. “What I see coming forward is more of a reliance on technology: artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, all of those pieces are critically important to not only be a part of but also be leaders in.”

To support these technology initiatives, Maspeth Federal upgraded its core through a partnership with COCC. Rudzewick joined the COCC board of directors in October 2022.

A 2024 ABA report surveying mostly community banks ranked COCC as number one in its list of top five core platform providers for banks, ranked by satisfaction scores from survey respondents. The Connecticut-based core provider earned a satisfaction mean average of 4.03 out of 5 in the survey, with 86% of surveyed banks who use COCC as their core provider responding that they were “extremely or somewhat likely to remain” with COCC and 81% saying they were “likely to recommend” the core provider.

“When I became president 10 years ago, I grabbed Greg Phillips, my CIO, by the collar at an ABA event and said, ‘We need to change cores,'” Rudzewick said. “We were frustrated with our other core at the time, one of the big three. But COCC is owned by their members, which matches how a mutual bank is done, so our mutuality was a match with COCC’s cooperative basis. They are one of the most up-to-date technology companies and, I think, one of the best cores in the country. Now we have a very competitive mobile app, and I think our website is just fantastic.”