Client
A leading U.S. financial institution offering commercial banking and escrow services sought to modernize its deposit escrow operations with a secure, cloud-hosted platform that would integrate seamlessly with its core banking ecosystem, enhance data visibility, and support real-time transaction processing.
Overview
3Qi Labs was engaged as the System Integrator to design, build, and implement a modern Deposits Escrow Services Platform that would bridge the client’s legacy on-premise systems with new cloud-native components. Our team led the end-to-end implementation, delivering a microservices-driven architecture hosted on AWS with deep integration hooks into the client’s core banking systems, data warehouse (Snowflake), and enterprise security infrastructure.
Challenges
- Integrate a new escrow management platform with multiple existing banking systems—including account management, payments, and compliance.
- Enable real-time account and transaction updates while maintaining strict security and audit controls.
- Build data pipelines to consolidate escrow transactions, account data, and payments into Snowflake for analytics, reconciliation, and reporting.
- Implement modern authentication mechanisms and enterprise-grade security across hybrid on-premise and cloud environments.
Our Approach
1. Architecture & Integration Design
3Qi Labs architected a hybrid cloud solution that extended the client’s on-prem systems into AWS. Designed and implemented REST/JSON APIs, SFTP, and event-driven integrations (JMS/Kafka) to connect the escrow platform with enterprise systems such as customer onboarding, payments, reporting, and compliance. Used an API gateway layer for centralized routing, traffic control, and policy enforcement. Established secure, auditable data flows with fine-grained access controls and certificate-based trust management.
2. Microservices & Event-Driven Design
Developed a modular microservices architecture based on cloud-native principles, supporting both synchronous (API) and asynchronous (Kafka/EventHub) communication. Deployed services on AWS RDS (Postgres) and S3, with Lambda triggers and Control-M job orchestration for scheduled processing. Implemented monitoring and observability using CloudWatch, Splunk, and custom logging frameworks for real-time alerting and traceability.
3. Core Banking & Snowflake Integration
Built bi-directional data pipelines connecting the escrow platform with the client’s core banking and accounting systems. Designed ETL and micro-batch processes to push curated datasets into Snowflake, enabling analytics for interest management, 1099 reporting, and audit compliance. Automated data validation and reconciliation logic to maintain accuracy across transactional and analytical layers.
4. Security & Identity Integration
Implemented enterprise-wide SSO/SAML authentication and multi-factor (OTP) verification for operations and customer access. Enforced least-privilege access, end-to-end encryption, and centralized secrets management for all integration endpoints. Designed the system to comply with SOC2 and FFIEC-aligned controls, supporting regulatory and internal ITGC audits.
Outcomes
- Successfully delivered a fully integrated escrow platform that unifies payments, account management, and reporting across multiple legacy and cloud systems.
- Enabled real-time data exchange and event-based automation, reducing manual reconciliation effort by over 60%.
- Consolidated transactional data in Snowflake, providing a single source of truth for operations, finance, and compliance teams.
- Established a scalable integration framework that can support future digital banking and BaaS (Banking-as-a-Service) initiatives.
Technologies Used
Platforms & Tools: AWS (S3, Lambda, RDS, CloudWatch), Snowflake, Kafka, Splunk, Control-M
Integration & APIs: REST/JSON, SFTP, JMS, JDBC, API Gateway, ISO 20022 messaging
Core Banking Systems: Account management, payments, compliance, reporting, customer data
Security: SSO/SAML, OTP/MFA, PKI Certificates, Secrets Manager
Why It Matters
This project highlights 3Qi Labs’ deep domain expertise in core banking integration and cloud modernization. By combining microservices architecture, secure API frameworks, and Snowflake-based analytics, 3Qi Labs delivered a scalable, compliant, and future-ready escrow platform that empowers financial institutions to manage deposits and disbursements with greater agility, visibility, and control.
