Under the leadership of Janet Garufis, Montecito Bank & Trust didn’t just adopt a new platform — they reshaped how community banks approach digital transformation. By moving away from fragmented systems and co-developing solutions alongside Baker Hill, Montecito gained agility, reclaimed control, and became an innovation hub for small business lending.
“This partnership is more than about implementing software; it’s about redefining the role community banks can play in innovation. Baker Hill gave us a platform — but more importantly, they gave us a seat at the table,” said Janet Garufis, President and CEO, Montecito Bank & Trust. “That changes everything — from the way we serve clients to the role we play in steering the future of banking.”
This partnership also laid the groundwork for Baker Hill’s flagship Innovation Campus in Santa Barbara — a space designed to accelerate collaboration and product development through face-to-face access, real-time co-creation, and a shared sense of purpose. “When you align purpose and proximity, innovation moves faster and means more. This isn’t just a tech evolution — it’s a mission in motion,” said Andy Ivankovich, President and CEO at Baker Hill.
What happens when a bank stops seeing its tech provider as a vendor — and starts seeing them as a strategic co-creator?
For Montecito Bank & Trust, the shift wasn’t born from a long-planned initiative, but from an unexpected turning point in 2024: the abrupt end of a critical vendor relationship. That disruption forced urgent decisions — and sparked a broader realization. Beyond the immediate need, it became clear that their entire lending technology landscape — fragmented, inflexible, and heavily vendor-dependent — was holding them back.
“We were trying to serve modern clients with legacy infrastructure,” said Mike Jarrells, Deputy Chief Credit Officer at Montecito Bank & Trust. “It wasn’t a people problem. It was a platform problem.”
Legacy systems and a disconnected small business solution created inefficiencies, limited visibility, and missed opportunities to deliver the kind of high-touch service Montecito is known for.
“We weren’t just adopting a new system — we were redefining how digital could work across our bank,” Abdiel Garcia, Director of Business Banking and Consumer Lending. “From day one, our goal was to ensure this platform wasn’t just functional, but transformational — helping us meet strategic goals and stay one step ahead for our clients.”
When Montecito first partnered with Baker Hill, it was with a vision to streamline commercial and consumer lending. But gaps remained in their small business and retail workflows. At the same time, their previous solution for small business lending offered little flexibility and required costly interventions for updates or support.
Every limitation increased friction, expense and decreased the bank’s ability to quickly respond to local client needs.
“We were using a solution where we didn’t control our own destiny. Every bump in the road came with a price tag,” noted Mike.
Montecito needed more than a tech vendor — they needed a partner to build with. Baker Hill delivered that, leaning into collaboration and mutual accountability to refine and advance the platform. With both teams working in sync, the implementation shifted from plug-and-play to co-creation, enabling Montecito to adapt the platform to their market realities.
“One of the biggest wins was simplifying our tech stack. Reducing vendor overlap doesn’t just make management easier — it improves data integrity, tightens compliance, and gives us better visibility across the entire lending journey. That level of clarity lets us focus more on the client and less on system gymnastics.”
—Abdiel Garcia, Director of Business Banking and Consumer Lending
This consolidation empowered Montecito to reduce manual work, decrease loan processing time, and create a more unified client experience. The bank could now manage its entire loan lifecycle with greater accuracy and transparency.
“From the start, this was a true collaboration. Montecito came to the table with more than challenges — Abdiel and his team brought a vision,” said Elizabeth Mulflur, SVP, Key Accounts Manager at Baker Hill, who led client delivery and platform strategy during the early implementation. “Together, we went beyond implementation — we built momentum. Every decision moved us closer to a platform that reflects their values and empowers their team.”
That shift wasn’t theoretical — it had real-world impact. In one recent example, a loan process that traditionally took three weeks was completed start-to-finish in just four business days. With the Baker Hill platform handling the repetitive, manual steps, Montecito’s bankers were free to focus on what they do best: applying critical thinking, guiding clients, and delivering high-touch service with efficiency and confidence.
What began as a standard implementation quickly evolved into a model for how community banks can affect and inform the development of technology aligned with their needs. Through their work with Baker Hill, Montecito emerged not only as a client, but as a flagship Innovation Center partner — playing an active role in advancing digital banking solutions for institutions like theirs.
Rather than simply adopting the Baker Hill’s NextGen platform for Small Business, Montecito stepped into a co-innovator role — directly influencing what came next. In 2025, the partnership gave them a front-row seat and active input into the development of Baker Hill’s Small Business Digital Engagement initiative, which is fully integrated into what became known as the UN/FY platform (formerly NextGen)
The result: a digital-first, fully automated loan decisioning framework that builds upon Baker Hill’s 40-plus years’ experience and foundation with an intuitive, user-friendly interface that simplifies the journey for both borrowers and bankers.
“Working directly with developers, seeing our ideas take shape — that’s the kind of partnership community banks rarely get,” said Janet. “It changes how we lead, how we serve, and how we grow.”
That engagement layer gives clients a modern, seamless lending experience while allowing bankers to retain the personal connections that define community banking.
“At Baker Hill, we were driving to build something better; and working with Montecito gave us sharper focus,” said Adrian Scotte, Director of Product Management at Baker Hill. “Their perspective helped validate our direction and pressure-test ideas in real time. Ultimately, that synergy is what became the road map for the Innovation Campus.”
The collaboration between Baker Hill and Montecito not only reshaped digital workflows — it reshaped physical ones, too. That transformation came to life with the creation of Baker Hill’s Innovation Campus in Santa Barbara, developed in direct partnership with Montecito Bank & Trust.
Located minutes from Montecito’s headquarters, the space became a living lab for real-time feedback and face-to-face problem solving. From strategic retreats to spontaneous solution sessions, the Innovation Campus allows product teams and bank leaders to design, test, and evolve features in the same room — without the lag of emails or time zones.
“This Innovation Campus isn’t simply about proximity — it’s about possibility. When our teams can walk into the same room, look each other in the eye, and solve real banking problems together, everything changes,” said Janet. “It’s how we ensure the solutions being built don’t just meet our needs — they exceed them.”
This proximity deepened trust, shortened feedback loops, and transformed roadmap discussions into rapid, working prototypes — far surpassing what traditional development cycles typically allow. As Montecito helped co-develop the early features of Baker Hill’s UN/FY platform, they also transformed how modern community banks partner for innovation.
For Montecito Bank & Trust, innovation wasn’t about chasing the next shiny object — it was about finding a partner who understood their mission and matched their urgency. What began as a crisis response during a vendor disruption turned into an opportunity to rethink everything. With Baker Hill, their experience became a launchpad — not just for adopting a new system, but for redefining what a lending platform could be. Together, they moved beyond the rigid mold of traditional operating systems to build something more adaptive, responsive, and banker-driven.
As the Montecito partnership illustrates, meaningful innovation doesn’t happen by accident — it takes shared vision, decisive leadership, and a delivery model built for momentum. That clarity of purpose has become a defining element of Baker Hill’s approach.
From the lessons learned and synergies developed during initial implementation of Baker Hill’s NextGen, to the recent accelerated expansion and the co-development of UN/FY, Montecito took an active role in building solutions designed for real-world banking challenges. That spirit of collaboration culminated in the launch of the Innovation Campus — a physical space built to accelerate product evolution and deepen strategic alignment between bankers and technologists.
This isn’t a story of disruption for disruption’s sake. It’s a story of evolution — fueled by trust, designed by shared ambition, and guided by the belief that community banks deserve world-class tools. When armed with flexible solutions and the right partner, community banks don’t just keep pace — they redefine what’s possible.