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View detailsCBIT and the bet on real-time commercial payments
In 2021, Customers Bank launched CBIT — the Customers Bank Instant Token — a blockchain-inspired real-time payments platform for commercial and institutional clients. The system allowed businesses to send payments instantly, 24/7, without the delays and cutoff times of traditional ACH and wire transfers. At a time when most community and regional banks were still debating whether to upgrade their mobile apps, Customers Bank was building payments infrastructure that competed with fintech startups and the Federal Reserve's own FedNow initiative.
CBIT attracted significant interest from digital asset companies and fintech firms that needed to move money outside traditional banking hours — positioning Customers Bank as one of the few regulated banks willing to operate at the boundary between traditional finance and the emerging digital asset ecosystem.
Navigating the crypto-adjacent landscape
Customers Bank's willingness to serve digital asset companies placed it alongside Signature Bank and Silvergate Bank, both of which failed in 2023. The collapses sent shockwaves through the industry and raised immediate questions about whether Customers Bank would suffer the same fate. The bank moved quickly to reduce its concentration in digital asset deposits, diversified its funding base, and demonstrated to regulators that its exposure was manageable. It survived where its peers did not — no small achievement. The experience reinforced a painful lesson: innovation at the banking-crypto boundary carries existential risk if not managed with extreme discipline.
Routing number
Customers Bank's routing number is 031302955. The 031 prefix ties to the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, reflecting the bank's Pennsylvania charter. This applies to all Customers Bank deposit accounts — personal checking, business checking, savings, and money market accounts — for domestic ACH transfers, direct deposits, and wire transfers. Customers Bank operates a largely digital model with a limited physical branch network, so most customers interact online and use this routing number for all electronic transactions.
A digital-first bank with traditional roots
Despite its technology-forward reputation, Customers Bancorp's origins are entirely traditional. Jay Sidhu, a veteran community banker, acquired a small Pennsylvania bank in 1997 and began transforming it into a digitally oriented institution. Under Sidhu's leadership, Customers grew from a single-branch community bank to a publicly traded institution with over $20 billion in assets. The commercial lending portfolio spans multifamily real estate, small business lending — Customers was one of the largest PPP lenders during the pandemic — and specialty finance. That traditional lending base provides the stable revenue that funds the bank's technology investments.
Speed and control for modern finance teams
Customers Bank recognized early that businesses need financial infrastructure that moves at the speed of their operations. Slash shares that conviction — corporate cards created and configured in seconds, expense management that processes in real time rather than monthly cycles, and spending controls enforced programmatically rather than after the fact. For finance teams tired of waiting on legacy banking timelines, both Customers Bank and Slash represent what happens when technology is treated as core infrastructure rather than an add-on.
