MVB Bank taps Bretton AI for compliance operations

MVB Bank has selected Bretton AI to run back-office compliance operations under a multi-year agreement. The deal covers support for anti-money laundering monitoring and know-your-customer casework.

The move is part of MVB's effort to expand its fintech business without increasing back-office staffing in line with rising compliance workloads. Bretton will provide a US-based team using its platform to handle completed alerts and cases under the bank's policies and risk framework.

Founded in Fairmont, West Virginia, MVB built its roots in community banking before spending the past two decades developing a national business serving fintech, payments and gaming clients. That expansion has increased the volume of transaction monitoring and due diligence work as the bank supports partner banks and other fast-growing sectors.

The agreement is intended to add capacity in areas that have become more labour-intensive as fintech relationships grow. Under the model, Bretton's analysts review alerts and carry out enhanced due diligence work, while a trained analyst checks every AI-assisted output before it reaches MVB.

Final programme control remains with the bank, which continues to oversee decisions and filings. The commercial structure also differs from traditional outsourcing arrangements, with pricing tied to completed work rather than analyst hours.

Julie O'Connor, Chief Compliance Officer at MVB Bank, outlined the bank's rationale for the move. "MVB built a national fintech business on top of a community bank, and that growth brings increasingly complex compliance demands," said Julie O'Connor, Chief Compliance Officer at MVB Bank.

"Bretton AI gives us a way to scale monitoring and due-diligence capacity while keeping MVB in control of the program, its decisions and its filings. That allows our team to focus on the highest-risk work, support responsible growth, and advance our broader AI strategy," O'Connor said.

Compliance pressure

Banks working with fintech and payments companies face rising scrutiny over anti-money laundering controls, customer checks and ongoing transaction reviews. As volumes increase, institutions often must decide whether to add internal staff, outsource to external providers or adopt more automated systems.

In MVB's case, the bank is seeking to increase consistency and throughput without expanding its operations team at the same pace as business growth. The structure described by the two companies combines automated processing with human review, reflecting the caution many financial institutions still apply when using AI in regulated functions.

The agreement comes as US regulators and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network consider changes to anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism programme requirements. Those proposals place greater emphasis on risk-based effectiveness and the responsible use of newer technology in compliance operations.

That broader regulatory backdrop gives banks another reason to revisit long-standing, headcount-heavy compliance models. For firms serving fast-growing fintech clients, the pressure is especially acute because they must manage large volumes of alerts and customer reviews while showing that oversight remains robust.

Managed services push

For Bretton, the MVB agreement supports its push to market managed services for financial back-office work rather than software alone. The offering combines its platform with a dedicated US-based operations team, with the aim of selling completed outcomes instead of seat-based staffing.

Rick Shooman leads that services business and brings experience in financial crime programmes at banks and across the wider sector. Bretton positions the service as an alternative to conventional compliance outsourcing, where costs tend to track headcount and hours worked.

Shooman described the MVB deal as an example of a bank trying to separate business growth from operational expansion.

"MVB is showing what it looks like to scale a sophisticated fintech business without recreating the same labor-heavy operating model around it," said Rick Shooman, Managing Director, Head of Services at Bretton AI.

"Bretton brings the platform and the operating team together in one accountable service. We perform the work under MVB's policies and standards, while MVB remains in control of its risk program," Shooman said.

MVB Financial, the parent of MVB Bank, is listed on Nasdaq under the ticker MVBF. The bank's business spans Mid-Atlantic community banking and a national fintech, embedded finance and payments practice. The latest agreement shows how lenders in that market are reworking compliance operations as transaction volumes and due diligence demands continue to rise.