One of the Southeast’s fastest growing banks deploys Kobalt across TPRM, marketing compliance and enterprise risk in the broadest community bank rollout to date
NEW YORK CITY, NY, UNITED STATES, September 21, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — Kobalt Labs, the AI native risk and compliance platform for financial institutions, today announced that SmartBank has selected Kobalt to modernize its compliance and risk operations across third-party risk management, marketing compliance, and enterprise risk management. SmartBank has more than $6 billion in assets and 42 branches across Tennessee, Alabama, Florida, and Georgia, and is one of only two community banks in the country to have appeared twice on Fortune’s 100 Fastest-Growing Companies list.
The partnership represents the broadest initial deployment of any community bank working with Kobalt. SmartBank is launching across three operational areas from the outset: automated vendor due diligence and third-party control assessment, AI-powered screening of marketing collateral and internal policies against regulatory requirements and internal guidelines, and enterprise risk management workflows that consolidate oversight across the institution’s four-state footprint. The marketing compliance deployment is among the first of its kind for a community bank, and the combined scope reflects an approach to technology adoption that treats operational efficiency as a strategic priority tied directly to the bank’s ability to scale.
“We built SmartBank on the belief that you can grow aggressively and operate with discipline at the same time, and the technology you bring in has to support both,” said Billy Carroll, President and Chief Executive Officer of SmartBank. “Kobalt stood out because it does not just automate what we were already doing. It changes what is possible across risk, compliance, and marketing review in a way that lets our teams focus on the work that requires their judgment and experience.”
Carroll served as Chairman of the Tennessee Bankers Association from 2024 to 2025 and sits on the board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, a combination that gives him visibility into both the day-to-day operational reality of community banking and the supervisory direction regulators are heading. The decision to deploy Kobalt at this scope reflects a bank led by someone who sees where regulatory expectations are moving and is building the operational infrastructure to stay ahead of them.
“SmartBank is one of the most impressive growth stories in community banking over the last two decades, and what stands out is that they have matched that growth with a genuine commitment to operational rigor,” said Kalyani Ramadurgam, CEO of Kobalt Labs. “The fact that they are deploying Kobalt across TPRM, marketing compliance, and ERM from day one tells you something about how this team thinks about building infrastructure that scales with the institution.”
SmartBank joins a growing roster of banks and credit unions, from $1 billion community institutions to $100 billion national platforms, that have selected Kobalt to modernize how risk and compliance work gets done.
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About SmartBank
Founded in 2007, SmartBank is a full‑service commercial bank providing banking, investment, and mortgage financial services, with 42 financial centers spanning Alabama, Tennessee, and Florida, as well as loan production offices in Columbus, Georgia, and Brentwood, Tennessee. Recruiting the best people, delivering exceptional client service, strategic expansion, and a disciplined approach to lending have contributed to SmartBank’s success. For more information on SmartBank, visit www.smartbank.com.
About Kobalt Labs
Kobalt Labs is the AI native risk and compliance platform built for financial institutions. Kobalt automates the manual work across third-party risk management, marketing compliance, and enterprise risk by extracting critical evidence from documentation, identifying control gaps, and generating risk assessments within minutes. Used by banks and credit unions from community institutions to some of the largest in the country, Kobalt delivers the consistency, speed, and audit-ready documentation that manual processes cannot match. Learn more at www.kobaltlabs.com.
Ashi Agrawal
Kobalt Labs
ashi@kobaltlabs.com
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