Selling software to a US bank? Regulators already told them what to ask you for.

If you sell software to a US bank, you’re not just negotiating with a buyer. You’re negotiating with an institution that has explicit federal guidance sitting behind its procurement checklist. Knowing what that guidance says is the fastest way to stop the escrow conversation from becoming a delay.

The guidance banks are working from

In June 2023, the Federal Reserve, the FDIC, and the OCC issued joint Interagency Guidance on Third-Party Relationships: Risk Management. It replaced each agency’s prior, inconsistent guidance with one standard. Among the risk-management practices it lays out: banking organisations should outline contingency plans for the event they need to transition an activity to another third party or bring it in-house.

Why that single line changes your sales conversation

“Bring it in-house” is only possible if the bank has access to what it needs to do so. For custom or business-critical software, that means source code, documentation, and the materials required to maintain it independently of you. A bank’s risk team isn’t asking for escrow because they doubt your company. They’re asking because the guidance they’re examined against requires them to have a transition plan for every vendor supporting a critical function, and escrow is the cleanest way to build one.

What this actually looks like in due diligence

Expect the question to surface in vendor risk assessments, not just contract negotiations, since due diligence on third parties is one of the risk-management practices the guidance calls out explicitly. Banks conducting that due diligence increasingly want to see the answer before they ask for it, not after.

Escrow365: the answer ready before the risk review

Escrow365 lets you set up a fully compliant escrow arrangement in as little as 30 minutes, choose the applicable legal jurisdiction, and generate a professional certificate you can hand directly to a bank’s vendor risk team. No legal department detour. No weeks of back-and-forth while the deal sits in review.

Be the vendor who already has the answer

Banks selling software vendors on speed and governance win more of these reviews, not fewer. Set up your Escrow365 account today, and walk into your next bank deal with the contingency answer already documented.

Sources: Federal Register, “Interagency Guidance on Third-Party Relationships: Risk Management,” June 9, 2023. Perkins Coie, “Final Interagency Third-Party Risk Management Guidance Issued on June 6, 2023,” June 2023.

Escrow365 — Just, done.