Payrailz®, a digital payments company offering smarter, more engaging payment experiences to banks and credit unions across the United States, announced that its payment services will now be available through the Alkami platform. “Payments are a key offering for banks and credit unions today. While they used to be seen as an additional service, they are now non-negotiable for the customers and members that our financial institutions serve,” Stephen Bohanon, Chief Strategy and Sales Officer at Alkami. “We are thrilled to be able to offer this smarter, faster, and more secure payment solution to our banks and credit unions.” Through this partnership, financial institutions on the Alkami platform will now be able to deliver Payrailz’ smarter and more engaging experience to end-users. Specifically, Alkami will offer Payrailz’ bill pay and P2P solutions, which include real-time payments capabilities. Payrailz also provides users with proactive payment recommendations based on data from their payments history. Real-time payments were a key element in Alkami’s decision to work with Payrailz. With faster payments like RTP, Mastercard’s BPX, and FedNow (the Federal Reserve’s own real-time payments rail), it is critical that banks and credit unions are able to support faster payments in order to stay on top of what is poised to become the new industry standard. “Today’s consumer has so many options for payments – many of them coming from outside their bank or credit union,” said Fran Duggan, CEO of Payrailz. “It’s safer and easier to transact directly through their financial institution instead, which is why we’re working with Alkami to deliver the best digital payment solutions, directly through a consumer’s online or mobile banking.”
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With talent shortages at the highest levels in decades, credit unions across the country are struggling to fill key technology and analytics positions. Professional Staffing services from Trellance aim to close the gap by connecting credit unions with skilled talent using the more cost-effective and flexible “as-a-service” model. Trellance will offer credit unions access to talent in skills areas that include data science, software and data management technologies, user experience, and cloud migration. President and CEO Tom Davis said credit unions need ample support in these areas to stay competitive. “Credit unions face stiff competition from new tech-first financial firms who are working aggressively to capture market share from traditional financial services, and too many CUs are losing the battle,” he said. “In this dynamic environment, they need advanced tech practitioners to become more agile in adopting new technology and responding to trends as they emerge. It can be challenging to bring these professionals in-house as full-time employees.” As a company wholly-owned by credit unions with decades of industry expertise, Davis said Trellance is uniquely positioned to craft a talent offering that addresses pressing industry needs. These include:
Trellance expects high demand for its talent services and is significantly expanding its own staff to support the offering. The company is sourcing top technology talent both in the U.S. and around the globe and will provide services through customized engagement models. It has already begun to successfully pilot the service with credit unions, including Credit Union of Colorado. “Augmenting our team with experienced tech professionals from Trellance allowed us to seamlessly complete the development of new tools, even when faced with a staff shortage,” said Terry Leis, President and CEO of Credit Union of Colorado. “We see it as another avenue that can help us more nimbly seize opportunities and respond to changes with greater ease.” Serve Credit Union, a financial cooperative founded in the “people helping people” spirit in 1931 to serve Des Moines police officers and their families, is pleased to announce the appointment of Wesley Krenz as its Chief Financial Officer. Krenz will oversee and manage the financial and accounting functions of the credit union. “Wesley possesses extensive expertise across financial and business operations and brings years of experience within the credit union industry,” said Jami Weems, CEO of Serve. “Finding the right CFO is no small task, but Wesley’s broad experience makes him the right choice to lead our financial operations and support our continued growth.” Krenz has more than 13 years of financial and operational experience. Prior to Serve, Krenz spent 11 years at Community 1st Credit Union in Ottumwa, Iowa as both a regional and branch manager. He was responsible for the administration and daily operations of six full-service financial branches, as well as a call center. Krenz received his bachelor’s degree in both accounting and finance at Buena Vista University in 2016 and is currently enrolled at the University of Iowa to receive his MBA. Krenz is actively involved in the community as well as the credit union industry serving on various boards and non-profit organizations in Ottumwa. “I am honored to join the Serve team to help drive further operational excellence and growth for the credit union,” said Krenz. “Continuing my work in this industry allows me to make a difference in the financial lives of the members we serve.” Read more about Serve and its unique membership at https://www.servecu.org/. Attendees at the 2022 Credit Union National Association (CUNA) Governmental Affairs Conference (GAC) no longer need to verify their vaccine status to attend the credit movement’s signature event, held February 27-March 3, after Washington, D.C., officials lifted the vaccine verification requirement to enter indoor venues. Additionally, the indoor mask requirement will expire on Monday, February 28. “We’re pleased that COVID-19 numbers are moving in the right direction in Washington, D.C.,” said CUNA President/CEO Jim Nussle. “This does not change our commitment to providing a safe and enjoyable event for all attendees, and we will continue to work with the staff at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center to adhere to the latest safety recommendations.” While the city-wide vaccine verification requirement has been lifted, businesses may choose to continue to ask customers for vaccination verification or to adhere to mask guidelines. The Walter E. Washington Convention Center will no longer require proof of vaccination; however, CUNA is awaiting further guidance on their mask guidelines after the city-wide requirement expires on February 28. Bullet points on what to expect:
For more information, visit the CUNA GAC website. IMM, the only eSignature provider specializing in eSignature and digital transaction solutions exclusively for financial institutions (FIs), announced today more than 1,600 FIs now use IMM’s products and solutions for eSignatures, which reflects a growth in the client base of more than 15% from this same time last year. Of that, 30% have partnered with the company for more than five years, and notably, 50% for 10 years or longer. Fueled by a client-focused culture, the company has a history of reporting consistent long-term retention levels that are unprecedented within the financial software industry. Chuck Klein, IMM CEO, said, “IMM has provided solutions to financial institutions for more than 25 years. I am so proud of our year-over-year growth as well as the spectacular team we have assembled. Reaching the milestone of 1,600+ bank and credit unions clients is quite an achievement. IMM eSign is the only solution available that was created exclusively for financial institutions, and we understand there are unique client requirements. Our products are designed with specific functionality to ensure IMM eSign is simply the best eSign solution for the financial services market.” In 2021, IMM strived to go above and beyond exceeding their clients’ expectations. The company’s most notable achievements include:
For more than two decades, FIs of all sizes have selected IMM for its continued commitment to providing an enriching digital customer experience with technology offerings that solve evolving industry challenges. IMM attributes much of this success to its continued commitment to providing excellent customer service, including a collaborative environment in which ideas and feedback from clients influence much of the development and technology initiatives deployed each year. “While this year brought many challenges to financial institutions, we are honored to be here to support their eSignature needs every step of the way,” said John Levy, EVP at IMM. “Our clients are at the center of our company's mission, and we want to continue to meet their evolving demands. We are grateful for their continued partnership and look forward to our growing relationships in the coming years.” Leading global AI-powered credit decision platform provider, Scienaptic AI announced that deployment of its platform at Northern Credit Union is now live. This deployment will enhance and augment Northern Credit Union’s credit decisioning and underwriting capabilities for new and prospective members. Founded in 1955 by a group of New York Air Brake employees, Northern Credit Union serves more than 36,000 members through nine Relationship Center locations across the North Country and a comprehensive online and mobile banking program. Throughout its history, Northern Credit Union has helped its members by providing the financial services, resources and education they need to achieve their financial goals. From its beginning and far into its future, this has been and will remain Northern Credit Union's foremost commitment. “As an organization that aspires to be the recognized standard of excellence in all our markets, we humbly embrace the higher expectations and responsibility to continuously improve for the betterment of our members,” said Dan St. Hilaire, CEO at Northern Credit Union. “Northern is blessed to have partnered with a forward-thinking organization whose mission, vision and culture, uniquely aligns with ours. Working with Scienaptic has been effortless, educational and a whole lot of fun! Our collaborative success will be premised on this foundational advantage. We are excitedly eager to release our pent-up excitement for the profound impact this platform will surely have on the financial well-being of our members and organization.” "We are driven to improve the financial lives of members Northern Credit Union serves through credit empowerment and personalized decisions,” said Pankaj Jain, Co-founder and President of Scienaptic. “In our shared passion to WOW members and exceed their expectations, we feel privileged that our AI is increasing credit access and supporting Northern Credit Union members in fulfilling their dreams.” Member Driven Technologies (MDT), a CUSO that hosts the Episys® core processing system from Symitar® to provide a private cloud alternative for core processing and IT needs, today announced that it has expanded its partnership with Advanced Fraud Solutions (AFS), a leading provider of payments fraud detection software, adding TrueACH® with Account Validation and TrueCards® to MDT’s suite of complementary solutions. These tools will help credit unions minimize the risk of fraud and help comply with Nacha standards. TrueACH with Account Validation is designed to assist credit unions in complying with Nacha’s WEB Debit Account Validation Rule. The rule, which will be officially enforced on March 19, 2022, mandates ACH originators to validate accounts for ACH WEB transactions. By leveraging TrueACH with Account Validation, MDT’s credit union clients will be able to more easily confirm the account status and account owner or authorized user(s) on an account. By offering this as well as TrueCards, an omnichannel credit and debit card fraud prevention solution, MDT will help its credit union clients minimize the risk of trending fraud schemes such as account takeover, application fraud and transaction fraud. “Regulation is driving significant changes and our approach to compliance has had to evolve; one of the main reasons we chose MDT as a partner was their ability to nimbly adapt,” said Troy Garvin, CEO of OMEGA FCU. “Their commitment and dedication to their credit union clients is reflected in partnerships with organizations such as AFS.” Garvin added, “When we converted to MDT last November, we knew that account validation was likely to expose and help us manage fraud. Now with the new Nacha rules being implemented, we’re confident that we have a reliable partner that keeps a close pulse on developments in the industry and will help us better navigate regulatory changes. The question CEOs need to ask is, ‘do I have a partner like MDT who is always looking out for my best interest?’”. TrueACH with Account Validation triangulates ACH account information against AFS’ cooperative database. With the solution, MDT’s clients can receive real-time responses on if the account exists and is in good standing; if the account is returning transactions; if the account is closed, non-sufficient funds (NSF), or at high-risk status; when the account has a stop-payment; and if the person is authorized to transact on the account. “Our solutions help credit unions comply with Nacha’s rule, better protect their members as well as provide faster funds availability and faster checking-to-checking and checking-to-savings transactions, enhancing the member experience,” said Ted Kirk, VP of Strategic Partnerships at AFS. “Through expanding our partnership with MDT, we’ll be able to support more credit unions with this important initiative, helping them make faster payments safer and less prone to fraud.” “As faster payments continue to become more prevalent, fraudsters are becoming more active in the space,’” explained Larry Nichols, president and CEO of MDT. “It’s critical that credit unions recognize the sense of urgency to meet the Nacha WEB Debit Account Validation rule, to not only properly comply but to better protect their members as well. By offering TrueACH with Account Validation and TrueCards, to our credit union clients, they will be able to strengthen anti-fraud measures and ensure that payments land in the correct account, leading to a safer, improved member experience.” Summit Credit Union is pleased to announce the success of their second “Join the Huddle” campaign. During the months of August through December last year, Summit Credit Union set up an online auction for tickets to Carolina Panthers’ regular season home games. Each winning bidder was given the choice among five pre-selected charities for where to donate the funds from their bid. These charities included Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals/Duke Children’s Hospital, Backpack Beginnings, Toys for Tots, and Wounded Warrior Project. Summit Credit Union also held a “Summit Wears Pink Week” pledge drive in October where staff donated money to wear pink with jeans for the week. Staff raised $700 pledged solely to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. In total, Summit Credit Union raised over $3,600 for Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, Wounded Warrior Project, Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals/Duke Children’s Hospital, and BackPack Beginnings. 100% of pledges and auction proceeds were donated to the four charities in January 2022. “As a not-for-profit financial cooperative, we are always looking to give back to the communities we serve in a unique way. We thank the Carolina Panthers for helping us to bring one of those ways to life. Despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, we are pleased with the continued success of our Join the Huddle campaign and look forward to joining the huddle again later this year”, says Sam Whitehurst, President and CEO of Summit Credit Union. “Keep Pounding!” Summit Credit Union is pleased to announce the success of their second “Join the Huddle” campaign. During the months of August through December last year, Summit Credit Union set up an online auction for tickets to Carolina Panthers’ regular season home games. Each winning bidder was given the choice among five pre-selected charities for where to donate the funds from their bid. These charities included Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals/Duke Children’s Hospital, Backpack Beginnings, Toys for Tots, and Wounded Warrior Project. Summit Credit Union also held a “Summit Wears Pink Week” pledge drive in October where staff donated money to wear pink with jeans for the week. Staff raised $700 pledged solely to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. In total, Summit Credit Union raised over $3,600 for Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, Wounded Warrior Project, Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals/Duke Children’s Hospital, and BackPack Beginnings. 100% of pledges and auction proceeds were donated to the four charities in January 2022. “As a not-for-profit financial cooperative, we are always looking to give back to the communities we serve in a unique way. We thank the Carolina Panthers for helping us to bring one of those ways to life. Despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, we are pleased with the continued success of our Join the Huddle campaign and look forward to joining the huddle again later this year”, says Sam Whitehurst, President and CEO of Summit Credit Union. “Keep Pounding!” Guided by their mission to deliver outstanding service to their members, 7 17 Credit Union ($1.36 billion in assets; 100,000 members; Warren, OH) has selected Corelation’s KeyStone as the best core processor to support their digital-forward approach. After experiencing strong, sustained growth over the past few years, the credit union has realized the need to switch to a core that could position them for the future. “From a strategic standpoint, our top priority is to be technologically sound and deliver our services digitally to our members. KeyStone’s open architecture and KeyBridge API will give us the freedom to partner with third-parties that offer the best products and services to our members,” shared 7 17 Credit Union President and CEO Gary Soukenik. 7 17 Credit Union’s core search initiative assessed 35 key processes and found KeyStone to be the best equipped to handle them. Highlights include the openness of the system, the ‘More in the Core’ features, ease of access to member information, and the intuitive user interface. “Selecting KeyStone was a credit union-wide decision, driven by our frontline staff who use the core daily,” explained 7 17 Credit Union SVP Innovation and Information Technology Brian Boettcher. “The idea that you can access any piece of information in just a couple clicks will allow our team to focus on the member service experience.” The credit union anticipates that KeyStone’s ease of use will significantly reduce the learning curve for new employees and enable their staff to efficiently resolve member requests. “With Corelation’s sincere desire to understand our strategic objectives and their dedication to helping us achieve them, we look forward to a partnership founded on mutual success,” added Soukenik. 7 17 Credit Union is scheduled to convert in May 2023. “Recently surpassing the 100,000-member milestone is a testament to 7 17 Credit Union’s commitment to the communities they serve and bettering their members’ lives financially,” noted Corelation President Rob Landis. “Please join us in welcoming 7 17 Credit Union to the Corelation family!” As credit unions balance their mission to serve people with the need to make strides in an increasingly competitive financial services industry, CU NextGen is continuously innovating to help credit unions overcome challenges and enhance service experience. In its latest move, CU NextGen, a CUSO providing technology and automation solutions, has announced the ongoing development of a new venture, Nextly, a cutting edge digital banking platform designed for credit unions. “As MSUFCU evaluated what was next for our digital banking platforms, we knew that control, customization, and flexibility were at the heart of what we needed to maintain our current unique member experience, and set us up for innovation as we go forward,” explained Ben Maxim, VP of Digital Strategy and Innovation at MSUFCU and CTO at Reseda Group. “We’ve been working with CU NextGen for the past several years and knew that together we could build a digital banking solution that would meet our goals for our members and employees, but also change the way credit unions think about digital banking.” Along with providing their expertise in online and mobile banking development, MSUFCU is helping support the Nextly project through a $4.5 million investment from their wholly-owned CUSO, Reseda Group. Reseda Group believes in building better for members and Nextly will provide just that, a platform that provides access and control for credit unions while creating a superior experience for members. Nextly will have the ability to function as a standalone solution and integrate seamlessly with all of CU NextGen’s solutions. The platform’s perceptive and responsive design will enhance member experience with account aggregation, intelligent voice and chatbot technology, voice and video calls and innovative support options. Featured self-service opportunities include fully supported card control, loan management options, Docu-Sign support and other features. Integrating out-of-the-box conversational artificial intelligence, chatbot and member interactions, Nextly will also provide full support for commercial and business digital banking as well as integrated loan and account openings. A highly customizable solution, Nextly is architected on CU NextGen’s No-Code platform, and is designed to reduce vendor reliance for customizations and make platform management intuitive and easy for credit unions. Through the No-Code platform, Nextly will enable credit unions to reduce downtime and avoid high-risk code pushes, as well as increase their speed to market for innovation on their digital banking platform. Its drag-and-drop interface will simplify the process of creating new enhancements and updating forms. Additionally, Nextly’s mobile platform will offer a feature set identical to its desktop platform for ideal feature parity and consistent user experience. According to Kent Zimmer CU NextGen CEO, Nextly will offer both credit unions and their members with a robust feature set that’s easy to use. “Of course, technology should enhance functionality, whether for the member, the credit union or both – but that’s simply not enough. We design our technology to go beyond enhancing the user experience to guide the user through tasks intuitively, so that the user doesn’t even have to think about it. What the user should remember after using Nextly will not be the process of using technology, but rather what they were able to accomplish so easily. That’s what we’re designing Nextly to do. It’s something that we’re really excited about, and we’re looking forward to sharing our excitement with the credit union industry.” |
Author: Mike LawsonMarried to a most gorgeous and wonderful wife, raising 5 kiddos (including twins!), enjoy helping others tell their stories, and love surfing SoCal waves. Keep it simple. Archives
April 2024
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