​Mahalo Banking, a premier online and mobile banking solution provider specifically designed for credit unions, has partnered with Des Moines, Iowa-based Affinity Credit Union (‘Affinity CU’ – $147M in assets). Collaborating with Mahalo enables Affinity CU to deliver new digital banking tools and services that elevate its members’ experience while gaining a competitive market edge.
 
After assessing various digital banking partners, Mahalo’s ability to deliver an exceptional member experience, enhanced functionality and user-friendly platform features made the provider an ideal partner for Affinity CU. The credit union is also approaching a core system conversion to Corelation Keystone, and launching Mahalo’s core-centric platform allows Affinity CU to achieve a robust integration following its completion. The Mahalo platform’s deep integration to the core will ensure that the credit union can adopt new features and functionalities, adapt to member needs, remain competitive and attract new members.
 
“Offering best-in-class digital banking tools is not only a necessity, but often a significant differentiator in acquiring and retaining members,” said Kris Laufer, CMO of Affinity CU. “Mahalo delivers everything we wanted in a digital banking partner, excelling in both member experience and internal functionality. Our goal is to create the best possible digital banking experience for our members, and the Mahalo platform sets Affinity Credit Union apart from our banking counterparts.”
 
Having a team comprised of credit union veterans differentiates Mahalo from other providers; they are 100% dedicated to the credit union industry. Mahalo’s Credential Assurance Technology (CAT) offers a secure architecture to prevent fraud attacks. Additionally, the platform includes neurodiverse functionality that ensures an optimized member-centric experience for individuals with cognitive distinctions.
 
“Partnering with Affinity CU to enhance its digital banking offerings and elevate the member experience ensures the credit union will stand out in the competitive landscape,” said Denny Howell, COO of Mahalo. “Today’s members seek credit unions prepared to deliver upon requested features and services, making forward-looking digital tools essential for offering an unparalleled banking experience. We are passionate about crafting these solutions that empower credit unions to expand their capabilities and deliver digital functionality designed to meet evolving member needs and expectations.”

​Baker Hill, a leading financial technology provider in delivering solutions for loan origination, risk management, and analytics, hosted its largest user conference to date at Prosper 2024 with over 200 attendees representing a record-breaking number of financial institutions along with a robust partner ecosystem who sponsored the event.
 
Celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, Prosper 2024 marked a special occasion for Baker Hill. Prosper is Baker Hill’s premier user conference and is designed to provide financial institution leaders with the latest insights on the state of the banking industry, as well as opportunities to discuss emerging trends and best practices in lending, risk management and more. To kick-off the conference, which took place in Orlando, Florida, Baker Hill hosted its 40th birthday bash with dinner and live music at Disney’s Yacht & Beach Club Resort.
 
This year's event featured Jim Perry, Senior Strategist at Market Insights and well-renowned speaker in the financial sector, as the opening keynote. The Prosper 2024 agenda also featured 17 breakout sessions focused on a range of topics, from enhancing risk management programs and combatting tight margins to best practices for small business and commercial lending. Over the three-day event, attendees discovered how to best leverage Baker Hill NextGen® and optimize their institution’s lending operations.
 
“Over the last 40 years, Baker Hill has continued to build its reputation as a trusted provider of loan origination and risk management solutions for financial institutions, including some of the top banks and credit unions in the country. Prosper gives us a unique opportunity to bring leaders from these renowned financial institutions, exchange perspectives and learn from one another,” said John M. Deignan, president and CEO of Baker Hill. “This year’s event was a huge success given our record-breaking turnout, which made celebrating our 40th anniversary especially memorable. Our team is looking forward to another successful user conference at Prosper 2025.”
 
Mark your calendars as Prosper 2025 is set to be held May 4-6, 2025 at the Loews Coronado Bay in San Diego, CA.

​SCE Credit Union (SCE FCU) in partnership with Los Angeles County,  announced foster care youth as young as 13 can open their own checking and savings accounts – without an adult co-owner – through the credit union’s Youth Access Banking program.  The program helps foster youth establish a path toward financial independence by removing barriers to open a bank account including accepting alternative forms of identification and waiving account fees. SCE FCU will also provide youth with an initial $5 deposit to establish their savings account.  

The program is a joint partnership between SCE FCU and the Los Angeles County Auditor-Controller’s Ombudsperson (Ombuds) for Youth in Short-Term Residential Therapeutic Programs, whose office advocates for youth placed in group homes.

“This partnership is about more than financial empowerment for LA County's foster youth,” said Jennifer Oliver, president and CEO of SCE Credit Union. It’s also about ensuring this community has the knowledge and resources necessary to make informed financial decisions to start investing in their futures. Providing these essential banking services and education is core to our mission and vision. Investing in LA County’s foster youth provides valuable opportunities for these young adults and the communities in which they live.”

The program also features complimentary sessions by SCE FCU to foster youth in their home settings to answer any questions about the Youth Access Banking  program and, if necessary, help them through the steps of opening their first bank account.
 
“Early exposure to financial literacy and money management skills lays a crucial foundation for lifelong financial success.  I am proud our office is leading the way for youth in foster care in the State and providing important financial resources they can use throughout their life,” Auditor-Controller Oscar Valdez said.
 
“Research consistently shows that providing youth with access to basic financial services generates greater knowledge and resilience, empowering them to navigate future financial challenges,” said Ombudsperson Michelle Lucarelli-Beltran, who is leading the efforts on the program.
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SCE Credit Union has  branches in southern California and Nevada, and offers surcharge-free  access to more than 30,000  ATMs nationwide (including at most 7-Eleven and Rite-Aid Stores) and 30+ branch offices (including affiliates) within LA County through their shared network of financial institutions.

Data warehouse and analytics provider Gemineye is excited to feature two outstanding new credit union clients that joined its team in Q1 2024: Nusenda Credit Union and Space Coast Credit Union. Gemineye’s nimble Databricks and Azure architecture, lightning-fast implementations and easy implementations have made them the first choice for a growing number of savvy credit unions.

Gemineye’s mission is to empower community financial institutions to become more data driven, making data analytics accessible to all credit unions. Historically, only the very large credit unions had access to powerful data analytics tools, but not anymore. New clients of variety of asset sizes have partnered with us in 2024, and appreciate the breadth of cores we work with (including new clients with Fiserv Portico and Fiserv XP2) and tricky integrations.

"We are thrilled to announce two of our newest clients, Space Coast Credit Union and Nusenda Credit Union. Both organizations are leaders in innovation, and we look forward to supporting their data-driven journeys,” says Gemineye CEO Brewster Knowlton.

​Bankjoy, a leading digital banking provider for banks and credit unions across the U.S., has announced its partnership with Pinwheel, a fintech that helps financial institutions win primacy with frictionless account activation.
 
Through the partnership, Bankjoy will help its customers easily integrate the industry’s most advanced digital deposit switching (DDS) solution, Pinwheel Prime, into the digital banking experiences for over 70 banks and credit unions nationwide. Customers of banks or credit unions that use Bankjoy can take advantage of Pinwheel Prime’s two-click deposit switch, transforming a multi-step process requiring customers to leave the bank experience into a fully integrated digital journey that takes mere seconds.

Drawing on Pinwheel’s success with applications like Cash App, which saw a significant increase in direct deposits in a challenging liquidity environment, Bankjoy aims to provide similar advantages to credit unions and community banks. This collaboration allows these institutions to compete effectively by offering an easy and fast deposit switch option.
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Pinwheel's research shows that the speed and ease of deposit switching powered by Pinwheel’s solutions can help financial institutions grow direct deposit enrollment by 32% and lower the time it takes a customer to make their first direct deposit by 65%.
 
Financial institutions have long burdened customers with manual, paper-based deposit-switching experiences, creating friction and exposing them to fraud vulnerabilities. Even solutions that offer digital set-up experiences often require consumers to manually look up their payroll provider and input additional information, leading to a staggering 90% drop-off. To eliminate this friction, Pinwheel is growing a robust proprietary payroll provider network, including partners like OneSource Virtual (OSV), making it possible to instantly identify and authenticate U.S. workers' payroll records directly within the bank account application workflow. Pinwheel effectively removes barriers responsible for half of the drop-off along the traditional consumer journey by ending the need for consumers to know and enter their payroll credentials.
 
With this partnership, Bankjoy’s customers can rapidly implement Pinwheel Prime without taxing their engineering teams. Almost immediately, banks and credit unions using the Bankjoy platform can transform their account opening flow, driving immediate uplift to account activation and acquisition ROI. Beyond reducing friction, digitizing the direct deposit switching process allows financial institutions to tap into advanced real-time insights into their customers’ income so they can deepen their relationships, unlocking an increase in customer lifetime value of over 14%.
 
“Bankjoy is committed to transforming our comprehensive end-to-end platform into a formidable deposit growth engine for our clients," said Weiwei Duncan, COO of Bankjoy. "By seamlessly integrating from Bankjoy online account opening through various tightly-knit third-party integrations like Pinwheel, we can equip our clients to excel in the competitive deposit market. Our goal is clear: to ensure that our clients not only compete but win the deposit war, leveraging advanced technology to streamline processes and enhance user engagement. Removing the friction during the deposit switching setup process is a major step towards achieving account primacy, quickly becoming one of the most important factors for banks and credit unions looking to grow their revenue.”
 
“Partnering with Bankjoy was a natural fit, as they’ve made their mark as innovators in the digital banking industry, " said Kurtis Lin, co-founder and CEO of Pinwheel. “We’re proud to partner with leaders in the digital banking space who help us further facilitate a smooth direct deposit experience for more consumers. With this collaboration, we can bring the ability to easily switch direct deposit settings to an even wider set of consumers, facilitating a fairer financial system with greater choice and portability.”

Chartway Credit Union is pleased to announce the expansion of its senior leadership team, welcoming Nick Whiting as senior vice president of Utah region—a newly created role to support our members and team members at the 15 Chartway branches in our Utah and Texas markets.

Whiting comes to us with more than 18 years of experience in financial services, including his tenure as part of the branch leadership team at Utah Community Credit Union. Nick is also fluent in Spanish and highly invested in fulfilling the needs of the Latin American community, which will effectively advance Chartway’s multicultural strategy and increase access to low-cost financial products and services for historically underserved segments of the population in the communities we serve. Whiting will lead the continued transformation of Chartway’s Utah and Texas branch operations in this role. 

"Nick’s strong leadership capabilities, combined with a strategic mindset, align perfectly with Chartway’s core values and our planned next phase of growth and innovation," said Melissa Cade, chief retail officer. "He is excited to partner closely with leaders and team members across the organization to ensure Chartway’s brand continues to impact individuals and families so they can thrive. I look forward to having Nick on the ground in Utah and seeing the impact his leadership will make across our enterprise!"

"I’m excited about this new role and the challenges it will bring," said Nick Whiting. “Chartway’s values align with my own, so I can’t wait to dig in to help Chartway grow and expand its reach—not only in the Western region but also throughout all communities we serve. I know that the skills and resources I bring to the table will be helpful to achieving our purpose of helping individuals and families thrive.”

Whiting’s experience includes significant roles at Zion’s Bank, where he led all aspects of regional branch operations, including cross-functional coordination and support with their business services team. He holds a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Phoenix and a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Utah Valley University.
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Learn more about Chartway Credit Union at www.Chartway.com.

DeepTarget Inc., a transformational financial services company that provides Growth-as-a-Service™ aka GRaaS™ to community financial institutions (FIs), announces the release of its latest whitepaper, “From Insights to Impact: Supercharging Deposits (Hint: With Cross-Selling Gold).”
 
Download whitepaper here
 
In today’s environment of rapid technological advancements and evolving customer expectations, banks and credit unions face the challenge of attracting deposits while also maximizing cross-selling opportunities. In addition, account holders demand seamless digital experiences and competition from fintech disruptors continues to intensify. These shifts in expectations and challenges make core transformation or modernizing legacy systems no longer a choice but a strategic imperative. However, merely upgrading infrastructure isn’t enough. Financial institutions must harness data intelligently to engage account holders effectively and cross-sell relevant products.

This whitepaper explores how data-driven core transformation can empower financial institutions to achieve these objectives seamlessly. By leveraging advanced analytics, personalized engagement and seamless integration, they can enhance deposit services, deepen customer relationships and drive revenue growth.

Topics covered in the whitepaper include:

• The Crucial Role of Deposits
• Data-Driven Insights for Deposit Growth
• The Pivotal Role of Artificial Intelligence (AI)
• Personalized Engagement Strategies
• Cross-Selling Opportunities
• Agile Core Systems for Real-Time Engagement
• Automation – The Key to Achieving Scale
• Ohio Valley Bank ’s Success Story

“Banks and credit unions face a challenging financial environment where increasing deposits has become critical. To thrive, they must also unlock the full potential of cross-selling and maximize every customer interaction,” said Preetha Pulusani, CEO of DeepTarget. “By harnessing the power of advanced data analytics and personalized experiences, financial institutions can supercharge their deposit growth, deepen customer relationships, and drive revenue and growth. The right technology can be the game-changer that sets them apart from the competition and propels them forward in a rapidly evolving market."