interface.ai, the definitive leader in agentic AI for community financial institutions, today unveiled Nexus at Financial Brand Forum 2026 - the industry's first fully agentic Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) platform purpose-built for credit unions and community banks. Nexus eliminates the foundational constraint that has defined contact centers for decades: the binary choice between AI handling a call or transferring it to a human. With Nexus, AI owns the conversation while human expertise is available in seconds -- no transfers, no hold queues, no repeated information -- fundamentally rewriting the economics of every contact center that deploys it.
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A Third Paradigm: AI Owns the Conversation. Humans Provide Judgment.
The contact center industry has operated on a binary model since its inception. When AI or an IVR cannot handle a request, the entire call is transferred to a human agent. The member waits on hold. The agent rebuilds context from scratch. A request that required 10 seconds of human judgment consumes 4 minutes of agent time. Every CCaaS vendor on the market today - from legacy incumbents to AI-native startups - operates within this same binary framework. They optimize within the constraint. They do not eliminate it.

Nexus eliminates it. Nexus introduces a fundamentally new architecture for how contact centers operate. The AI does not hand off the call. It does not transfer the member. It does not put anyone on hold. Instead, when a moment in the conversation requires human judgment -- an approval, a policy exception, a verification - Nexus routes only that specific micro-request to the next available agent with the right skill. The agent resolves it in seconds. Nexus delivers the answer back to the member at a natural moment in the conversation, never interrupting mid-sentence. The member hears one continuous, seamless experience.

Members can make multiple requests in a single call. Each is routed independently to the right skilled agent. Two agents, three agents working in parallel - the member hears one voice, one conversation, zero transfers.
This is not an incremental improvement to call routing. It is a new category.

Two Agentic Modes Built for the Reality of Community Finance
Nexus operates in two modes that address different dimensions of the contact center challenge:
Agentic Mode: AI leads, agents assist in real time. Nexus AI manages the full member conversation across voice and chat. When human judgment is needed, it escalates only the specific request into skills-based queues. The right agent sees it, resolves it with a single action, and Nexus seamlessly delivers the response. No hold. No transfer. No context rebuilding. Multiple requests, multiple agents, one unbroken conversation.

Co-Pilot Mode: Agents lead, Nexus accelerates everything around them. When a human agent is already in conversation, Nexus automates the work that consumes the most time. For loan applications and account openings, Nexus sends secure document collection links, auto-extracts data, and pre-fills forms -- compressing 25 minutes of manual data entry into 2. If documents are not available, Nexus fills applications from live conversation transcription as the member speaks.

In both modes, Nexus shows UI to agents only when their attention is required. No monitoring dashboards. No idle screens. Agents see work when it exists and are free when it does not.

Why This Changes the Economics of Community Banking
The implications for credit unions and community banks are transformative:
Agent capacity multiplied, not merely optimized. When agents resolve micro-requests in seconds rather than managing entire calls for minutes, each agent effectively handles 5-10x more member interactions. Institutions scale capacity without scaling headcount.

Hold times eliminated, not reduced. Members never wait in a silent queue. When all agents are busy, Nexus continues the conversation -- gathering context, verifying identity, resolving what it can, and delivering personalized product recommendations through integration with Intelligent Banking. Wait time becomes productive time. Service time becomes revenue time.

New agents are productive immediately. Nexus embeds institutional knowledge - processes, policies, procedures, disclosures - directly into the workflow. Quick actions tell agents exactly what to do. Forms are pre-filled. Compliance language is presented on screen. The weeks of training that traditionally stand between a new hire and productivity are compressed to the first interaction.

Revenue-aligned routing. Every request enters skill-based queues with configurable priorities. Institutions can prioritize loan applications and new account openings over routine inquiries -- directly connecting contact center operations to revenue and membership growth objectives.

Integrates with your current CCaaS -- or replaces it entirely. Nexus layers directly onto existing CCaaS platforms through native integration, giving institutions an immediate agentic upgrade without disrupting current infrastructure. Or, institutions can route calls directly to Nexus and replace their legacy CCaaS altogether -- running a fully agentic contact center end-to-end on a single platform purpose-built for community finance.

"Contact centers have been trapped in a binary model for decades: either the AI handles it, or a human handles it. The entire industry has optimized within that constraint without questioning it," said Srinivas Njay, Founder and CEO of interface.ai. "Nexus introduces a third option that should have existed years ago. The AI owns the conversation while human judgment arrives in seconds -- no transfers, no holds, no members repeating themselves. This is not an upgrade to call routing. It is the end of call routing as the industry knows it. And for credit unions that deploy it, the economics change overnight."

Powered by BankGPT - The Proven Foundation for Agentic Banking
Nexus is built on interface.ai's BankGPT platform, the industry's first agentic AI platform for community finance, trusted by 100+ financial institutions and operating at over 1.5 million conversations per day across banking use cases. BankGPT provides the banking-grade conversational intelligence, centralized governance and compliance controls, and continuous learning loops that make Nexus possible - and that no horizontal CCaaS or generic AI provider can replicate.

Nexus is available immediately for pilots and phased rollouts across voice and chat channels for credit unions and community banks. Institutions interested in early access can contact interface.ai for a live demonstration.

Cloudvirga, a Stewart-owned provider of digital point-of-sale platforms for lenders, has released a new tool within its Tropos Platform that provides AI-driven bank statement analysis.
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The feature enables lenders to analyze bank statement data and generate cash flow-based income insights for borrowers whose earnings fall outside traditional W-2 employment. By including self-employed individuals, gig workers and those with multiple income streams into their borrower bases, lenders can expand their pool of possible borrowers with this solution.

As borrower income profiles evolve, a growing share of the U.S. workforce earns at least part of its income outside traditional employment models, increasing demand for more flexible underwriting approaches. Financial institutions are often required to review months of bank statements to assess borrower eligibility manually, a process that can be time-intensive and inconsistent.

Cloudvirga’s capabilities automate this process by analyzing transaction-level data and generating an income summary, along with detailed supporting data.

“Lenders are seeing a growing number of borrowers whose income does not fit traditional verification models,” said Maria Moskver, CEO at Cloudvirga. “This capability gives loan officers a faster, more consistent way to evaluate cash flow and make informed lending decisions without relying on manual document review.”

Once bank statements are uploaded, the platform analyzes deposit activity, identifies income patterns and generates a structured report that lenders can use to support underwriting decisions. The output includes both a summarized income view and transaction-level data, allowing institutions to apply their own risk models and calculations as needed.

By reducing the time required to review and interpret bank statements from hours to minutes, this feature helps lenders improve operational efficiency while maintaining flexibility in how income is assessed.

The capability is designed for use across mortgage, non-QM, and other lending segments where verifying income from bank statement data is a common requirement. It also supports ongoing document collection by allowing lenders to update and reanalyze borrower data without restarting the review process.

Lenders can learn more about the new cash flow analysis feature by visiting https://www.cloudvirga.com  and requesting a personalized demo.

​NCR Atleos Corporation (NYSE: NATL) (“Atleos”), a leader in expanding self-service financial access for financial institutions, retailers and consumers, today announced that Founders Federal Credit Union will leverage the Atleos ATM as a Service (ATMaaS) operating model.

Serving more than 289,000 members across 50 offices in South Carolina and North Carolina, Founders Federal Credit Union is one of the region’s most trusted and member‑focused financial cooperatives, with over $5 billion in assets. The credit union has long emphasized a commitment to convenience, service quality, and investing in modern technology that complements its personalized in‑branch experience.

Through its collaboration with Atleos, Founders Federal Credit Union is adopting a model designed to streamline ATM operations, strengthen security, and enhance uptime—ensuring members enjoy modern, convenient access to their finances across the Carolinas.

“At Founders, we are always looking for ways to blend technological innovation with the personalized service our members value,” said Joe McCain, Chief Administrative Officer, Founders Federal Credit Union. “NCR Atleos brings a well-established approach to ATM modernization that is intended to elevate convenience and security while reducing operational complexity. This collaboration supports our ongoing mission of delivering a dependable, high‑quality banking experience—wherever and however our members choose to engage with us.”

“Founders Federal Credit Union is deeply committed to providing members with convenient and secure access to cash,” said Meghan Bennett, Vice President, North America for Atleos. “We’re proud to support their vision with an outsourcing model that is designed to enhance efficiency, reduce complexity, and support reliable ATM availability across the  Carolinas. This is a great example of how Atleos helps financial institutions modernize operations while staying true to the personal service their members value.”

​Rise Analytics, a wholly owned subsidiary of Trellance, today announced the launch of Finn, an AI-powered analytics agent designed to transform how credit unions and other financial institutions interact with their data.

Finn introduces a new way to access analytics: instead of navigating dashboards, building reports or writing complex queries, users can simply ask questions in natural language and receive immediate, data-driven insights. Integrated directly with the Rise Analytics Data Platform, Finn connects to an institution’s trusted data environment, including the Rise Data Lakehouse and Predictive Analytics models, to deliver real-time insights, visualizations and contextual recommendations.

By combining large language model technology with Rise Analytics’ secure analytics infrastructure, Finn helps financial institutions dramatically reduce the time between accessing data and taking action.

With Finn, users can:

• Ask questions about institutional performance and receive instant data-backed answers
• Identify trends and patterns across member activity, lending performance and portfolio metrics
• Access insights from predictive models and benchmarking datasets with contextual recommendations
• Automatically generate dashboards, charts, graphs and downloadable datasets to support reporting, decision-making and marketing campaign execution

Finn can quickly surface insights related to member behavior, portfolio performance, charge-off trends, benchmarking data and other key operational metrics, making advanced analytics accessible to both technical and non-technical users across the organization.

“Financial institutions sit on an incredible amount of data, but accessing insights quickly has traditionally required navigating dashboards or running complex queries,” said Paolo Teotino, Executive Director of Rise Analytics. “Finn changes that. It creates a direct conversation between users and their data. Instead of searching for answers, leaders can simply ask the question and immediately receive clear, actionable insights and contextual recommendations.”

Finn is now available as an add-on capability for Rise Analytics clients and can be activated with a simple configuration toggle. Organizations can begin using the AI agent almost immediately after enabling the service while maintaining the security and confidentiality of their data within the highly trusted Rise Analytics managed cloud platform.

Learn more about Finn and how it can help your financial institution unlock the full power of its data at RiseAnalytics.com. 

Telhio Credit Union announced a strategic partnership with Rev1 Ventures, the Midwest venture studio that partners with innovators in Saas/AI, deep tech and life sciences, to support growth and innovation in Ohio.
 
As a Rev1 Funding Partner, Telhio joins a network of 40+ leading corporations that are committed to driving long-term impact through innovation. Funding Partners gain early insight into emerging technologies, expertise and programming, while helping to support startups, which create jobs and advance the economy. Telhio is the first credit union to join as a Funding Partner.
 
Rev1 Ventures is a nationally recognized venture studio that partners with entrepreneurs and corporations to build and scale high-growth companies, prepare startups for early-stage investment, and drives a robust innovation ecosystem. To date its impact includes:

• $7.5B all-time start up impact
• 200+ startups funded
• 2,780+ jobs created
• 1,600 startups supported

 
This is a natural partnership as Telhio has been part of the fabric of Ohio’s innovation economy for over 90 years. Starting in 1934 as the credit union for the Columbus Telephone Company (which later became AT&T), Telhio has become one of the largest credit unions in central Ohio and is the #1 SBA lender among Ohio credit unions. As a result, Telhio has become a trusted partner for countless businesses and entrepreneurs that have helped fuel the local economy. Partnering with Rev1 allows for greater impact of innovation and growth.
 
“Telhio has always believed that strong communities are built by supporting the people and ideas driving them forward,” said Nick Biratsis, Vice President of Marketing at Telhio. “Partnering with Rev1 allows us to deepen our commitment to Ohio’s innovation economy by connecting with the entrepreneurs and startups shaping the future. As the first credit union to join Rev1 as a Funding Partner, we’re proud to help fuel the next generation of growth, jobs, and opportunity across our region.”
 
“Telhio's commitment to serving our Central Ohio community is clear,” said Julia Dewey, Rev1’s Chief Partnerships Officer. “Partnering amplifies both organizations’ abilities to create lasting and positive impact on the region. We look forward to working with Telhio to drive startup innovation through Central Ohio and beyond.”
 
To learn more about Rev1 Ventures, visit https://www.rev1ventures.com/.

​Velera, the nation’s premier payments credit union service organization (CUSO) and an integrated financial technology solutions provider, today unveiled the Velera Ecosystem, including its cloud-native Velera technology stack, Stellaris, and Atmos, its intelligence layer. This innovation engine unifies technology, data, risk and payments across the Velera product universe, offering credit unions end-to-end connectivity unprecedented in the industry. The announcement was made at the company’s VeleraLIVE event, taking place this week in Orlando, Fla.
 
“Velera is incredibly proud of the ecosystem we have crafted over the past couple years, because it’s not just an ecosystem: it’s an engine,” said Velera EVP, Chief Product and Technology Officer Denise Stevens. “Stellaris and Atmos are unlike anything in the market, with the ability to power credit unions’ products and strategies regardless of where they are or what their tech stack looks like today. What truly sets this ecosystem apart is that we built it alongside our credit unions – collaboratively shaping a solution designed to meet their needs today and into the future.”
 
Built over the past two years, Velera’s fully integrated, cloud-native technology ecosystem is designed to help credit unions navigate critical industry challenges, from modernizing legacy infrastructure to protecting members against evolving fraud threats and competing in a rapidly changing market. The Velera Ecosystem continuously processes and structures real-time data to provide credit unions with faster onboarding, connected and embedded experiences, unified data and real-time intelligence, opti-channel risk mitigation, and shared components across a connected product universe.
 
Through Velera’s “build once, use everywhere” approach, Stellaris enables solutions to be developed once and deployed across products and channels. Its processor-independent design ensures emerging technologies can be integrated seamlessly, freeing credit unions from legacy constraints and giving them the flexibility to grow and adapt.
 
Atmos serves as the intelligence orchestration layer of the Velera Ecosystem, transforming harmonized data across member touchpoints into actionable insights, advanced business intelligence and real-time risk mitigation. This comes to life through:
 

• Atmos Data: This unified data ecosystem and neural data network centralizes data intelligence inside Velera’s solutions, enables AI and powers Velera’s product universe to create smarter, connected experiences.
• Atmos Risk: With a focus on opti-channel risk mitigation, this unified fraud ecosystem blends real-time intelligence and expert insight, protecting credit unions without sacrificing member experience.
• Atmos Payments: A holistic network of payment channels that provides security, flexibility and choice, enabling credit unions to seamlessly move money and meet their members where they are.

 
This groundbreaking technology forms the foundation of Velera’s innovation platform for the next generation, developed to help credit unions thrive in a digital-first financial landscape where real-time insights and seamless member experiences are table stakes.
 
For more information about Velera’s ecosystem and its capabilities, visit velera.com/credit-union-solutions.

​Quinte Financial Technologies (Quinte), a leading enterprise case management provider for banks, credit unions, CUSOs and fintechs, today announced that Vermont-based Heritage Family Credit Union (‘HFCU’) has selected Quinte’s ServiceDESK to enhance policy-driven oversight and reinforce operational consistency across the credit union.
 
As part of the engagement, Quinte will work closely with HFCU to assess existing policies, identify potential gaps in operational execution, and refine those policies to better support consistent, organization-wide outcomes. By aligning policy design with day-to-day case management processes, ServiceDESK helps transform operational objectives into clear, repeatable operational practices.
 
HFCU chose Quinte to help ensure that monitoring, investigations and case operations are guided by well-defined policies and executed with greater consistency. Quinte’s ServiceDESK model combines review and refinement with structured workflows designed to integrate seamlessly with HFCU’s existing systems and operational environment. The engagement builds on HFCU’s established approach to managing investigative workflows, adding structure and scalability while preserving efficiency and minimizing disruption to daily operations.
 
“As our operations continue to grow and evolve, it is critical that our risk oversight processes remain structured, consistent and well-coordinated,” said Christine Messer, EVP Chief Financial Officer, HFCU. “Quinte’s model strengthens our operational framework while giving our teams the clarity and support needed to manage risk effectively. By streamlining workflows and improving coordination across our case management activities, we are ensuring our processes remain aligned with how we intend to operate, strengthening our ability to protect our members and maintain their trust.” 
 
“HFCU’s approach to risk oversight reflects its commitment to strong operational controls and disciplined decision making,” said Sriram Natarajan, President, Quinte. “Implementing structured case management workflows enables the credit union to improve oversight across case activities and evolve with regulatory expectations.”
 
Quinte’s ServiceDESK combines experienced operations teams, policy expertise and structured workflows designed to orchestrate streamlined operations for credit unions. Quinte’s operations team is a critical extension that empowers financial institutions like HFCU to decisively bridge the gap between policy design and day-to-day execution ensuring governance, risk, and compliance frameworks are not only consistently implemented but rigorously upheld as operations scale.

DataVisor, the leading AI-powered fraud and AML platform, today announced Vera, the first suite of conversational AI agents for battling financial crime. Vera redefines how institutions manage risk: teams give instructions in plain language, and AI agents execute them across the entire fraud and AML lifecycle. By replacing time-intensive manual processes and workflows, it introduces a faster, more adaptive, and intelligent operating model built for the demands of modern financial crime.
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DataVisor’s conversational AI agents show how true agentic technology can accelerate fraud prevention without sacrificing control.

ShareFraudsters are weaponizing AI, scaling attacks, and exploiting vulnerabilities faster than humans can respond. DataVisor’s 2026 Fraud & AML Executive Report highlighted this AI “Readiness Gap,” finding that only 23% have the right infrastructure, while 74% of leaders agree AI-driven fraud is a top threat. Vera helps close the gap by bringing unparalleled agility, intelligence, and adaptability directly into fraud and AML operations.

“With Vera, for the first time financial institutions can outpace AI-driven attackers,” said Yinglian Xie, CEO and Co-Founder of DataVisor. “By unlocking unparalleled speed and intelligence, we are redefining the playing field and enabling a more proactive defense against AI-driven fraud.”

This new operating model enables institutions to seamlessly translate intent into action across fraud and AML operations. Ian Watson, Head of Risk Research at Celent, noted: “DataVisor’s conversational AI agents show how true agentic technology can accelerate fraud prevention without sacrificing control. Initiated through a chat, conversational AI agents turn analyst intent into production-ready controls with governance automatically embedded.”

A New Operating Model for Fighting Financial Crime
Vera's conversational AI interface enables fraud and compliance teams to direct AI agents in plain language, automatically executing actions across the platform. It provides capabilities that have never been available to fraud and compliance teams, including:

• Unparalleled Speed: Teams can detect threats, deploy countermeasures, and adapt defenses faster and easier, without the bottlenecks of traditional manual workflows or no-code and low-code tools.
• Superior Intelligence & Insights: AI actively surfaces insights from business and behavioral data and signals, enabling more effective and reliable decision-making.
• Next-Generation Agility and Adaptability: By combining Vera with cutting-edge unsupervised machine learning that uncovers emerging criminal patterns, teams can identify new trends and tailor risk strategies proactively at the earliest possible stage.
• Enterprise-Grade Governance and Control: AI agents provide full transparency and control, with logged interactions, human approval for actions, auditability and rollback.

Chuck Subrt, Fraud & AML Practice Director at Datos Insights, said: “Bringing conversational AI together with embedded execution agents puts more control directly in the hands of financial crime leaders. DataVisor's approach reflects the kind of practical innovation the industry demands to keep pace with increasingly sophisticated threats.”

With this update, risk teams now can unleash the power of AI agents executing end-to-end across fraud and AML workflows, from strategy design to optimization, investigation, and reporting with high speed, consistency, and scale. Early results from DataVisor customers, including NASA Federal Credit Union and a digital financial platform serving 10 million customers across lending, banking, and financial planning, demonstrate meaningful impact:

• Detection Strategy Design: Quickly convert emerging fraud patterns or regulatory requirements into detection strategies through plain language, increasing detection coverage by 2-3x.
• Optimization: Continuously evaluate performance, simulate scenarios, and refine thresholds and rules, reducing false positives by 40%+.
• Investigation: Surface key signals and guide analysts through investigations, reducing investigation time by 20-30x while improving consistency.
• Regulatory Reporting: Automatically generate SAR narratives from case data, reducing preparation time by 90%+ with full transparency and human review.

“Vera represents a new era in financial crime defense. The ability to proactively adapt through AI agents strengthens our readiness and accelerates our response to emerging threats,” said Doug Nahas, COO of NASA Federal Credit Union. “With a strong roadmap and thoughtful deployment, DataVisor is translating AI innovation into real, measurable value.”

With this announcement, DataVisor builds on its leadership and track record as a pioneer and key innovator in AI and machine learning. The company protects tens of billions of transactions annually across banks, credit unions, fintechs, marketplaces, and digital payment organizations, and continues to set the new benchmark for AI in financial crime prevention.

​The African-American Credit Union Coalition (AACUC) has named three deserving illustrious leaders as recipients of the 2026 Pete Crear Lifetime Achievement Award, recognizing enduring contributions to the credit union movement and embodiment of AACUC’s mission. The recipients are:

• Mary McDuffie, President/CEO, Retired, Navy Federal Credit Union
• Marsha Majors, President/CEO, Retired, U.S. Eagle Federal Credit Union
• Gary J. Perez, President/CEO, USC Credit Union

Collectively, these three leaders represent the helm of the nation’s largest credit union, a historic first as the first African American female credit union CEO, and transformative growth that expanded one institution’s assets nearly 47 times its original size.

Named after Pete Crear, long-time AACUC member and retired and past President/CEO of the World Council of Credit Unions, Inc. for pioneering significant advancements in the credit union ecosystem, the Pete Crear Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes excellence in advancing the credit union philosophy of “People Helping People.” Honorees demonstrate significant impact through leadership, service, and contributions to credit union growth, infrastructure, advocacy, and community impact.

“There is extraordinary leadership across the credit union movement, and this year we are proud to recognize not one, but three exceptional leaders,” said Renée Sattiewhite, President/CEO of AACUC regarding the biennial award. “Mary, Marsha, and Gary have each expanded access to financial services through innovation, purpose-driven leadership, and a deep commitment to the communities they serve.”

Mary McDuffie served as the President/CEO of Navy Federal Credit Union from 2019 until her retirement in 2024, growing the financial institution from $97 billion to $171 billion. Prior to becoming President/CEO, she served in multiple executive positions. Outside of the credit union, she served as a member of the Visa Senior Executive Council and the regional board of the Richmond Federal Reserve. Before joining Navy Federal, she worked for Star Systems, now part of Fiserv. She began her career with J. Walter Thompson advertising, working in the Washington, DC, and Jakarta, Indonesia offices. She graduated with honors from Wellesley College.

Marsha Majors is the retired President/CEO of U.S. Eagle Federal Credit Union headquartered in Albuquerque, NM, offering more than 40 years of financial services experience. As the first African American woman CEO to build and lead a billion-dollar-plus credit union, Majors excelled at strategically transitioning her organization to forge new pathways to success. She is committed to mentoring and sharing her story to encourage other women. Majors is a recognized New Mexico Woman of Influence, 2022 African American Credit Union Hall of Fame inductee, recipient of the New Mexico Top CEOs for Banking and Finance, and CEO Progress. Majors enjoys life with her husband, two daughters, and three grandchildren.

Gary J. Perez has led USC Credit Union (USCCU) as President and CEO since 1988, transforming it from a $15 million campus-based institution into a $700 million full-service credit union serving the entire University of Southern California (USC) Trojan Family and surrounding underserved communities. Under his leadership, USCCU earned rare triple designations as a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI), Minority Depository Institution (MDI), and Juntos Avanzamos credit union. With nearly five decades in the credit union industry, Perez has also served on multiple national and regional boards, including the AACUC Board of Directors, advancing financial inclusion. A Los Angeles native, he holds degrees from Azusa Pacific University and USC, where his family maintains deep Trojan ties.

“The Pete Crear Lifetime Achievement Award represents the highest honor within AACUC, recognizing individuals whose careers have fundamentally strengthened the credit union movement,” said Marvin York, Chair of the AACUC Board of Directors. “This year’s honorees exemplify the vision, resilience and commitment to equity that continue to move our industry forward.”

Majors, McDuffie and Perez will be honored at the Pete Crear Lifetime Achievement Award Ceremony and Dinner during the 2026 AACUC Annual Conference in Alpharetta, Georgia on August 5, 2026. TruStage is the Event Title Sponsor for the Award Ceremony.

Firelands Federal Credit Union (Firelands FCU), a community-centered financial institution serving over 36,000 members across Erie, Huron, and Crawford counties, is proud to announce a new initiative aimed at ensuring that non-English speaking community members can receive the same quality of service as every other Firelands member. Beginning at its Norwalk and Sandusky branches, Firelands FCU is implementing AI-powered technology through a partnership with Traduality, a Bloomington-based Credit Union Service Organization (CUSO), so that every member — regardless of the language they speak — can receive clear, confident, and respectful service from Firelands staff.
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A Community That Speaks Many LanguagesFirelands FCU has always been guided by the Credit Union Philosophy of People Helping People. As the communities it serves continue to grow more diverse, the credit union recognized an opportunity to live that philosophy more fully. Non-English speaking residents of Erie, Huron, and Crawford counties deserve the same seamless banking experience as any other member — and with this initiative, Firelands FCU is making that a reality.

Bringing AI Into the BranchThrough Traduality’s Fire Lingo platform, Firelands FCU staff at the Norwalk and Sandusky branches are now equipped to communicate directly with non-English speaking members during in-person visits — without relying on outside services or asking members to wait. Fire Lingo Face-to-Face enables employees to hold clear, natural conversations with members in their preferred language right at the branch. In addition, Firelands FCU is using Fire Lingo Cloud to produce multilingual marketing and member education materials, extending the credit union’s reach into non-English speaking communities before members even walk through the door.

“At Firelands FCU, our commitment has always been simple: every member deserves the same great experience, no matter what. By bringing this AI technology into our Norwalk and Sandusky branches, we’re making sure that a language barrier never stands between a member and the financial support they need.” said Brett Montague, President/CEO at Firelands Federal Credit Union.

The Start of Something BiggerThis deployment at Norwalk and Sandusky marks the beginning of Firelands FCU’s broader effort to build trust and deepen relationships with the non-English speaking members already living and working in its service area. The credit union sees this not as a single project, but as a commitment to continuously improve the experience for every member it serves.

“Firelands FCU embodies exactly what a credit union should be — a financial institution that genuinely cares about every person in its community,” said Diego Achio, CEO and Co-founder of Traduality. “We’re proud to support their efforts to make sure that no member has to navigate one of the most important aspects of their life — their finances — in a language that isn’t their own.”

For more information about Firelands Federal Credit Union’s services and community initiatives, visit firelandsfcu.org.