Technology Vendors, Credit Unions Upgrade & Convert Systems

A number of credit unions recently completed or signed up for core conversions, financial technology upgrades, or other system renovations or modifications. Here is CU Times’ latest assembly of some reported moves.

Hawaii State Federal Credit Union ($1.5 billion, Honolulu) chose the Carmel, Ind.-based, cloud-based loan origination software provider Baker Hill’s NextGen Exception Tracking to provide risk mitigation and ensure loan and credit compliance for commercial lending.

The Tampa, Fla.-based innovation catalyst and strategic consultant Best Innovation Group announced Desert Financial Credit Union ($4 billion, Phoenix, Ariz.) implemented BIG’s FIVE Voice Banking Platform, enabling voice-activated banking services across Amazon Alexa apps and devices. BIG also added Deere Employees Credit Union ($1 billion, Moline, Ill.) to its Innovation Club, which engages in educational and innovative projects, and to the creation of the CU Voice Registry project, intended to safeguard voice app names.

SF Fire Credit Union ($1.3 billion, San Francisco, Calif.) selected the San Diego, Calif.-based Corelation’s Keystone open platform as its future core processor because it recognized the struggles of legacy systems’ inability to integrate with third-party vendors. St. Cloud (Minn.) Financial Credit Union ($196 million) and Family Trust Federal Credit Union ($506 million, Rock Hill, S.C.) also selected KeyStone.

The Grand Rapids, Mich.-based CUSO CU*Answers announced TLCU Financial ($37 million, Mishawaka, Ind.) recently signed to change its core to the CU*Answers CU*BASE system and is planning for a March 2020 conversion. In preparation for a fall deployment, CU*Answers and Ripco Credit Union ($136 million, Rhinelander, Wis.) initiated planning for a refresh of RIPCO’s high availability and disaster recovery server.

CU*Answers also completed its first integration with the Ontario, Calif.-based CU Direct’s indirect auto lending platform CUDL, which CU*Answers offers, with Honor Credit Union ($978 million, Berrien Springs, Mich.). In a related announcement, CU Direct announced Honor will implement the Lending 360 consumer loan origination system.

As a member of DaLand CUSO’s CODE Council, Blue Federal Credit Union ($1.1 billion, Cheyenne, Wyo.) moved toward core-centric technology by deploying DaLand’s Member Gravitation Experience to optimize the credit union’s Corelation KeyStone core.

The Brookfield, Wis.-based fintech provider Fiserv announced Jovia Financial Credit Union ($3 billion, Westbury, N.Y.), formerly Nassau Educators Federal Credit Union, and Velocity Credit Union ($840 million, Austin, Texas), selected Fiserv’s DNA core for its ability to integrate third-party solutions through open architecture and APIs, and service all loan types. Velocity also added several integrated Fiserv solutions including general ledger, item processing and enterprise payments. DUCA Financial Services Credit Union Ltd. (CA$3.4 billion, Toronto, Ontario, Canada) also chose Fiserv’s DNA. Canadian fintech provider Celero will provide conversion and hosting services.

Merck Sharp & Dohme Federal Credit Union ($627 million, Chalfont, Penn.) is adding three Verifast biometric authentication solutions from Fiserv, including Verifast Branch for member authentication, Verifast SSO for employee authentication, and Verifast Access, a system of building-wide palm-scanning devices.

The Monett, Mo.-based Jack Henry & Associates’ Symitar division announced Ascend Federal Credit Union ($2.5 billion, Tullahoma, Tenn.) will convert to the Episys core platform to provide a stronger member experience and greater flexibility. Jack Henry ended its 2019 fiscal year on June 30 with 19 credit unions having made a commitment to Symitar’s Episys.

Enrichment Federal Credit Union ($518 million, Oak Ridge, Tenn.) selected the digital lending platform from Jack Henry’s ProfitStars division to streamline the commercial lending process.

The Local Credit Union ($100 million, Sterling Heights, Mich.) and Dover Federal Credit Union ($470 million, Dover, Del.) went live with Mahalo Banking’s Omni-Experience digital banking platform.

The Farmington Hills, Mich.-based CUSO Member Driven Technologies, which hosts Symitar’s Episys core platform through its private cloud alternative for core processing, announced Greenville (S.C.) Federal Credit Union ($253 million) expects to convert to MDT next spring.

SAFE Federal Credit Union ($1.07 billion, Sumter, S.C.) will migrate next year to the Symitar Episys core system from Jack Henry for in-house processing, and this month to NCR Digital Banking for online banking services.

West Community Credit Union ($272 million, O’Fallon, Mo.) announced it would offer a brandable savings app that pays users for engaging with content from the Ann Arbor, Mich.-based Plinqit.

The Austin, Texas-based automated lending solutions provider Open Lending signed deals with 35 credit unions in the first half of 2019, which range in size from $15 million to $4.3 billion. They included: Argent Federal Credit Union (Chester, Va.), Bellwether Community Credit Union (Manchester, N.H.), Coulee Dam (Wash.) Federal Credit Union, Henrico (Va.) Federal Credit Union, Hutchinson (Kan.) Government Employees Credit Union and On Tap Credit Union (Golden, Colo.).

Westerly (R.I.) Community Credit Union ($309 million) signed a multi-year agreement for cloud-based retail and mobile digital banking, as well as bill pay, from the San Ramon, Calif.-based Lumin Digital, a PSCU company. The platform launches in December 2019.

Northwest Community Credit Union ($1.1 billion, Eugene, Ore.) launched two new products, Northwest Cash and Northwest Cash Plus, to offer short-term loans using QCash Financial’s white-label, digital lending platform.

Northwest Federal Credit Union ($3.4 billion, Herndon, Va.) announced it now offers instant issue credit cards at all of its branches. Members in need of a replacement or new card can obtain contactless, ready-to-use cards in person in minutes.

The $1 billion Cobalt Credit Union introduced interactive video banking in Iowa and Nebraska through the Sandy, Utah-based POPio mobile video cloud. Cobalt deployed the video banking service for its web and mobile channels.

TopLine Federal Credit Union ($472 million, Maple Grove, Minn.) chose the Miami, Fla.-based Samaha & Associates to negotiate its vendor search, selection and implementation of a core processing system.

University Credit Union ($725 million, Los Angeles, Calif.), along with its core provider, the Memphis, Tenn.-based CUSO Share One, Inc., teamed up to complete the purchase, assumption and conversion of CBS Employees Federal Credit Union onto UCU’s books in less than one month.

Holley Credit Union ($58 million, Paris, Tenn.) opted to move forward with the Lino Lakes, Minn.-based core provider Sharetec Systems with two objectives: Replace a legacy core processing system and significantly increase automation. Sharetec also announced a partnership with REDi Enterprise Development to provide risk management software.

The Tampa, Fla.-based analytics solutions provider Trellance announced Verity Credit Union ($600 million, Seattle, Wash.) joined the OnApproach M360 Enterprise platform to aggregate its own data.

The Grand Rapids, Mich.-based CUSO Xtend Data Analytics completed its first online credit card analysis with South Bay Credit Union ($11 million, Redondo Beach, Calif.) to help the credit union understand member card utilization.