Credit Unions Look for New Fintech Support
Two credit union-focused fintech firms believe they've found a better way for CUs to compete with the big banks.
Credit unions can compete with big bank/fintech alliances in developing innovative products by collaborating with other credit union organizations to find, foster, and showcase, potential financial technology partners and solutions.
That was the goal of two Columbus, Ohio-based firms, Sherpa Technologies, a CUSO of Corporate One, and Horizon Two Labs when they combined to form FintechAccel | CU, a fintech innovation and acceleration platform focused on working with credit union industry executives to identify and solve common pressing issues.
Keith Riddle, president and CEO of Sherpa Technologies noted Sherpa has an innovation council of about 30 credit unions and they range from very large to mid-tier and smaller. As Sherpa interacted with those financial institutions, council members indicated a desire for a greater degree of engagement with fintech firms, but in an organized fashion and in a way specific to their problem statements.
Following the comprehensive tech investigation and evaluation process, FintechAccel | CU presented its inaugural cohort of eight financial technology startups in a showcase event as part of SherpaFUSE 2019, Sherpa Technology’s annual credit union conference, in early November.
“The credit union industry is ready to partner with innovative fintechs,” Riddle, said. Initial sponsoring participants of FintechAccel | CU included: Corning Credit Union ($1.5 billion, Corning, N.Y.), Gulf Winds Credit Union ($700 million, Pensacola, Fla.), Kemba Credit Union ($978 million, West Chester, Ohio), Virginia Credit Union ($3.7 billion, North Chesterfield, Va.), Northrop Grumman Federal Credit Union ($1.2 billion, Gardena, Calif.), One Nevada Credit Union ($929 million, Las Vegas) and ConnectFSS, a multi-credit union CUSO.
The eight participating fintech startups:
- APiO provides help with data acquisition, credit scoring and monitoring for financial services.
- Arcus offers a payment infrastructure to connect financial service professionals and merchants with one integration.
- CreditSnap uses an intelligent matching engine (powered by AI) and a cross sell engine to match credit seekers with offers.
- Digs, a savings app, helps customers build wealth through homeownership.
- Finovera, a digital bill management and payment platform.
- IdentityMind creates and analyzes digital identities for verification proofing, onboarding, and fraud prevention.
- Kindur provides retirement income management.
- Shastic offers business text messaging for credit unions.
Read the full account of a newly formed credit union tech accelerator group in the Dec. 11 issue of CU Times.