Choosing the right fintech partner

Instead of shying away from the new digital landscape, credit unions looking to expand their offerings and attract members can cultivate partnerships that bring fintech offerings within their own doors.

Community Financial Credit Union in Plymouth, Mich., found the right partner for its credit scoring solutions in SavvyMoney, which uses 40-plus digital banking integrations to offer members a personalized experience.

“What we’re trying to do is help you be the credit union of tomorrow,” said SavvyMoney Senior Vice President of Sales & Partnerships Chris Fraenza, who spoke at a breakout session Tuesday at the 2023 CUNA Marketing & Business Development Council Conference in Orlando. “How do you prevent members from going out the back door?”

SavvyMoney was one of the first partnerships Tansley Stearns formed last year after becoming president/CEO of Community Financial. With SavvyMoney, members of the $1.3 billion credit union can choose free credit monitoring for online and mobile banking, instant access to what affects their credit score, real-time alerts and more.

“It’s a solution that we believe is transformative for our members,” Stearns says, noting that any partnership should start with the question, “What are our members going to experience?”

However, a strong credit union-fintech relationship is not just about the product the fintech offers.

“What mattered most to us was that we found a partner that allowed our members to feel the impact quickly, that represented our brand well, and whose values ​​aligned,” says Stearns.

“A really good credit union partner is someone who listens carefully and is willing to hear the pain points.”

Tansley Stearns

Value alignment builds inherent trust between new partners. This trust allowed the relationship between Community Financial and SavvyMoney to develop quickly.

“Because Tansley established trust and said, ‘This is a partner, this is not a vendor,’ her team reached out to ours and said, ‘What do we need to do to do everything that SavvyMoney does extremely well?'” Fraenza says. “It wasn’t hesitation, it wasn’t, ‘SavvyMoney is going to try to sell us something else.’ It was, ‘Let’s sit down at the table, figure out what other partners have done, and figure out how we can replicate the.’

“And it wasn’t just one call,” Fraenza continues. “It was the lending team that reached out to us … marketing that reached out to us … IT … having the commitment of all parties involved makes for an exceptional partnership.”

What starts as an exceptional partnership does not always end that way. Therefore, it is crucial for both the credit union and the fintech to be flexible and willing to adapt as the relationship progresses and the market changes.

“A really good partner for credit unions is someone who listens carefully and is willing to hear the pain points,” says Stearns.

“You’re not on this island alone,” Fraenza agrees. “Just because we’re a technology company and that’s what we do, we don’t have to stop there. Hold your partners accountable for that. Make sure they teach you best practices, make sure you have check-in calls. It shouldn’t be ‘I don’t know who my representative is.”