LUMINARIES 2022 Finalists: Product Innovation

Patelco Credit Union: When Patelco Credit Union ($8.8 billion in assets; 445,895 members) took a look at its member base, it recognized it had declined 11,825 loans with no alternative to help those members. Recognizing this gap, Patelco launched the ScoreUp Credit Builder Loan designed to support people with bad credit, little credit or no credit. Members can choose the term that works for them and an amount that fits within their budgets. Loan proceeds are placed into a secured savings account where the member earns interest while the loan is being paid down. Patelco's initial goal was to offer 50 ScoreUp Credit Builder loans a month to members who otherwise wouldn't be eligible for a loan. In the first three months of the product's launch, more than 1,200 members took advantage of the ScoreUp Credit Builder loan, and in 2021, 64.5% of members with the loan increased their FICO score.

Alliant Credit Union: Last year, Alliant Credit Union ($16.4 billion in assets; 694,474 members) became one of the largest financial institutions to eliminate overdraft and non-sufficient funds fees on all checking and savings accounts after leadership determined such fees put an additional financial burden on people who are already dealing with a financial worry. To accomplish this task in a short timeframe, the Alliant team built a robotic processing application that automatically identified transactions that would trigger an overdraft fee and then reimbursed that fee to members the same day. This bot mechanism allowed time for the Alliant team to build a permanent solution that provides the overdraft fee service without triggering a fee or refund. Since September 2021, Alliant has waived nearly $2 million in NSF fees, and although it still offers the overdraft service, it has waived the fee for nearly 100,000 overdraft transactions amounting to $3 million.

Amplify Credit Union: As the former credit union for IBM employees, data-driven innovation is part of the ethos of Amplify Credit Union ($1.5 billion in assets; 57,079 members). That's why earlier this year, the credit union introduced fee-free banking, removing 40 fees from its deposit accounts, including overdraft and wire transfer fees, and putting $2 million back in the pockets of members. Amplify based its decision on research that shows an outsized impact of fees on younger and more diverse communities. The initiative included several key changes to existing platforms as well as cooperating with vendors to make updates to their reporting and automation, adding ClickSWITCH account-switching service to allow simple account transfers, and rebuilding its overdraft protection program from the ground up. Thanks to fee-free banking, Amplify said new accounts have increased 67%, resulting in nearly $10 million in new dollars brought into the credit union.

Commonwealth Credit Union: With COVID-19 bearing down, Commonwealth Credit Union ($2 billion in assets; 115,645 members) knew its members would need help. To ensure members would have uninterrupted access to their money during the pandemic, the credit union launched a new checking account product designed to give members with a history of financial troubles another chance at financial redemption. The 20/20 Checking product provides a checking account with no minimum balance, a free debit card, and mobile and online banking for a $10 monthly fee. After a year in good standing, members are allowed to upgrade to the credit union's standard checking account or its Round UP Checking account, which rounds up purchases and deposits the spare change into a savings account. Thus far, Commonwealth has 347 active 20/20 users and has upgraded 40 accounts to standard checking.

Workers Credit Union: Workers Credit Union ($2.5 billion in assets; 119,578 members) was motivated by the statistic that almost 40% of Americans struggle to afford a $400 emergency expense when it developed Workers Way, a judgment-free, one-on-one financial coaching experience provided at no additional cost to its members. The tool helps members increase their savings, improve their credit scores, pay down debt and qualify for first homes. In 2021, coaches held 3,000 financial wellness appointments with members, and in the past year, Workers has expanded the program in a new direction with the Workers Way at Work, which allows employers access to offer the tool as an employee benefit. All Workers branch staff are trained and certified financial coaches, which gives them the ability to support members to make sound financial decisions and safeguards them from the threat of automation by providing them with marketable soft skills and financial training.

Community Credit Union: Community Credit Union ($90.9 million in assets; 11,641 members) received its Community Development Financial Institution designation in 2020 and received $1.8 million in Rapid Response Program grants in 2021. With these funds, the credit union expanded its Ready, Set, Yes! loan program, First Time Auto Buyers loan program, Career Advancement Loans in partnership with New England School of Metalworks (NESM), rental security deposit loans and emergency loan programs, all of which it believes will create members for life. The partnership with the NESM offers flexible underwriting for students with no credit or damaged credit, applicants with no current employment and deferred payments until the conclusion of its 12-week welding program. In addition, NESM added financial education workshops to its curriculum. The first cohort of 2022 had two students using the Career Advancement Loan Program for a total loan balance of $17,564, and all 12 students completed the financial education workshops.

Dora Financial: About 50 million Americans are negatively impacted by a lack of access to inclusive financial services. Dora Financial, a marketing and innovation CUSO, set out to change that. Dora created an innovative, digital, bilingual experience designed to attract the underserved, help them establish a foundational transaction account, begin their journey to financial wellness and expand from a Dora Everyday account to a full-service credit membership at a participating credit union. The account is designed to promote savings and thrift, preserve earnings, build assets, and provide an alternative to alternate and predatory banking services. Since launching Dora in the late fall of 2021, it has established more than 4,400 Dora Everyday Accounts.

eGain Corporation: eGain recently partnered with nonprofit financial counseling firm GreenPath Financial Wellness to create a virtual financial coach that engages members to improve financial wellness by reducing spending, saving more, paying down debt and strengthening credit. Using conversational artificial intelligence in a chat format, the virtual coach develops tailored financial action plans delivered in bite-sized, easily digestible pieces. This year, eGain integrated the tool with TransUnion soft-pull data to provide even more tailored and actionable advice by retrieving the member's credit score and the accompanying drivers and reinforcing what is improving their credit score. The tool includes free access to a GreenPath counselor when the coach detects stress or frustration. The Virtual Financial Coach is on pace to have over 52,000 member engagements in 2022, and 86% of users report maintaining or improving their credit improvement confidence after a credit-focused engagement.

Experian: With core values that include innovation and financial inclusion, the fintech Experian invested $781 million through acquisitions and $32 million in support of its strategic initiatives last year. One of Experian's recent product innovations is Experian Lift Premium, which is designed to help credit-invisible and thin-file consumers gain access to fair and affordable credit while helping credit unions find new lending opportunities and boost financial inclusion. Lift Premium leverages expanded FCRA-regulated data, advanced analytics and machine learning to improve visibility of previously un-scoreable consumers and provide a deeper view that improves predictive performance across the entire credit spectrum. With Lift Premium, 96% of applicants can be scored, including an estimated 65% of the credit-invisible population and the entire conventionally unscoreable population. Experian builds many of its innovations through its DataLabs division, which drives creation of innovative products from experimentation using artificial intelligence, machine learning, advanced analytics and data assets from across its businesses.

KeyPoint Credit Union: KeyPoint Credit Union ($1.7 billion in assets; 60,416 members) recently launched a program designed to help those who don't have credit, build it. The Credit Starter program helps those with no credit history or limited credit history build their credit, establish savings and get started on the way to financial success while avoiding predatory lending risks. The program includes a 0% loan with funds secured by KeyPoint, low monthly payments and no cosigner required. The credit union also provides the member with a FICO tracking tool within its online and mobile banking as well as educational resources to help guide them. After the successful launch of the Credit Starter program in the second half of 2021, KeyPoint pledged $10 million to the program.