BECU's headquarters in Tukwila, Wash. (Credit/BECU newsroom)
BECU is developing an in-house capability for generative artificial intelligence through its hiring of about a dozen employees of a fintech earlier this year.
Lane Covington, a spokesperson for the Seattle-area credit union, called the hires in the first quarter a part of a "partial acquisition" of EarnUp, a San Francisco-based fintech founded in 2013.
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One of those hired was Nadim Homsany, EarnUp's co-founder and CEO, who is now BECU's SVP of AI strategy and innovation.
BECU now has EarnUp's Gen AI capabilities, while EarnUp continues in its original business of providing financial tools to help people manage their money.
Covington declined to provide many details of the Gen AI project, including a timetable for the rollout. He said BECU plans to bring Gen AI to its employees and members, including the future launch of an AI advisor. "Offerings will include more personalized guidance and real time advice," he said.
A paper released last December by the Filene Research Institute of Madison, Wis., cited two other credit unions developing Gen AI.
Altura Federal Credit Union of Riverside, Calif., about 50 miles east of Los Angeles ($2.6 billion in assets, 205,293 members) is developing a virtual assistant for employees to make it easier for them to tap the credit union’s knowledge base.
Stanford Federal Credit Union of Palo Alto, Calif. ($4.4 billion in assets, 92,425 members) implemented a Gen AI tool called Agent IQ, which integrates with their Q2 home banking product and provides web chat, self-service and a conversational Short Message Service (SMS) texting tool.
The report said 66% of credit unions plan to leverage AI for credit decisioning. Among all financial institutions 60% are using AI for fraud detection and prevention, while 58% use AI for risk assessment and management.
“This highlights the growing importance of AI in bolstering security and improving decision-making processes with the industry,” the report said.
Contact Jim DuPlessis at [email protected].
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Jim DuPlessis
Jim covers economic data trends emerging for credit unions, as well as branch news and dividends.
