We recently sat with Kevin Scott, CEO of Texas-based Las Colinas Federal Credit Union (LCFCU), to talk about their priorities in choosing a technology partner to integrate with their KeyStone core, and the results they’ve been seeing since they made the step towards digital transformation.
At a time when the common standard of digital experience is at an all-time high, LCFCU felt that it had to stay on par with what its potential new members were accustomed to – and not just in banking. “One of the largest strategic initiatives is to create an Amazon-like digital member experience,” said Scott. “We absolutely know that the competitive landscape is not just the financial industry. Our competition is more like: how easy is it to order a Starbucks coffee? How easy is it to go to McDonald’s and order with a few simple clicks?
“Those types of robust technologies have totally transformed what our members are looking for in their banking experience.”
The internal conversation settled on an overhaul of the very beginning of a new member’s journey: the account opening process. In introducing what Narmi co-founder Nikhil Lakhanpal calls a “shopping cart experience” to a potential member’s first touchpoint with the credit union, LCFCU’s goal was to mirror the seamless experiences they’ve been primed to expect through industries like e-commerce. And aside from increased application completions and accounts being opened, Scott says that the eventual goal was to make his credit union more appealing to an entirely new – and increasingly influential – population:
“We learned recently that 5% of Millennials and 4% of Gen Z do business with credit unions. That’s not a sustainable model for our industry. We know from reading data that you have about 17 seconds to make an impression with them, or they’re out. If it’s not fast and quick and efficient, they’ll move on.”
Once the “decision to make a decision” was made, LCFCU began to assess a number of technology vendors. Speed – both speed-to-market and the speed of the account opening solution itself – was of course top-of-mind, but Scott’s team was looking for a more comprehensive solution on top of that. The credit union needed a product that had a set of deep integrations with Corelation’s KeyBridge API, and a team experienced in the nuances of a KeyStone core integration.
“Every time I talk about selecting a software vendor, I always counsel that you look past the features, and you look at the people in the background that are supporting you. And the people experience with Narmi has been incredible — on the level of Corelation.”
Upon deciding that Narmi was the right choice, the teams initiated an implementation process that was wide-ranging, collaborative, and quick – in line with Narmi’s philosophy that implementations are often an organization’s introduction to the particulars of digital transformation. Navigating the nuances of KeyBridge and LCFCU’s particular tech stack was a smooth process, and laid the foundation for a vendor relationship that feels more like a partnership.
“We have 27 employees, and we just launched one of the best account opening platforms that’s available, and we did it in 104 days,” said Scott. “It is truly monumental what was achieved there. There’s a deep level of care.”
With their new account opening solution up and running, the results became apparent immediately: Las Colinas Federal Credit Union saw their application completion rate quickly grow to 71%, and their application opening rate grow to 33%. The solution also led to better automation and faster speed-to-account, all without sacrificing compliance and easing pressure on staff.
“Time is critical, so the ability to open up a fully funded account within three minutes is essential. A full 80% of all applications are now being decisioned automatically. Some of those decisions are 'yes,' but I get just as excited about the automated 'no’s,' because that means that the fraudulent attempts are being filtered out by software — not by my staff.”
When speaking about the $43 billion in losses the economy saw to identity theft and fraud in 2022, Lakhanpal cited recent conversations noting the sense of urgency that financial institutions have to combat the ever-changing fraud landscape: “This calendar year, when we’ve asked what’s most important to the people we talk to, I’ve heard fraud more than any other year.”
And echoing the importance of fraud in considerations around account opening and FI growth, Scott and the LCFCU had their own conversations about security: “Fraud mitigation was one of the singular distinguishing factors that we were looking for in our next partner.”
LCFCU’s new consumer account opening solution is able to leverage Narmi’s mosaic of security partners such as NeuroID behavioral analytics, Alloy identity risk solutioning, and Vouched digital identity verification software, which combine to ensure ironclad defenses against fraud – and work together with such seamless efficiency that speed-to-account does not suffer.
The integrations culminate to form another level of assurance that Narmi was able to provide Scott and his team at LCFCU, emblematic of a partnership that is just beginning with the successful launch of a new consumer account opening solution.
“We have to swing way above our weight class to stay relevant in the marketplace,” said Scott. “We think we’ve found the right partner to achieve that goal. Digital banking is your members’ impression of your organization. It just is.”
