Detroit-based fintech company Bankjoy on Friday announced new partnerships with two credit unions for digital access technology.
Georgia Heritage Federal Credit Union, a $90 million institution headquartered in Savannah, Ga., and $110 million Wepawaug-Flagg Federal Credit Union of Hamden, Conn., both said they chose Bankjoy over other vendors because the millennial-managed firm offers technology that appeals to young members.
Georgia Heritage has a community charter that serves Effingham, Chatham and Bryan counties, home to Armstrong State University, Savannah State University, Savannah College of Art and Design, Mercer University, Savannah Technical College, South University and others.
Bankjoy will provide Georgia Heritage with most of its digital access technology, including online and mobile banking, bill pay, e-statements, and electronic account and loan applications. Georgia Heritage's digital member and loan apps will be developed by Bankjoy and will directly integrate to the Corelation core. The credit union is Bankjoy's first Corelation client.
Georgia Heritage also will access Microsoft's Azure cloud service platform for data backup through Bankjoy, and is beta testing the firm's voice user interface feature. Bankjoy said its voice user interface is supported by its API, which it presented at Finovate's fall showcase in New York in September.
"The fewer vendors we deal with, the easier to integrate," Tim Beeson, director of information technology at Georgia Heritage, said in a statement. "Bankjoy works well with third parties, and I want to leverage those relationships. It means less vendor management for me."
"Our current online loan applications go into a queue and staff have to manually enter it into our system or at least massage it first. Now, it will go directly into the core and staff just has to approve it. That's huge for us, automating the process," Beeson said.
Beeson said Bankjoy's seamless mobile and online services were very appealing to his credit union.
"Mobile optimization is important. You can go from a tablet to a phone to a regular PC, and the display doesn't change from one device to the next," he said. "We are in a college town and need to target millennials."
Wepawaug-Flagg FCU
Wepawaug-Flagg FCU selected Bankjoy's mobile banking and deposit services, and will offer those to members for the first time next quarter. CEO Michael Hinchey said he had been searching for a mobile vendor for some time.
"I was a bit slow to respond to Bankjoy because they were new, but after we performed all the required due diligence, we discovered they did provide the best, leading-edge tech with the flexibility to give members what they needed in an easy-to-use app," he said, adding, "It was a relatively easy choice in the end."
The Hamden, Conn.-based Wepawaug-Flagg had a multiple SEG charter, primarily serving teachers and municipal employees, with two colleges in its field of membership. Last year, it expanded to a community charter.
"This means a lot because our credit union, while 80 years old, is looking to how it is going to develop and serve members over the next 80 years. Our membership needs to get younger, and they require electronic access. This positions us well for attracting and retaining the millennial generation," Hinchey said.
Wepawaug-Flagg runs on ShareOne's NewSolutions core system.
Founded By Former CU IT
Bankjoy was founded in 2015 by two former credit union IT employees. CEO Michael Duncan and CTO Dan Domek were dissatisfied with the technology products available to credit unions, and were concerned that many solutions – especially mobile banking apps – were designed for financial managers, not credit union members.
"We have applied our millennial research – including focus groups that interacted with several mobile banking apps – to create digital banking services that produce the best brand experience for credit union members," said Duncan.
"As credit unions serve defined and unique fields of membership, we believe creating a custom technology package for each client is essential," Duncan said. He added Bankjoy's REST-based banking API provides flexibility to customize technology based on credit union need and its core system.
Bankjoy said it partnered with Payveris to provide a customized bill pay product to credit unions.
