MEMBERS Development Company and Constellation Digital Partners LLC have joined forces to “develop and execute various initiatives born in the MDC innovation lab.”
Launched in May 2017, Constellation was conceived through MDC's common integration framework project and brought to fruition by Kristopher Kovacs, Constellation's founder, CEO and former chief information officer of Coastal Credit Union; and Chuck Purvis, MDC's board chairman and president/CEO of Coastal Credit Union.
Coastal CU is a $2.9 billion institution based in Raleigh, N.C.
The parties explained that Constellation is a “secure, open-development platform” designed exclusively for credit unions, allowing them and fintech developers to “access a marketplace and complete suite of financial services.”
"Most of Constellation's founding credit unions are also owners of MDC and this is exactly the type of successful collaboration that is at the heart of our mission," said Jeff Kline, MDC's chief executive officer. "When credit unions' legacy systems created barriers to easy implementation of digital solutions to meet members' expectations for financial services, Kris, Chuck and other owner credit unions developed the perfect solution."
Kovacs explained that participation in MDC's Innovation Councils and interaction with other credit unions at its semi-annual owner meetings led to Constellation’s creation.
"Credit unions' legacy solutions have made it challenging for them to keep up with members' desires to utilize mobile banking effectively," Kovacs said. "Constellation is redefining what credit unions can offer their members. With the recent launch of our first software implementation, Aquarius, we are now one step closer to offering digital banking and financial services for credit unions and members everywhere."
Along with Coastal CU, Constellation's other owners include the $3 billion Affinity Federal Credit Union in Basking Ridge, N.J.; the $788 million Farmers Insurance Group FCU in Los Angeles; the $2.3 billion Georgia's Own CU in Atlanta; the $4.3 billion Kinecta Credit Union in Manhattan Beach, Calif.; the $1.3 billion Meritrust CU in Wichita, Kan.; the $3.1 billion Teachers CU in South Bend, CO-OP Financial Services, CUNA Mutual Group, CU Solutions Group, the $1.1 billion CFCU Community CU in Ithaca, N.Y. and the $2.1 billion Nusenda CU in Albuquerque, N.M.
