VANCOUVER, British Columbia, June 12, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Central 1 today announced the latest deployments from its innovation hub, Forge Community.
DUCA, a credit union participant that joined the collaborative platform last year, launched a new profit-share rewards program for their more than 92,000 members. Credit union First West, in partnership with fintech thirdstream, collaborated to release a faster, more streamlined account origination experience.
“We welcomed several new fintechs and credit unions to Forge Community this year and it’s exciting to see the ecosystem thriving with innovation,” said Erick Wong, Central 1’s Chief Product Officer. “This platform is where developers, industry experts, fintechs, credit unions and other financial institutions can find collaborative opportunities to drive innovation and deliver exceptional member and client experiences.”
DUCA’s new profit share rewards program, Do More Profit Sharing, lets members earn and use rewards to “buy” better rates on GICs, term products, fixed loans or fixed mortgages, or convert the rewards to cash.
Critical to the launch of the program was making it easy for DUCA members to track and use their rewards online. DUCA built and deployed a variety of user-interface plugins on Forge Community to provide their members with secure and easy-to-navigate online access to their rewards balance, calculators and a process to submit redemption requests.
The First West and thirdstream deployment was a collaborative effort to streamline account origination for members and clients of First West divisions Envision Financial, Island Savings Valley First and Enderby & District Financial. This release enables new savings accounts with enhanced account opening experiences for chequing accounts, term deposits, registered products and personal loans.
With this, thirdstream’s deposit and loans onboarding capabilities are now available to the entire Central 1 member and client base who can leverage their Forge digital Banking Platform seamlessly with thirdstream’s retail and commercial deposit solutions, as well as credit card and consumer lending experiences.
Quotes:
Aron Rogers, Chief Technology Officer, DUCA.
“The experience in Forge Community was fantastic. We leveraged the Central 1 platform for its scalability to cost effectively and efficiently extend a new rewards program across our membership. We look forward to future innovation in the Forge Community space, alongside Central 1 and fellow ecosystem leaders.”
Darrell Jaggers, Chief Transformation Officer at First West Credit Union
“Collaboration is the backbone of the credit union system and being able to better leverage our fintech partners through Forge Community is a really powerful way for us to build innovative solutions for our members. We’re excited to roll out this enhancement to provide greater flexibility to our members and will continue to work towards simplifying our account opening journey through this partnership.”
Keith Ginter, CEO, thirdstream
“Bringing together account opening services for existing members on the Forge Community Platform provides financial institutions with a path to continuing growth. Our team is constantly working to enhance the consumer experiences, working with financial institutions to deliver to the needs of consumers.”
About Forge Community
Forge Community is Central 1’s innovation hub where fintech, credit union and other financial institution developers can collaborate, create and deploy new digital solutions. With Community, Central 1 members and clients gain access to a cost-effective innovation platform and a suite of fintechs. Fintechs join Forge Community as a gateway to potential partnerships with Central 1’s 190 member financial institutions with four million customers across Canada.
For more information, visit Forge Community
About Central 1
Central 1 Credit Union (‘Central 1’) cooperatively empowers credit unions and other financial institutions who deliver banking choice to Canadians. With assets of $11.9 billion as of December 31, 2022, Central 1 provides critical services at scale to enable a thriving credit union system. We do this by collaborating with our clients, developing strategies, products, and services to support the financial well-being of their more than 5 million diverse customers in communities across Canada.
For more information, visit central1.com.
Media Contacts
Tricia Weagant, Vice President, Communications and Marketing
Central 1
T: 905 282-8414
E: t.weagant@central1.com
Yuan Li, Senior Communication Specialist
Central 1
E: yuan.li@central1.com
