2026 Holiday IT Wish List - Part 4

For the 2026 edition of the annual Finopotamus “Holiday Tech Wish List” feature, we sat down with forward-looking fintech executives who shared their tech hopes and forecasted market realities for 2026. Due to a significant number of intriguing responses, this year’s Wish List will be presented in five consecutive installments.

Part 4 features insights from HC3, Agent IQ, ebankIT, FIntegrate Technology, Edge, Blend and Pidgin.

By W.B. King

Griffin McGahey, president of HC3, has a wish that he believes will also be a 2026 trend: credit unions moving beyond cost containment to strategic infrastructure investment.

“Leading institutions are recognizing that fragmented systems create operational friction that undermines both efficiency and member experience, with financial institutions achieving advanced technology integration seeing five times higher growth,” he told Finopotamus.

The Irondale, Ala.-based fintech bills itself as managing complex data generated from multiple client systems for financial institutions, including credit unions.

“Successful credit unions are shifting budget conversations from maintaining legacy systems to transforming them, viewing member touchpoints like statements not as necessary expenses, but as strategic opportunities for personalized engagement,” he noted.

As he looks forward to 2026, he said credit union clients will continue to respond to membership wants and needs. “Nearly half of members want their primary financial provider to better anticipate their needs. Meeting this expectation requires unified member data infrastructure that enables behavioral analysis and predictive insights,” he continued. “Credit unions that invest in integrated systems now will be positioned to offer proactive, personalized recommendations that drive both member satisfaction and growth.”

Agent IQ’s CMO Matt Phipps wishes for credit unions to consider adopting secure, institution-controlled artificial intelligence (AI) assistants.

“By giving employees purpose-built tools designed for financial institutions, credit unions can eliminate unauthorized AI use that leads to increased risk while boosting employee productivity,” he shared. “These solutions can cut information-search time by up to 90% and ensure regulatory compliance, turning AI from a risk into a strategic advantage. It’s a win for the credit union, their employees, and ultimately their members.”

The Austin, Texas-based fintech helps financial institutions grow by turning everyday digital interactions into lasting, trust-based relationships, Phipps noted.

Due to current market pressures, Phipps said there is a good chance that his wish will be realized. “Members already live in an AI world and expect their credit union to keep pace. Meanwhile, employees spend significant time searching for information across multiple systems rather than focusing on member relationships. This imbalance threatens the foundation of relationship banking itself.”

As he looks to 2026, he said credit unions have an opportunity to leverage AI in a way that offers a “true competitive edge and amplifies” what sets them apart: meaningful, relationship-driven service.

“Fintechs play an important role in this. Rather than building and maintaining expensive systems in-house, credit unions can partner with fintechs that specialize in generative AI-based knowledge assistants designed specifically for financial institutions,” he told Finopotamus. “This approach delivers the conversational AI experience employees want while maintaining the strict data controls that regulated financial institutions require, without the cost or resources needed to manage it internally.”

Pedro Azevedo, chief product officer at ebankIT, wishes for credit unions to move beyond traditional member service chatbots and embrace agentic AI systems that can execute real transactions and financial tasks.

“The shift in consumer behavior toward AI-powered interactions has created an expectation gap that credit unions must address to remain competitive,” he said. Agentic AI refers to autonomous, goal-oriented AI “agents” that can independently plan, reason, and take actions to achieve complex objectives with minimal human oversight. “When members experience sophisticated conversational AI in their daily lives through platforms like ChatGPT, they naturally expect the same level of intelligent interaction from their credit union.”

The fintech, with offices in London, Porto, Portugal, Vancouver, Berlin, and Atlanta, bills itself as working with banks and credit unions to deliver humanized, personalized, and accessible digital experiences.

Azevedo is optimistic that his wish for the credit union space will come true. “The likeliness of implementation is high due to mounting competitive pressures and readily available technology infrastructure. The consumer AI revolution has accelerated member expectations beyond what traditional digital banking can deliver,” he continued. “Credit unions that fail to modernize member interactions risk losing relevance, particularly with younger demographics who are driving AI adoption for financial guidance and transactions.”

As he looks forward, he said that proactive credit unions that adopt agentic AI solutions will gain an edge that will allow them to compete on their own terms.

“While larger financial institutions may have more resources, credit unions can leverage this technology to deliver highly personalized, relationship-focused financial guidance that reinforces the member-first model,” he said. “The technology should also enable staff to focus on complex member needs and strategic relationship building while AI handles routine transactions and provides comprehensive financial wellness support.”

FIntegrate Technology CEO Kris Bishop wishes for credit unions to embrace automation as an essential infrastructure for disputes and delinquencies, rather than optional enhancement.

“Leading institutions recognize that manual processes across critical operational areas create bottlenecks that undermine both efficiency and member experience, with financial institutions prioritizing automation seeing measurably improved productivity and reduced operational costs,” he told Finopotamus.

The Birmingham, Ala.-based fintech specializes in providing dispute management, collections and recovery software using transactional AI and other automation for financial institutions, Bishop explained.

Due to changing market conditions in legacy data management, dispute resolution and collections management, he believes his wish is “extremely” likely to come true. 

“Credit unions that invest in integrated automation solutions across these three critical areas will be positioned to navigate industry transitions efficiently while maintaining operational excellence that drives both member satisfaction and institutional growth,” he said. “Fintechs should serve as strategic partners in this transformation, helping credit unions to move with speed versus exhaust internal resources.”

Brian Reshefsky, founder and CEO of Edge, wishes that credit unions will embrace cashflow analytics as the foundation of modern lending decisions to remain competitive and deliver first-rate member care.

“Traditional credit scoring systems leave millions of financially responsible Americans on the sidelines including individuals who lack extensive credit histories but demonstrate strong financial management through their banking behaviors,” Reshefsky continued. “With tens of millions of Americans having no credit score at all, and millions more with limited credit histories that don't tell their complete financial story, credit unions have a unique opportunity to leverage the rich data on their own members that they already have buried in their core systems.”

The Chicago-based fintech provides a predictive intelligence platform that leverages alternative data for consumer risk scoring and predictive behavioral mapping.

Regarding the viability of his wish, he said innovative credit unions are already leveraging cashflow analytics, driven by several factors, including gaining operational efficiency via automation and AI.

“Credit unions that embrace cashflow analytics will reclaim their leadership position in financial inclusion, using technology to fulfill their mission of serving members who are financially responsible but underserved by traditional credit assessment methods,” he said. “This transformation represents a return to true relationship banking, enhanced by modern technology that provides complete visibility into member finances.”

Fintechs, he added, can serve as “experienced guides in this evolution,” particularly those with proven track records in data-driven lending. “We’ve all seen promising alternative data providers rise and fall, where the platforms with real staying power bring years of real-world experience to more effectively operationalize valuable insights,” he noted. “Credit unions benefit most from partners who bring the necessary technical sophistication required, understand the complex and evolving compliance backdrop, and work in close consultation to provide individualized solutions for the unique needs of each credit union and your members.”

Nima Ghamsari, co-founder and head of Blend, has a wish that is also a warning of sorts: Credit unions face a fundamental choice in 2026—modernize their lending operations or watch members migrate to institutions offering faster, more convenient experiences.

“The challenge isn't just operational, it's strategic. Credit unions must deliver personalized service at scale while maintaining the community focus that sets them apart. In fact, members expect it,” he said. “Document processing represents the biggest immediate opportunity for credit unions — and recent advancements in DocAI (artificial intelligence to read, understand, and process documents the way a trained human would) show just how transformative this can be.”

The San Francisco-based Blend provides an origination platform for digital banking solutions to banks and credit unions.

Home equity lending, he noted, will be particularly important as interest rates stabilize and demand is expected to hit record highs.

“The member experience improvements are tangible. Applications that previously took weeks can be completed in days. Quality control that happened after closing can occur upfront, preventing delays and exceptions. Members receive faster responses with detailed explanations of any additional requirements,” she continued. “Cross-selling becomes more natural when credit unions understand each member's complete financial picture.”

Credit unions that embrace operational modernization, while preserving their member-first culture, will thrive in 2026 and beyond, he shared. “Those that delay will find themselves competing on outdated processes against institutions offering superior member experiences.”

Angela Murphy, vice president of marketing and solutions at Pidgin, wishes for credit unions to deploy comprehensive instant payment capabilities that span multiple settlement methods.

“Instant payment capabilities are proven, practical tools for advancing credit union missions around financial inclusion and community service, but the landscape includes multiple settlement methods that serve different member needs,” she said. “The ability to receive wages, insurance disbursements, and emergency funds immediately helps members avoid check cashing services and payday loans that extract value from their communities.”

The Atlanta-based fintech offers a secure, real-time payments platform built for the future of payments and serves more than 30 credit union clients.

“Early adopters and fast followers are already demonstrating how instant payment infrastructure serves member needs. By September 2025, the combined transaction volume across both the RTP Network and FedNow Service surpassed $1 trillion, a clear indicator that adoption is expanding rapidly across financial institutions of all sizes,” she said, adding that the likelihood of widespread adoption is high for domestic instant payment rails like FedNow and RTP (though the timeline varies by institution size and technical readiness).

“Credit unions are increasingly enabling members to receive payments instantly at any hour, which matters particularly for members living paycheck to paycheck, gig economy workers who need immediate earnings access, and families facing unexpected expenses,” she told Finopotamus.

For 2026, Murphy hopes credit unions implement comprehensive instant payment capabilities (spanning domestic real-time rails and evaluating digital asset infrastructure for specific use cases) because it will strengthen their role as community anchors, while advancing member financial wellness.

“Real-time payment infrastructure demonstrates that cooperative principles translate into practical benefits through immediate fund availability when members need it most, regardless of which settlement method best serves that particular transaction,” she shared. “This isn't about replacing credit union capabilities but about extending them through collaboration that serves members better.”