2026 Tekkie Core Innovation Award: MSU Federal Credit Union

By Roy Urrico

The $8.9 billion East Lansing, Mich.-based MSU Federal Credit Union (MSUFCU), aka Michigan State University Federal Credit Union, is the 2026 Tekkie Core Innovation Award winner. This achievement recognizes the credit union that successfully undertook the complex task of modernizing its primary core processing platform.

When MSUFCU acquired two Illinois banks, Algonquin State Bank and McHenry Savings Bank on August 31, 2024, it chose not to absorb those institutions in their entirety. Instead, MSUFCU worked with Jacksonville, Fla.-based Nymbus, which delivers a cloud-based, highly extensible, full-stack banking platform, to segment the acquired customer base by need. The credit union migrated only the small and medium-sized business (SMB) accountholders onto a new institution, Pillur, designed specifically for business banking.

This core strategy fit into the MSFCU’s plans to modernize its legacy systems, improve institutional agility, enable faster integration of third-party tools, optimize mergers and acquisitions (M&A) strategy, and enhance the digital experience for a newly served member segment, all without disrupting its almost 406,000 existing members. The new core strategy also dovetailed with MSUFCU’s launch of two digital-first credit unions.

“We are not in this to be technologists; we are in this to create good experiences. The technology enables us to do that,” Ami Iceman Haueter, Chief Experience Officer at MSUFCU, told Finopotamus. “The Tekkie Award is a great representation of how we continue to show up for our membership. The technology is helping us reach those new audiences, that the platforms are doing their job, but that we are continuing to serve members and meet our mission every day.”

Strategic Deployment

Pillur operates on the Nymbus Banking Platform deployed as a “sidecar core” —an incremental approach where a cloud-native, real-time core system runs in parallel with a legacy core — running parallel to MSUFCU's existing infrastructure. This architecture allowed MSUFCU to maintain its brick-and-mortar operations and established member experience while simultaneously launching an entirely distinct digital brand on a unified platform.

The platform's composable architecture supported seamless activation of third-party fintech integrations and the rapid deployment of business-specific digital services, including enhanced invoicing capabilities, detailed cash management options, and advanced analytics for real-time financial oversight.

The new core strategy served as the backbone of MSUFCU’s launch of three new brands from the ground up: AlumniFi, tailored for college graduates and young professionals aged 24 to 35 with high-yield savings, fee-free checking, debt payoff assistance, and budgeting tools; Collegiate Credit Union, which is a student-focused financial service that provides personalized mobile banking, custom savings goals, and financial literacy tools specifically designed for college and university students; and Pillur, a new financial solution designed to support entrepreneurs, startups, and small business owners. Pillur also gave SMB members full access to business banking services through a purpose-built digital experience designed for their specific financial needs.

“Nymbus really did have kind of the full-service solution. So, we started partnering with them to build out what is now a portfolio of three brands. Collegiate and AlumniFi went live in 2023 and then we actually launched Pillar, our commercial solution, in 2025,” noted Iceman Haueter. “Whereas Collegiate and AlumniFi was a strategic move to help us move into new markets and share education further, Pillur was very much out of a necessity move.”

Measurable results, according to MSUFCU, include:

• More than 1,100 SMB members successfully migrated for their business banking needs.

• A total of 4,452 accounts transitioned across two acquired banks with real-time data continuity throughout and more than $64 million in deposits moved onto the Pillur platform.

• More than $172 million in loans transitioned with minimal disruption to Pillur.

• MSUFCU’s portfolio included a 611% increase in deposits and a 1,357% increase in members.

Creating New Brands

“We had been considering what it would look like to stand up a brand since 2022, if not before. And Nymbus came into our radar because we were really looking at how we would be able to stand up these additional platforms and make it meaningful to the members that were engaging with them,” Iceman Haueter said.

The strategic core planning has done a few things, according to Iceman Haueter. “It has allowed us to expand our audience space and the areas we are showing up. While the MSUFCU brand is very well recognized throughout the state of Michigan and Illinois, we also understood that for us to really show up for communities outside of that we would need to have an additional space where they felt included and seen.”

Their new strategy, utilizing the AlumniFi and Collegiate brands, resulted in expanded partnerships. Iceman Haueter noted, “While we love and cherish our MSUFCU brand, we also knew that for us to sponsor (partners such as) the Big East (athletic conference), we wouldn't be able to bring the MSU name forward.”

In addition to the Big East Conference, they now have partnerships with three other Michigan schools: Olivette (Mich.) University, Cooley Law School (Lansing), and Northern Michigan University (Marquette). “Then we also have several other partnership relationships with teams like the Grand Rapids Gold (NBA G League) and the Detroit City Football Club (USL Championship soccer league),” explained Haueter.

“It really did allow us to expand our market position and also show up in communities we wanted to make sure had a space to access the same financial education and all of the great products and services that we've developed over the years,” said Iceman Haueter.

Showing Up

Iceman Haueter praised Nymbus for helping MSUFCU from creative ideation to tangible results. “Both dreaming big and implementing well has really been how they have showed up for us in this space.” She explained the three brands — AlumniFi, Collegiate and Pillur —had different journeys but all required similar outputs to serve members in ways specific to certain markets by creating custom platforms.

“Surprising results have been getting to see how quickly people have adopted the new brands,” Iceman Haueter said. There is a lot of time and energy and love and effort put into these brands, but to see those brands grow, be adopted, be recognized in the market and start to have their own personality, because of the work that the MSUFCU team and the Nymbus team, has been a very rewarding part.”

MSUFCU is not new to the Tekkie Awards. Ben Maxim, their current CTO, as well as COO of the Reseda Group, a wholly owned CUSO of MSUFCU, received the 2022 Tekkie Award for Technologist of the Year