Green Pier Sees an Opportunity to Bring Investing to More Credit Union Members
By Tylor Tourville
Credit unions have long aspired to support members' overall financial wellness, but investment has remained largely accessible only to wealthier members. While advances in the last decade in areas such as brokerage infrastructure and fractional shares have helped “democratize” investing, credit unions have largely been left out of that movement.
Updated figures are hard to come by, but as recently as 2023, credit union member utilization of wealth management services hovered around 2%. That figure might not be much higher today, even as the percentage of credit unions offering wealth management services has climbed to roughly 25%, up from approximately 17% a decade ago.
But there are signs that the industry may be getting closer to meaningful change. Fintech companies like Green Pier are trying to make the case that technology can finally help credit unions bring investing to a much broader segment of their members. Green Pier is a digital fintech and brokerage platform developed inside the Fidelity Center for Applied Technology (FCAT), the innovation division of Fidelity Investments.
While at Boston Fintech Week 2026, presented by Fintech Sandbox, Finopotamus spoke with Biju Kizhakhemadtil, head of fintech solutions at Green Pier, about the state of wealth management in the credit union industry and how the technology available today may make these offerings more feasible for credit unions and accessible to their members.
Bringing Investing to More Members
Investing and wealth management are a natural extension of the financial services credit unions already provide. And while adoption across the industry has been slow, Kizhakhemadtil said the desire to offer members more has always been there.
“The need was always there…[In] our engagement with credit unions, we have learned there is a desire on the credit union side to really provide for financial wellness of their members...they want to go beyond just savings, checking, loan to provide investing services,” said Kizhakhemadtil.
In the past, high account minimums for brokerage and wealth management services put them out of reach for many credit union members. Those minimums have come down significantly with the rise of self-directed investing, robo-advice and fractional shares, but credit unions still face another challenge: how to successfully integrate these capabilities into their existing digital experience.
Now those barriers are beginning to come down as well.
"Technology has made it possible to package this whole solution in a way that's easily embeddable into their app or website for their member to access," said Kizhakhemadtil.
White-label offerings can also “reduce the regulatory burden on the credit union,” he added, because the institution does not need to take on the role of an introducing broker and the additional regulatory framework that comes with it.
For members, fractional shares and notional investing have also made investing more approachable. Instead of needing to understand traditional market terminology or have enough money to purchase a full share of a high-priced stock, members can invest a specific dollar amount in companies they know.
“People want to own a piece of marquee companies, but it’s not always possible,” said Kizhakhemadtil. “And fractional shares make that possible.”
At the same time, consumers have grown increasingly comfortable accessing financial services through digital and embedded experiences. For credit unions, that creates an opportunity to bring investing inside the digital relationship members already have with an institution they trust, rather than sending them elsewhere.
Investing As an Extension of Financial Wellness
If done correctly, adding investing and other wealth management services can help credit unions advance their mission of becoming a trusted hub for a member’s financial well-being.
"What I'm really excited about is really making investing available to members, credit union members, where they are today. They don't have to go out of an ecosystem where they trust their provider," said Kizhakhemadtil.
In tailoring the offering to credit unions, Green Pier is also thinking about how investing can fit the ethos of the industry, particularly when it comes to the education and support institutions provide to their members.
"We are backing our solution with a lot of education, simulated trading, virtual portfolio, and a lot of tools to really make this a really easy journey to financial wellness," said Kizhakhemadtil.
Credit unions have a built-in trust advantage with their members that standalone fintech platforms have to earn. Technology is increasingly making it possible for credit unions to leverage that advantage and extend their financial wellness mission into investing without requiring the institution to recreate a traditional brokerage or wealth management operation.
For an industry that has spent years talking about serving the whole financial life of its members, investing may represent one of the next frontiers.
