By Roy Urrico
Greylock Federal Credit Union ($1.6 billion; Pittsfield, Mass) partnered with Plano, Texas-based Alkami Technology, Inc., a cloud-centric digital banking solutions provider. By enhancing its retail, business, and mobile banking offerings, Greylock Federal also sought to ensure a seamless and intuitive member digital experience across all channels.
Through its transformation to the Alkami Digital Banking Platform, Greylock Federal added advanced account management features, a more streamlined account opening processes, and powerful data analytics capabilities, enabling the credit union to deliver best-in-class banking solutions. The partnership also greatly improved the banking technology and quality of services available to Greylock Federal members who live in a rural area, many of whom also are from low- or moderate-income backgrounds.
“Greylock Federal Credit Union is excited to add Alkami to our portfolio of digital banking services to further enrich our member experience. As an organization, Alkami shares in Greylock’s mission, vision, and values, and that’s important to us. Through our partnership with Alkami and their single platform, we expect to bridge the gap between online and mobile banking, ensuring a seamless experience,” said Shenna Brady, vice president, digital experience at Greylock Federal.
“By consulting closely with their team, we were able to gain a deep understanding of Greylock’s goals and challenges, and as a result, deliver solutions that will enable Greylock to grow their member base,” Jeff Chen, vice president, product management at Alkami.
Greylock Federal’s Strategic Initiative
Prior to its selection of a new digital platform, Greylock Federal worked with the advisement of a third-party consultant to assemble candidates. “Greylock created a focus group to review multiple demos from various online and mobile banking providers, including Alkami,” Brady explained to Finopotamus.
Added Brady, “After assessing the results of the focus group and additional consideration, Alkami scored the highest based, in part, on the powerful alignment between Alkami’s strategic goals and community involvement, and Greylock’s vision and values. This overarching alignment is important to us, and we are excited to move forward with this partnership to enhance our member experience.”
Through Greylock Federal’s partnership with Alkami and their single platform, the credit union “expects to bridge the gap between online and mobile banking, ensuring a seamless experience,” said Brady.
Offering Members Digital Experience
Brady further explained its strategic partnership with Alkami underscores Greylock Federal's dedication to innovation and member-centricity, positioning the credit union for sustained growth and success in the dynamic financial services landscape. Implementing the Alkami Digital Banking Platform allows Greylock Federal to strengthen the digital experience and capabilities to its individual and business members.
Alkami’s business banking solution, for example, provides Greylock Federal with the tools to support commercial accounts such as comprehensive payment solutions and fraud prevention, actionable reporting and seamless sub-user management, including the creation of sub users, resetting passwords, cloning permissions, and viewing account access privileges.
“Through the Alkami Digital Banking Solutions, there are more than 220 integrations on a secure and scalable platform that grant you choice and extensibility, powering connections to the future and a vast solution ecosystem,” said Chen. “Alkami provides cloud-based digital banking solutions for financial institutions, which continue to grow increasingly significant for FIs across both business and retail as the industry becomes more competitive for both large and small FIs.”
Chen added, “We know that financial institutions of all sizes are operating in the most competitive market many have seen in years, making it more important than ever to prioritize and elevate members’ digital banking experience. We are excited to partner with Greylock on their digital banking journey and support them as they grow their retail, business banking, and mobile experience.”
Committed to Its Membership
“For us, partnering with Alkami was about demonstrating to our membership that we are committed to providing them with an innovative product that meets the wide range of their digital banking needs,” said Brady. “Through our partnership, we look forward to providing comprehensive digital solutions to meet our members’ needs.”
Greylock Federal Credit Union was organized by fifteen employees of General Electric Company under the name Pittsfield G.E. Employees Credit Union (PGEECU) in 1935 for the purpose of assisting employees to save and to provide low-cost loans. In 1994. PGEECU broadened its membership field to include anyone who lives or works in Berkshire County, Mass.; and also chose a new name, Greylock, which better reflected the new county-wide membership it would service. The credit union became Greylock Federal Credit Union on November 21, 1995.
Today the credit union has 14 branches and serves more than 100,000 members in Berkshire County, and the towns of Westfield, Southwick, Granville, Montgomery, and Russell, Mass.; Bennington County, Vt.; and Columbia County, N.Y.
In March 2015, Greylock Federal received a Low-Income Designation (LID) from the NCUA and certification by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund allowing the credit union to offer expanded services to low- and moderate-income families. In June 2019 Greylock Federal was designated a Juntos Avanzamos credit union, which signifies it is committed to serving and empowering Hispanic and immigrant consumers.