To Promote Digital Collaboration and Enhance Member Satisfaction, Metamo Launches CU-Tech in Ireland

By W.B. King

With the tagline, “By Credit Unions For Credit Unions,” the Killorglin, County Kerry, Ireland-based Metamo was founded in 2019 by a partnership between 16 large Irish credit unions and Fexco Group, a financial services company. In March, the Dublin-based Metamo launched “CU-Tech,” a technology and infrastructure initiative designed to accelerate digital transformation in the Emerald Isle’s credit union space.

“Are we doing enough, are we moving fast enough? How do we not change what got us here and at the same time, how do we respond to a world that even in the last 12 months has opened up a set of pathways that weren’t there a year previously,” Neil Hosty, CEO of Fexco Group, questioned at the Metamo CU-Tech (infrastructure) launch party. “CU-Tech was built to support the collective.”

Also on hand at the well-attended, celebratory event was Deputy CEO of Metamo, Ciara Prenderville. “Today is an absolute milestone. We are here to celebrate the strength of the credit union movement,” she continued. “The power of collaboration and the launch of CU-Tech.”  Robert Troy, minister of state at the finance department, added: “CU-Tech highlights the potential of an appropriate skills partnership.”

Innovating and Growing Together

Like the U.S. CUSO model, Prendeville explained that CU-Tech is a sector-owned, future-ready digital infrastructure, giving the credit union movement a united foundation to innovate and grow together.

CU-Tech is billed as a centralized scalable platform that offers seamless digital member experiences, while creating strong integration across core systems and partner services. The goal, Prendeville noted, is to provide credit unions with next-generation tools that deliver efficient digital service offerings.

Mark Beirne, CEO of the Dublin-based €397 million Savvi Credit Union (formerly St Patrick's Credit Union in Ireland), which serves more than 21,000 members, said at the event: “We are becoming more and more of a technology-enabled entity. We truly want to serve our members and deliver our promise.”

Alan Roche, CEO of the €253 million Dublin-based Heritage Credit Union, which serves more than 57,000 members, also attended the launch party and shared forward-looking thoughts.

“We all realize that we are operating in an environment where digital transformation is hugely important to our businesses. All of our members and our future members are going online for everything that they do and we as individual credit unions, we are just too small to do the kind of transformation that we need to do,” Roche said. “So, CU-Tech is about harnessing the power of the collective, and all of us coming together to join forces.”