ATHENS, Ga.–Numerous new AI-powered solutions, incentive management offerings, and check-payment-related products are among the latest solutions either being introduced by vendors or purchased by credit unions, and are being featured here in part one of a two-part series as part of the CU Daily’s CU Shopper synopsis of what’s going on in the market.
Vertice AI Launches AI-Powered Solution to Connect Growth Objectives, Marketing Campaigns
ATHENS, Ga. — Vertice AI has launched a new artificial intelligence-powered product designed to connect a financial institution’s growth objectives directly with its marketing campaigns.
The company said Vertice OPTIMIZE allows banks and credit unions to establish goals such as increasing auto loans, growing deposits, improving retention or deepening customer relationships. The system then uses account-level propensity scores to develop a multi-month marketing strategy.
OPTIMIZE determines which campaigns to run, when they should launch and which consumers should receive messages while considering factors including customer fatigue, channel capacity, campaign saturation and compliance requirements, according to Vertice AI.
The platform also generates personalized marketing content and allows marketers to approve and launch recommended campaigns.
“Too often, a community financial institution’s marketing efforts are disconnected from institutional strategy,” said Mitch Rutledge, CEO and co-founder of Vertice AI.
Rutledge said the product is designed to automate the process from establishing institutional goals through identifying targeted consumers and executing campaigns.
Vertice AI said the technology combines predictive models, mathematical optimization and generative AI as financial institutions increasingly seek to move beyond using AI primarily to generate insights.
Digital Onboarding Launches AI Agent to Analyze Data, Optimize Marketing Campaigns
BOSTON — Digital Onboarding has launched an artificial intelligence agent designed to help banks and credit unions analyze data, identify audiences and create and optimize marketing campaigns.
The company said Digital Onboarding Business Intelligence, or DOBI, is part of its transition to what it describes as an AI-native platform serving more than 170 banks and credit unions.
Users can give DOBI instructions in conversational language to build audiences, draft content and analyze campaign performance, according to the company.
“DOBI replaces what used to take a stack of agencies and point solutions with a conversation,” said Ted Brown, co-founder and CEO of Digital Onboarding.
At launch, DOBI includes content-creation capabilities for emails, texts and landing pages, along with audience-building tools. Additional capabilities for creating complete campaigns and developing and tracking customized outcomes are expected in coming months.
Digital Onboarding said every action performed by DOBI is logged for audit and compliance review. Personally identifiable information is not sent to third-party large language models, the company said.
With an institution’s permission, DOBI can also use aggregated information from Digital Onboarding’s network for benchmarking.
White Clay Expands Incentive-Management Technology
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — White Clay has expanded its incentive-management technology to community banks and credit unions, allowing institutions to base employee incentives on profitability measures rather than primarily on loan production.
The company said institutions can automate incentives using measures including relationship profitability, net interest income, deposit growth, fee income and customer retention.
White Clay works with institutions to customize incentive plans and establish goals at the individual employee level. Employees and managers can track progress through a dashboard.
“It’s a broken system to reward bankers for driving metrics that don’t improve profitability,” said Scott Earwood, White Clay’s chief revenue officer.
White Clay cited Financial Plus Credit Union as an example of the technology’s use. The company said FPCU reduced the time required to manage incentives from 80 hours per week to fewer than five.
Through July, FPCU’s retail business reported loan growth of 111%, member growth of 102% and deposit growth of 100%, while its Net Promoter Score increased more than three points over four months, according to White Clay.
The technology is integrated with White Clay’s relationship profitability, pricing and analytics capabilities.
CheckAlt, LoanPro in Partnership Aimed at Improving Check Payments
NEW YORK — CheckAlt and LoanPro have formed a partnership aimed at helping lenders automate the processing and reconciliation of check payments.
CheckAlt said its receivables and payment-processing services will be made available to LoanPro customers, including lenders that continue to receive paper checks and checks generated through consumers’ online banking bill-pay services.
While many lenders have modernized their loan-servicing systems, CheckAlt said processing check payments can still require significant manual work.
Under the partnership, CheckAlt will provide LoanPro customers with lockbox, electronic lockbox, remote deposit capture and remote lockbox capabilities.
“LoanPro customers have been looking for a better way to manage check payments without disrupting their existing servicing environment,” said Charles Sweeney, chief revenue officer and chief operating officer at LoanPro.
CheckAlt said the integration is intended to reduce manual processing, simplify reconciliation, accelerate payment posting and give lenders greater visibility into incoming payments.
“Modern loan servicing requires modern receivables,” said Jason Schwabline, chief commercial officer at CheckAlt.
Lumin Digital Launches Framework to Managing Conversions Related to M&A
SAN RAMON, Calif. — Lumin Digital has launched a framework designed to help banks and credit unions manage digital banking conversions associated with mergers and acquisitions.
The company said its M&A Readiness Advantage covers five phases: discovery and planning, data and conversion strategy, platform configuration and readiness, user experience strategy, and launch and post-launch support.
The framework is intended to help institutions add users through acquisitions while minimizing disruption to the digital experience, according to Lumin.
“Acquisitions are defining moments for financial institutions, and the digital experience is where members and customers feel the impact first,” said Lisa Daniels, chief operating officer at Lumin Digital.
Lumin cited $3.5 billion Consumers Credit Union in Lake Forest, Illinois, as an example of its experience with merger conversions.
Consumers most recently merged with KCT Credit Union, moving more than 20,000 retail users and more than 120 businesses onto Lumin’s platform during a single conversion weekend, according to Lumin.
The company said its cloud-native architecture allows acquired users to be moved onto a single codebase without some of the integration challenges associated with legacy systems.
Wasatch Peaks CU Selects Nook to Optimize HubSpot Platform
WAYZATA, Minn. — Wasatch Peaks Credit Union has selected Nook as its strategic partner to improve the credit union’s use of the HubSpot customer relationship management platform.
Nook said the $700 million-asset credit union had previously invested in HubSpot and established marketing assets and campaign infrastructure but encountered challenges involving data integration and CRM architecture.
Under the agreement, Nook, a credit union service organization and HubSpot Solutions Partner, will provide consulting, technical optimization and platform guidance.
The initial work will focus on stabilizing marketing operations, improving data quality and CRM architecture, and creating a foundation for more sophisticated segmentation, automation and member engagement, according to Nook.
“We recognized that our CRM architecture and data foundation were holding us back from using HubSpot the way we envisioned,” said Tod Schroeder, chief marketing officer at Wasatch Peaks.
Nook CEO Austin Wentzlaff said the goal is to improve confidence in the credit union’s data and create a scalable foundation for personalized member engagement.
Core System Partners Rolls Out Banking Intelligence Subscription Service
NEW YORK — Core System Partners has formally launched a subscription-based intelligence service designed to help banking executives, consultants and investors identify and interpret developments affecting financial institutions.
The company said its Banking Intelligence Service, or BIS, follows an initial publishing period and will track developments involving artificial intelligence, regulation, technology vendors, mergers and acquisitions, and core banking systems.
Reports will focus on what those developments could mean for financial institutions during the following 90 days, according to Core System Partners.
“Banking leaders have plenty of headlines. The gap is context: which developments matter, how they connect, and what they could mean for the institution over the next 90 days,” said Rick Mavrovich, CEO and managing director.
BIS currently includes a Weekly Intelligence Brief and Monthly Signal Recap.
The weekly report is published through Don’t Blink, Core System Partners’ publishing platform, which also features a free weekly video, selected public commentary and subscriber-only intelligence.
BankSocial Launches AI Operating System for Community Financial Institutions
DALLAS — BankSocial has launched an artificial intelligence operating system designed to allow credit unions and other community financial institutions to create and deploy AI agents while keeping data within an institution-controlled environment.
The company said Substrate, embedded within its Nuron digital banking ecosystem and developed in partnership with Google Cloud, allows institutions to configure, train and connect AI agents across business workflows.
BankSocial said each institution operates within an isolated environment intended to prevent cross-tenant data access.
Substrate includes nine prebuilt AI agents along with tools for creating custom agents, training models using an institution’s documents and data, and building workflows with human approval controls.
The platform also includes AI governance policies, audit trails and regulatory examination support, according to BankSocial.
BankSocial said Substrate can integrate with Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini, among other services.
The company said institutions can move from initial setup to functioning AI agents in approximately one hour.
Substrate is available to credit unions and community financial institutions through BankSocial’s Nuron platform.
nCino Adds Third-Party Mortgage Originator Capability
WILMINGTON, N.C. — nCino is adding a capability that will allow mortgage lenders to manage loans submitted by third-party originators on the same platform used for their retail mortgage business.
The company said TPO Experience will be part of nCino Mortgage Point of Sale and initially support lenders using the Encompass loan origination system from ICE Mortgage Technology.
Third-party originators will be able to submit loans through the same infrastructure used by a lender’s loan officers. Brokered loans will be assigned to an institution’s loan officer and synchronized with Encompass, allowing existing business rules for brokered loans to apply.
nCino said the system is intended to reduce duplicate compliance processes and fragmented reporting while providing borrowers with a consistent experience.
Wholesale originations accounted for more than one in five U.S. mortgages during the first quarter of 2026, representing an estimated $440 billion annually, nCino said, citing Inside Mortgage Finance.
TPO Experience is scheduled to become available to nCino Mortgage customers using Encompass in late 2026, with additional loan origination systems expected later.
