Credit union selects modular digital platform to provide frictionless account opening experience, grow deposits, expand membership, collapse lead-times and fund more loans, faster

Cotribute, an award-winning embeddable fintech platform helping credit unions grow deposits, loans and memberships, today announced it has partnered with Clearwater Credit Union (Clearwater) to enhance the credit unions’ deposit onboarding experience, accelerate growth, enhance the overall member experience, and reduce operational costs through automation. Clearwater, headquartered in Missoula, Mont., is the largest community development financial institution (CDFI) and second-largest credit union in Montana, with more than $1 billion in assets and more than 60,000 members.

Cotribute's modular platform enables credit unions to select just the capabilities they currently need, giving Clearwater the flexibility to add additional modules in the future. Clearwater selected three of Cotribute’s modules: Consumer Account Opening, Commercial Account Opening and Consumer Loan Origination. The modules are designed to reduce operational costs through automation and seamless out-of-the-box integrations with the credit union’s existing business applications including its core processor, digital banking application and loan systems.

“Clearwater is committed to providing a comprehensive range of financial products to meet the needs of our members,” said Meagan Kraft, SVP of Operations, Clearwater Credit Union. “Cotribute has garnered significant recognition for its seamless integrations and ease of implementation and we’re looking forward to having them migrate our processes to a fully digital environment in a matter of weeks, which is unfounded in this industry. Cotribute’s platform will enable us to provide a highly intuitive digital account opening process and loan origination process. Our members will now enjoy a more modern experience enabling us to compete with larger financial institutions in our community.”

With Cotribute’s consumer and business digital account opening modules, Clearwater can remove friction from their current account opening process, enabling members to open a new deposit account in less than five minutes with just a few clicks. By serving a wider consumer audience across digital channels, the credit union can more efficiently grow deposits at scale, expand the brand within its geographical footprint, grow its portfolio of SMB members and provide members with a more engaging experience.

These modules simplify the entire account opening process providing easy, instant funding options, automated Know Your Customer (KYC) and Know Your Business (KYB) requirements, sophisticated fraud detection as well as automated anti-money laundering (AML), identify verification, OFAC checks and Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) requirements. Additionally, Cotribute’s Consumer Loan Origination module streamlines the previously manual lending process, enabling members to quickly and efficiently access loans.

“We are proud to partner with such a forward-looking institution like Clearwater that shares our commitment to accelerating digital transformation to provide members a superior experience,” said Philip Paul, CEO of Cotribute. “Cotribute enables Clearwater to provide its members with instant, digital account opening, seamless deposit origination process and simplified loan origination processes from the very first touchpoint. The credit union will now be able to further streamline operations, automating manual tasks and eliminating back-office inefficiencies allowing its staff to focus on providing an exceptional member experience.”

About Clearwater Credit Union

Established in 1956, Clearwater Credit Union is a values-based, member-owned financial cooperative committed to using finance to make the world a better place. Clearwater is Montana’s largest certified Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI), one of four U.S. credit unions that are members of the Global Alliance for Banking on Values (GABV), and a member of Inclusiv, a CDFI intermediary with a mission to help low- and moderate-income people enhance economic well-being through credit unions. Approaching $1 billion in assets with over 57,000 members, Clearwater offers individuals and businesses across Western Montana access to banking, loan, mortgage, and financial counseling and education services. Visit clearwatercreditunion.org to learn more about how Clearwater is a force for good in banking, in the communities it serves, and for its members.

About Cotribute

Cotribute is an award-winning fintech platform that enables profitable revenue and member growth for credit unions. Cotribute’s capabilities include embedded digital account opening, loan application, member onboarding, smart cross-selling, fraud guard+, analytics and SEG/community engagement programs. Cotribute’s clients range from Fortune 500 financial institutions operating across the US to small regional credit unions. Cotribute is built on blazing-fast cloud-based micro-services architecture, is SOC2 Type 2 certified, seamlessly integrates with core systems and is on a mission to deliver beautiful digital experiences to every member. For more information, visit www.cotribute.com and connect with the company on LinkedIn.

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Clearwater CU partners with Cotribute to streamline digital account onboarding experience, automated loan origination process