Case Study: BankFund Credit Union Boosts Share Certificate Retention with Alkami’s Data and Marketing Solutions
BankFund Credit Union (BFCU), serving members from The World Bank Group and International Monetary Fund, sought to improve its share certificate retention strategies and better manage upcoming maturities. With a significant portion of share certificates maturing, BFCU needed data-driven solutions to understand member behavior, retain funds, and support leadership decision-making. By leveraging Alkami’s Data & Marketing Solutions, BFCU streamlined its insights and improved member outreach.
Challenges: Modernizing Payment Security
BFCU faced a pressing challenge: how to efficiently manage a large volume of maturing share certificates while maintaining deposit retention. A significant number of share certificates were set to mature in the near future, creating both an opportunity to deepen member relationships and a risk of losing deposits to competitors.
"This is a big opportunity for us. We’re tracking the next 13-16 months of CD maturities to understand member behavior and determine the best actions to keep those deposits within the credit union."
- Lauren Kessler, Senior Manager, Marketing Analytics at BFCU
This challenge isn’t unique to BFCU. Financial institutions across the industry grapple with a competitive environment where consumers have more choices than ever. According to Alkami’s 2024 State of the Industry Telemetry Report, 90% of certificates of deposit balances are scheduled to expire at the end of 2024, making data-driven engagement essential. For institutions like BFCU, it’s not just about offering competitive rates but also delivering timely and relevant communication.
As member expectations for personalized, data-driven engagement continue to rise, BFCU recognized the need for a more advanced approach—one that could streamline data while offering actionable insights into member behavior. Without such capabilities, they risked losing deposits to other institutions.
Moreover, leadership needed real-time insights into deposit flows to make data-backed decisions on rates, product offerings, and outreach timing. With fluctuating interest rates and growing competition from both traditional banks and fintechs, it was more important than ever for BFCU to ensure their products remained competitive and their members engaged.
Solution
BFCU sought a solution that would improve both operational efficiency and strategic insight. Alkami’s Data and Marketing Solutions became the foundation of BFCU’s approach to share certificates management and retention. By leveraging Alkami’s tools, BFCU centralized data from various sources, including core data and transaction data, to create a unified view of member behavior.
With Alkami, BFCU gained the ability to analyze transaction flows with greater precision, quickly determining where expiring deposits were moving. This data allowed them to identify whether members were reinvesting in new products, transferring funds to savings accounts, or moving money to external institutions. Access to actionable, cleansed data eliminated manual processes, reducing time to insights and enabling the credit union to act more swiftly.
“With Alkami, we’re able to look at transactions faster and in one place, it used to take us much longer to gather the data manually. Now, we can quickly determine where members’ maturing CD funds are moving—whether into new products, savings accounts, or external institutions."
- Miguel Carrillo, Analytics Manager at BFCU
BFCU also recognized the potential of Alkami’s solution to enhance member outreach. By automating targeted communication campaigns, the credit union could engage members before their share certificates matured, offering personalized product recommendations. This proactive engagement strategy would help BFCU secure more deposits and strengthen member relationships.
Additionally, Alkami’s dashboard and reporting tools enabled BFCU’s leadership to monitor deposit flows in real-time, helping them make informed decisions about interest rates, product offerings, and overall strategy. By centralizing insights in one platform, BFCU improved operational efficiency while strengthening its competitive position.
Conclusion
BankFund CU’s partnership with Alkami transformed how the credit union managed its share certificates retention strategies, resulting in increased member engagement, greater efficiency, and improved deposit retention. With the ability to quickly analyze member behavior and implement data-driven strategies, BFCU successfully navigated a highly competitive environment and strengthened its market position.
Alkami’s Data and Marketing Solutions provided BFCU with the tools to meet rising member expectations by offering personalized communication and actionable insights at scale. For other financial institutions facing similar challenges, BFCU’s success serves as a powerful example of how data-driven solutions combined with proactive engagement can help retain deposits and build stronger member loyalty.