PLANO, Texas– Catalyst Corporate FCU is marking its fourth anniversary. Catalyst Corporate now serves more than 1,300 natural-person credit unions, having added 10 more CUs so far in 2015.
“Since its last anniversary, Catalyst Corporate has placed a priority on enhancing its existing services, while adding new, convenience-based services that can help both credit unions and their members,” said Kathy Garner, President/CEO of Catalyst Corporate.
Catalyst Corporate was created by a 2011 merger of the former Georgia Corporate Federal Credit Union and former Southwest Bridge Corporate FCU. That same year is assumed the assets of the former Western Bridge Corporate FCU in San Dimas, Calif.
During the past year, Catalyst Corporate reported it has introduced Checking with Benefits, Picture Pay and is working on other services such as ACH Data Mining. “Checking with Benefits” is a rewards program that can make a credit union’s checking accounts more attractive to members and potential members, strengthen member engagement with the credit union, and generate fee income, according to Karen Coble, vice president of Sales. Offered in conjunction with Nashville, Tenn.-based StrategyCorp, the product, called “BaZing” enhances a checking program with a “powerful menu of high-demand benefits, delivered by a mobile app that can be customized with the credit union’s own branding.”
“Catalyst Corporate can assist a credit union in evaluating its existing checking program to determine profitability and appeal,” Coble said. With that information in hand, Catalyst Corporate can make recommendations for a tailored Checking with Benefits program that delights members and differentiates the institution in the marketplace. o According to Catalyst Coporate, mong the benefits that credit union members can use:
· Travel accident insurance.
· Cell phone protection that can replace a broken or stolen phone.
· Twenty-four hour roadside assistance o ignored
· Personal identity theft protection, including assistance from a personal fraud specialist.
· Pharmacy, vision and hearing discounts to help members save money on prescriptions, eye exams, frames, lenses and hearing service.
Through BaZing, participating credit union members can also shop local and save local—taking advantage of 360,000 local and national retailer discounts to help save money on shopping, groceries, dining, travel and entertainment.
New Service Rolls Out
Catalyst Corporate said it is also rolling out a new service that will allow credit union members to pay bills by simply taking a picture of the bills on their mobile device and then authorizing payment.
“This new service meets the needs of members who crave convenience and want to eliminate some of the bill paying hassles,” Coble said.
The new Picture Pay service offered by Catalyst Corporate in October streamlines the payment process by identifying and automating payee set-up, removing the biggest barrier to bill pay adoption – the hassle of entering the payee and account information online,” Coble said.
In addition to the popular automatic payee set-up feature, other key benefits of the service include:
- The mobile app is password protected.
- The app can be customized with a credit union’s branding.
- Members control when payments are made.
- Picture Pay users have the option to expedite payments for a small convenience fee, which eliminates more expensive late fees for members and generates additional fee revenue for the credit union.
- Images of paid bills are stored online for future access.
- “Catalyst Corporate has achieved many successes in its first four years,” Garner said, Not only were the broad objectives of the original business plan achieved during its first four years, Catalyst actually outperformed most budget projections. And a recent survey of members gave Catalyst Corporate a net promoter score of 70%, far exceeding 50%, the benchmark score for excellence.
Catalyst Corporate will host its annual Economic Forum Oct. 5-7 at the Omni Mandalay at Las Colinas in Irving, Texas,