By Devon Kinkead

If your 2026 plan still waits for balances to drop before you act, you’re showing up after the goodbye. The winners will spot “why” and “when” long before the money moves—then intervene with the right human + digital touch.

Context: what history taught us

Across the 2008 crisis, the long zero-rate era, and the rate whiplash of 2022–2024, one pattern held: deposits flow to whoever delivers clarity and convenience at the moment of need. Institutions that treated retention as an always-on discipline—proactive outreach, clean journeys, fee fairness—lost less and deepened more. The next cycle won’t be kinder. Customers expect their bank to already know what they need, and your teams must execute without friction.

What’s different now (and why it matters)

1. Hidden pain points are the churn factory. Traditional retention models are reactive. They see the balance drop; they miss the string of frictions that caused it. New research in banking CX highlights how banks overlook broken journeys (e.g., dispute loops, fee surprises) because signals are buried in silos; graph-style analytics can reveal these relational, cross-journey patterns and surface early attrition clusters—before accounts close. The Financial Brand
2. Life events are the deposit moment. The biggest inflows (bonus, inheritance, home sale, business liquidity) are also the riskiest moments for attrition if you don’t engage in time. Micronotes’ “Exceptional Deposits™” approach detects outlier deposits in real time and launches a micro-interview in mobile/online banking to capture intent, route to a banker (when needed), and convert the moment into a stickier relationship. Micronotes+2
3. Execution is a people system problem. Retention programs stall when meetings multiply and teams burn cycles on rework. MIT Sloan’s Leading the Future of Work research shows meeting-free days materially raise autonomy, communication, satisfaction and productivity—peaking around three no-meeting days per week. That’s an operations unlock for any cross-functional retention “tiger team.” 
4. Culture is capacity. Toxic culture is the single strongest predictor of employee attrition—10x more powerful than pay during the Great Resignation—draining service quality right where retention is won or lost. Fixing retention without fixing culture is bailing water with a hole in the boat. 
5. Happy teams perform better. Large-scale evidence finds employees with higher baseline well-being dramatically outperform peers (about 4x more awards in a longitudinal study), a reminder that frontline engagement directly affects customer retention moments. 

The 2026 Micronotes-informed retention system

1) Detect sooner: instrument your “why”

• Adopt relationship/graph analytics to connect customers, products, journeys, fees and service interactions. Look for clusters: e.g., a spike in disputes linked to one ATM or app flow. Use these maps to route proactive outreach to the entire at-risk group, not just the loudest caller. The Financial Brand
• Wire in life-event detection. Enable Exceptional Deposits™ on your digital rails so a statistically unusual deposit triggers a short, conversational interview (not a static banner) to learn intent—saving for a home, paying down debt, moving money to a brokerage—and present the most relevant option (growth CD with partial withdrawal, wealth consult, 529, treasury management). Micronotes+1

2) Act faster: shrink time-to-help

• Automate the “handoff contracts.” For every triggered conversation, define the exact deliverable to the next role (advisor, branch, operations). No email ping-pong. The Micronotes model moves typical cases to auto-fulfillment and only escalates atypical ones to leaders. Micronotes
• Fix the top three journey breaks each quarter. Use your graph findings to quantify loss from each friction (e.g., disputes that generate overdraft fees and callbacks) and repair in order of revenue at risk. The Financial Brand article stresses moving beyond row-and-column analytics to relational issues like network contagion and bank-driven frictions. The Financial Brand

3) Personalize the save

• Event-aware offers beat blanket rates. If a life event is inferred (job change, move, retirement), lead with the adjacent need (mortgage portability, financial plan) and then the deposit wrapper (laddered CDs, HY savings). That positioning boosts relevance and stickiness. The Financial Brand
• Close the Gen Z relevancy gap. Younger customers expect anticipatory, AI-driven guidance and will walk if they feel unseen—so the “interview at the moment of deposit” is not cute UX; it’s table stakes. The Financial Brand

4) Prove it with tighter metrics

• Measure beyond balance. Track retention lift, balance persistence at 30/90/180 days, incremental NIM, cross-sell uptake, complaint rate, and time-to-resolution. Micronotes advocates running a 30-day pilot to baseline these metrics and demonstrate lift quickly. Micronotes

Operating model upgrades (so this actually ships)

• Institutionalize “no-meeting days” for the retention squad (e.g., Tue/Wed/Thu meeting-free). Expect higher productivity, lower stress, and better collaboration scores—conditions that accelerate journey fixes. 
• Make culture a KPI. Report quarterly on micro-cultures in service, fraud, digital and branch teams. Toxic pockets sabotage retention; leaders must detect and detox them with the same rigor used for NIM. 
• Hire and develop for well-being. Treat team well-being as a performance input: happier, more optimistic employees measurably outperform, which shows up in faster, friendlier saves. 

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What to start next week

1. Stand up a 30-day pilot: feed digital/mobile data to trigger Exceptional Deposits™; measure retention lift, balance persistence, and NIM. Micronotes
2. Map one friction end-to-end (e.g., disputes) using graph analysis; publish a 60-day fix plan with dollar impact. The Financial Brand
3. Protect execution time with two to three no-meeting days for the squad; review outcomes monthly. 

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The forward look

By 2026, deposit retention won’t be about paying the highest teaser rate. It will be about seeing the moment, asking the one right question, and moving fast—with culture and workflows that make great saves the default. If you can detect life events as they happen, fix the few frictions that matter, and let data guide timely human outreach, you’ll keep the dollars and the relationship.

By Devon Kinkead

The credit union industry enters 2026 facing a paradox. Second-quarter 2025 data from Callahan & Associates reveals operational resilience—net interest margins climbing to 3.32% and return on assets improving—yet member growth has slowed to rates unseen in over a decade. Regional disparities are widening, with Western states thriving while parts of the Midwest and South lose members entirely. As economic uncertainty drives members to save more, credit union leaders must rethink their fundamental approach to leading organizations through complexity.

MIT Sloan Management Review’s research on the future of work offers a compelling framework for navigating these challenges—spanning employee well-being, meeting culture, toxic workplace dynamics, and organizational resilience. Each principle speaks directly to the headwinds credit unions face.

Happiness as a Performance Strategy

Credit unions competing for talent against larger banks and fintechs should take note of striking MIT Sloan research: employee happiness predicts exceptional performance more powerfully than any demographic factor. In a study of nearly one million U.S. Army service members tracked over five years, the happiest employees earned four times as many performance awards as the unhappiest—a finding that held across over 190 job categories and remained significant after controlling for education, experience, and background.

For credit unions watching member growth slow to 2.0% annually, investing in employee well-being isn’t a soft initiative—it’s a competitive necessity. The research identifies three actionable steps: measure happiness in hiring and ongoing assessments using validated tools, develop it through evidence-based exercises like gratitude practices and strengths identification, and retain happy employees who spread positivity throughout the organization. With core members deepening relationships and increasing average balances by $435 over the past year, frontline employee engagement directly shapes whether that momentum continues or stalls.

Reclaiming Time Through Meeting-Free Days

MIT Sloan research across 76 companies reveals a counterintuitive finding: reducing meetings by 60%—equivalent to three meeting-free days per week—increased cooperation by 55% and reduced stress by 57%. Productivity rose 73%, and satisfaction climbed 65%. Perhaps most surprisingly, communication improved rather than deteriorated as employees found better asynchronous ways to connect using project management tools and messaging platforms.

For credit unions navigating the tension between member service and operational efficiency, this offers a practical lever. With indirect lending contracting 1.2% year-over-year as cooperatives redirect resources toward organic member growth, staff need focused time to develop relationships and pursue meaningful work. The research suggests the optimal balance leaves only two days per week for meetings, preserving three for concentrated effort while maintaining essential social connections.

Detoxifying Culture Before It Drives Attrition

MIT Sloan’s analysis of over 1.3 million Glassdoor reviews identified toxic culture as the single best predictor of attrition during the Great Resignation—ten times more predictive than compensation. The researchers pinpointed five attributes that poison culture in employees’ eyes: disrespectful, noninclusive, unethical, cutthroat, and abusive environments. Notably, inclusion emerged as the most powerful predictor of whether employees view their organization as toxic.

The geographic variation in credit union member growth—strong in Utah, Oregon, and California; weak or negative in Ohio, Indiana, and South Carolina—may reflect cultural factors alongside economic ones. Credit unions in struggling markets should examine whether pockets of toxicity exist within their organizations, even if aggregate culture scores appear healthy. The research warns that measuring culture only in averages can obscure experiences that profoundly affect subsets of employees. For an industry built on cooperative values and community trust, ensuring every employee experiences those values daily is strategically essential.

Building Resilience Through Systems, Not Slogans

As members respond to economic anxiety by increasing savings to 4.5%—the highest personal savings rate in a year—credit union employees face their own uncertainties about the future. MIT Sloan researchers caution against simply telling employees to be resilient. Instead, leaders must create environments where resilience becomes easier through shared practices, meaningful one-on-one conversations, and systems that support well-being collectively rather than placing the burden on individuals.

Practical applications include establishing team rituals that provide stability during uncertainty, using one-on-one meetings for genuine support rather than status updates, and creating shared language that makes it safe to acknowledge struggles. Since the pandemic, having a supportive manager has become the largest predictor of workplace happiness—nearly twice as important as purpose—making these leadership behaviors directly consequential for organizational performance.

The Leadership Imperative

The credit union industry’s 2025 performance data reveals organizations that remain operationally sound but face structural challenges requiring adaptive leadership. Net interest margins provide breathing room; declining member growth creates urgency. MIT Sloan’s research suggests that technical strategies alone won’t suffice.

The leaders who will guide their credit unions successfully through 2026 will prioritize employee happiness as a driver of exceptional performance, protect focused work time while maintaining meaningful connection, actively monitor for and address toxic microcultures, and build systems that support resilience rather than simply demanding it. For an industry founded on people helping people, this human-centered leadership framework aligns naturally with credit union identity. The question is whether leaders will embrace it with the intentionality the moment demands.

By Devon Kinkead

Chime just grabbed the largest share of new checking accounts in the U.S.—about 13% of all openings, outpacing every big bank, with Chase at 9% and SoFi at 5%. That’s not a blip; it’s a signal that primacy is in play and silent attrition is real. The Financial Brand

Checking is the front door to primacy. When fintechs win the door, they eventually win the dollars—payroll, savings, CDs, even investments. Deposit retention strategy can’t be a rate-only defense anymore; it must blend detection, personalization, and fast human follow-through. That’s exactly the through line in Micronotes’ deposit-retention guidance.

Context: The primacy battle moved—and the scoreboard shows it

Independent tracking (J.D. Power) echoes The Financial Brand’s report: Chime converts more prospects than anyone—77% of those considering a checking account end up opening with Chime—and it’s quietly stealing primacy via “consider → open → move your life here.” That flywheel siphons active balances from both traditional banks and other alt brands. J.D. Power

For community and regional institutions that historically relied on relationship banking and core deposits, the risk is clear: once a customer’s paycheck and daily spend shift, your “retention” problem becomes a reacquisition problem at higher cost.

What Micronotes’ retention playbooks get right

Micronotes’ deposit playbook centers on one idea: act at the moment of intent, not after the money walks. Three practical pillars stand out:

1. Detect life-event deposits the instant they land
   An “anomaly deposit” (bonus, inheritance, home sale proceeds, 401(k) rollover, etc.) is the highest-risk balance on your books. Up to ~50% of life-event deposits leave within 90 days if nobody reaches out. Your first job is to know when they hit and route them to the right next action—automatically. Micronotes+1
2. Run a 10–15 second in-app microinterview—then present a single smart path
   Ask: How long will you keep these funds? What matters more—yield or access? Any upcoming purchase or payoff?Based on answers, present one clear choice: high-yield savings for liquidity, a CD or simple ladder for time-bound goals, or book a banker for complex balances. Then schedule nudges and maturity choices so retention becomes the default. Micronotes
3. Make “old” products work like “new” ones
   Recast CDs through a life-event lens (flexible add-ons, purpose-tied “impact” options, easy maturity roll). Depositors—especially those mid-transition—want safety and guidance, not just rate. Institutions applying this approach report higher NPS and more “quality deposits”—balances that stay longer and cross-buy more. Micronotes+1

A five-step retention blueprint you can deploy now

1) Wire up anomaly-deposit detection across channels.
Stand up rules to flag sudden balance spikes, external transfers, and employer changes (new payroll descriptor). Pipe alerts to marketing automation and branch CRM with a 24–48 hour SLA for outreach. (Micronotes’ case work shows these signals convert into real, retained balances fast.) Micronotes

2) Insert a microinterview moment into your mobile app and online banking.
Make it optional, human, and quick. The goal is to understand intent, not hawk products. One question too many kills completion rates; three great questions drive action. Then present exactly one recommended next step—no product buffet. Micronotes

3) Stand up a “Deposit Desk” for warm-handed callbacks within hours—not days.
Speed matters. Fintechs compress consideration to conversion; you counter by compressing detection to human help. Staff a small team trained to translate life events into deposit structures (HYS + 6/9/12-month ladder; partial-liquidity step-ups; timed nudges before maturity). Track time-to-contact as a KPI.

4) Redesign CDs for retention, not just rate sheets.
Offer short ladders aligned to stated timelines (tuition in 9 months? ladder 3/6/9). Add flexible-add features tied to pay cycles for customers saving toward a near-term purchase. For mission-driven brands, consider “impact” CDs that fund local priorities; customers will keep funds where purpose and guidance live. Micronotes

5) Make primacy sticky: paycheck plus two anchors.
Use your microinterview to set a primacy checklist: direct deposit + bill pay + card on file for top subscriptions. Incent with instant-gratification rewards, not back-end hoops. The same play powering Chime’s surge (rapid conversion to everyday use) can power yours—just with better human support. J.D. Power

Metrics that prove you’re winning (and what “good” looks like)

• Anomaly Deposit Save Rate (30/90 days): % of flagged balances still on-us after 30 and 90 days. Aim for +15–25 percent lift vs. your baseline after 2–3 campaigns. Micronotes
• Time-to-Human (median hours): from detection to banker conversation. Target <24 hours for high-value events.
• Primacy Progression: % of at-risk customers adding payroll + bill pay within 60 days of outreach.
• CD Retention at Maturity: % of balances rolling or staying on-us in new structures; measure with and without targeted microinterviews.
• Cross-buy per retained depositor: move from ~2.1 to 4+ products through purposeful sequencing (common in Micronotes’ programs). Micronotes

Risk & governance footnote (so your CFO nods “yes”)

Retention isn’t just marketing—it’s structural resilience. Heavy reliance on rate-sensitive, hot-money funding and wholesale sources amplifies fragility; durable core deposits reduce it. The literature is consistent: non-deposit wholesale dependence raises risk, while relationship-driven core deposits stabilize earnings and liquidity—exactly what your board and regulators prefer. 

The upshot

Chime’s lead in new checking openings shows that speed to primacy beats brand legacy—and the gap is widening. But community and regional institutions have a counter-edge: proximity, trust, and the ability to pair data with a human at just the right moment. If you can detect, diagnose, and direct within days of a life-event deposit, you’ll keep the dollars and deepen the relationship.

Do these three things this quarter:

1. Turn on anomaly-deposit alerts to a live dashboard.
2. Launch a 3-question microinterviews in digital banking with one-click paths.
3. Create a rapid-response Deposit Desk and measure time-to-human.

Win those moments and you won’t just defend balances—you’ll own primacy in 2025.

Book at demo today to learn how to get started.

By Devon Kinkead

The latest first quarter 2025 credit union performance data from Callahan & Associates reveals a fascinating paradox: members are saving more than ever, yet lending growth is slowing dramatically. For credit unions wondering how to navigate this landscape, the answer lies not in waiting for market conditions to improve, but in embracing precision-targeted prescreen marketing technology that turns these trends into competitive advantages.

The Member Behavior Shift: What the Data Reveals

Credit union members are sending clear signals about their financial priorities. Shares grew by an impressive 4.6% annually in Q1 2025, marking the highest growth rate in more than two years and the second consecutive quarter where credit union share growth outpaced the national personal savings rate of 4.0%. Even more striking, the $64.7 billion increase in shares exceeded 2024’s first quarter by nearly $11 billion.

This isn’t just about certificates anymore. Every share product increased, with regular shares growing more than $20 billion and share drafts close behind. Members are building accessible emergency funds and preparing for uncertainty, demonstrating exactly the kind of prudent financial behavior credit unions exist to support.

However, the lending side tells a different story. Total loan growth slowed to 3.4% annually, down from 4.6% a year ago. The median loan growth dropped to just 0.34%, indicating that larger credit unions are driving most industry lending while smaller institutions struggle. Year-over-year declines appeared across credit cards, auto loans, and other residential real estate lending.

The Widening Performance Gap Demands Action

Perhaps the most concerning trend in the data is the expanding gap between mean and median performance. While industry averages suggest moderate health, the median credit union’s 0.34% loan growth reveals that half of all institutions are experiencing near-stagnant lending portfolios. This divergence signals that traditional approaches are no longer sufficient, and institutions that fail to adapt will find themselves increasingly marginalized.

This is where automated prescreen marketing becomes not just advantageous, but essential. The credit unions capturing market share now will define the competitive landscape for years to come, and those relying on manual processes and broad-based marketing simply cannot compete with the speed and precision of AI-powered targeting.

The Refinancing Opportunity Hiding in Plain Sight

While overall lending has slowed, members aren’t borrowing less because they don’t need credit. They’re being more selective about when and how they borrow. This creates a perfect environment for targeted refinancing campaigns that help members save money while providing credit unions with profitable loan growth.

Consider the opportunities embedded in the current market:

Credit Card Debt Consolidation: With delinquency improving slightly in Q1, members are demonstrating better financial habits. This is the ideal time to proactively identify members paying excessive interest rates on credit cards or other high-cost debt and offer them meaningful savings through personal loans or home equity products.

Auto Loan Refinancing: The slowdown in auto lending doesn’t mean existing auto loans have disappeared. Automated prescreen technology can identify members whose credit scores have improved since origination or who are paying above-market rates, offering them immediate monthly savings.

Strategic Product Positioning: Members moving money into liquid, lower-dividend products signals they value accessibility. This presents opportunities for flexible credit products like HELOCs that provide the security of available funds without the commitment of term loans.

From Reactive to Proactive: The Automated Prescreen Advantage

Traditional prescreen marketing has been complex, labor-intensive, and primarily accessible only to large banks and fintechs. This complexity involves coordinating multiple vendors, managing compliance requirements, and manually analyzing results across disconnected systems. The 21-day average approval time and 36-day closing timeline that characterize traditional approaches simply cannot compete in today’s environment.

Automated prescreen technology fundamentally changes this equation by leveraging AI, machine learning, and access to comprehensive credit data across more than 230 million consumer records. Instead of generic “great rates available” messaging, members receive hyper-personalized offers that show exactly what they could save. For example: “You’re currently paying $280 per month too much in interest. Refinance your $40,639 debt from 19.890% to 8.642% and keep that money in your pocket.”

This level of personalization drives higher conversion rates while maintaining full FCRA compliance. Credit unions implementing automated prescreen typically see material conversion rate improvements, with many achieving net negative acquisition costs where the income from new loans actually exceeds campaign expenses.

Aligning Technology with Credit Union Mission

The beauty of automated prescreen marketing is how perfectly it aligns with the fundamental mission of credit unions. Rather than simply driving growth metrics, this technology enables institutions to:

Improve Member Financial Health: By continuously monitoring member portfolios and proactively offering better rates, credit unions can automatically identify and help members who are overpaying for credit.

Build Deeper Relationships: Demonstrating ongoing care for member financial wellbeing through timely, relevant offers reinforces trust and creates the foundation for primary financial relationships.

Strengthen Communities: When members save money through refinancing, that increased disposable income flows back into local economies, multiplying the positive impact of every loan.

Extend Financial Inclusion: Data-driven insights help identify underserved populations who would benefit most from better credit options, expanding the reach of the credit union mission.

The Margin Reality Creates Urgency

The good news from Q1 2025 is that net interest margins hit 3.23%, the highest level since 2010, outpacing the operating expense ratio of 3.06%. This provides credit unions with the financial flexibility to invest in growth initiatives. However, this margin advantage won’t last indefinitely, and the institutions that leverage it now to build automated marketing capabilities will be positioned to capture market share as competitive dynamics shift.

The data is unambiguous: member savings are growing faster than lending, the performance gap between institutions is widening, and members are making deliberate choices about their financial futures. Credit unions that continue relying on manual processes will watch larger institutions and fintechs capture the refinancing opportunity while their portfolios stagnate.

Taking Action: The Path Forward

The convergence of strong member savings behavior, improving delinquency trends, and widening performance gaps creates a once-in-a-generation opportunity for credit unions ready to act decisively. Automated prescreen marketing provides the speed, precision, and scalability to transform these industry trends into institutional advantages.

The technology exists. The market opportunity is proven. The question facing every credit union leader is whether their institution will be among those capturing market share through intelligent, member-focused automation, or settling for whatever’s left after competitors act first.

For credit unions seeking to bridge the growing performance divide, the time to embrace automated prescreen marketing isn’t tomorrow. It’s today.

Start your growth journey today here.

The American credit landscape is experiencing a remarkable transformation. As Steve Cocheo of the Financial Brand points, out, while the middle shrinks, both ends of the credit spectrum are expanding rapidly—creating what industry analysts call a “barbell effect.” For financial institutions equipped with automated prescreen marketing technology, this bifurcation represents an unprecedented opportunity to capture profitable growth by serving two distinctly different but equally valuable market segments.

The New Reality: A Tale of Two Markets

Recent data reveals that super prime consumers now represent the fastest-growing segment, with originations up 9.4% year-over-year, while subprime originations surged an impressive 21.1%. This isn’t a temporary anomaly—it’s a fundamental restructuring of the American credit market that demands a sophisticated response.

According to VantageScore, the super prime credit tier increased by 0.7% to 31.2% while the subprime tier grew by 0.4% to 18.3% year-over-year, causing the prime credit tier to continue shrinking. This hollowing out of the middle creates unique challenges for traditional lending approaches that rely on one-size-fits-all marketing campaigns.

The implications are profound. TransUnion’s Michele Raneri notes that “there are groups of people in our economy who are doing very well compared to the historical averages,” while simultaneously warning that the slower but steady growth in the subprime segment requires careful monitoring. This dual expansion demands precision targeting that manual prescreen processes simply cannot deliver at scale.

Why Traditional Approaches Fail in a Bifurcated Market

The credit barbell effect exposes critical weaknesses in conventional lending strategies. Traditional prescreen marketing—with its weeks-long development cycles, manual list generation, and generic messaging—cannot effectively address two radically different customer segments simultaneously. By the time a traditional campaign reaches market, opportunities have often passed.

For example, American homeowners are sitting on $25.6 trillion in tappable home equity, with 61% locked into mortgage rates of 6% or lower. Combined with data showing that consumers with more than $4,500 in credit card debt show a 5-8 times higher likelihood of originating a HELOC, this represents a massive refinancing and debt consolidation opportunity. This opportunity exists at both ends of the credit spectrum—from prime borrowers seeking to optimize their assets to subprime borrowers needing debt consolidation—but capturing it requires speed and precision that legacy systems cannot provide.

Consider the operational reality: Many financial institutions take 3-6 months to get a prescreen campaign launched, meaning by the time an offer reaches market, the opportunity has often passed which can be seen clearly in the market share reports in post campaign analytics. In a bifurcated market where super prime borrowers have numerous options and subprime borrowers face rapidly changing circumstances, such delays are fatal to market share growth.

The Automated Advantage: Serving Both Ends Simultaneously

Automated prescreen marketing technology fundamentally changes this equation. By leveraging databases of 230+ million consumer credit records refreshed weekly, these systems can identify profitable lending opportunities for both existing accountholders and prospects across the entire credit spectrum. This isn’t just about speed—it’s about intelligence applied at scale.

For super prime borrowers, automated systems deliver:

• Instant identification of competitive refinancing opportunities
• Personalized savings calculations based on actual debt holdings
• Premium service positioning that appeals to sophisticated borrowers
• Cross-sell opportunities for wealth management and investment products

For subprime borrowers, the same technology provides:

• Careful risk assessment with appropriate pricing
• Debt consolidation opportunities that genuinely improve financial health
• Graduated product offerings that build long-term relationships while managing risk
• Compliance-assured messaging that protects both institution and borrower

Financial institutions using automated prescreen technology report that personal and auto loans close in an average of 42 days, while the system processes 230 million credit records weekly to deliver completely financially personalized FCRA-compliant firm offers. This combination of speed and personalization is essential when competing for both high-value super prime customers and price-sensitive subprime borrowers.

Real-World Results: The Power of Precision

The impact of automated prescreen marketing in a bifurcated market is measurable and dramatic. Financial institutions implementing these systems report solid real ROI, including cost of funds, and net negative member/customer acquisition cost through thoughtful execution of automated prescreen campaigns and optimization using post campaign analytics. This performance stems from the ability to simultaneously pursue multiple strategies across multiple loan types:

Banks and credit unions using automated prescreen technology can target high-payment auto loans held by competitors, proactively offer refinancing before customers shop elsewhere, and connect refinancing with other debt consolidation products. This multi-pronged approach is particularly effective in a barbell market where different segments require different value propositions and are driven by different behavioral economics.

The technology’s ability to identify micro-opportunities within each segment proves especially valuable. Algorithms can identify the 29% of consumers most likely to benefit from refinancing from 230 million credit records in hours rather than weeks, enabling institutions to move with unprecedented speed and accuracy.

Strategic Imperatives for the Bifurcated Future

Success in this new credit landscape requires more than technology—it demands a fundamental shift in strategic thinking. Financial institutions must:

Embrace Dual-Track Development: Create distinct but parallel strategies for super prime and subprime segments, recognizing that success metrics, risk tolerances, behavioral economics and relationship dynamics differ fundamentally between these groups.

Automate Compliance at Scale: The most sophisticated prescreen systems integrate compliance checks directly into the automation workflow, validating regulatory requirements, performing credit checks, and ensuring fair lending compliance instantaneously. This is essential when serving diverse populations with different regulatory sensitivities.

Focus on Lifetime Value: In a barbell market, initial acquisition is just the beginning. Automated prescreen marketing systems enable continuous monitoring and engagement, identifying when subprime borrowers qualify for better products or when super prime customers might benefit from additional services.

The Bottom Line

The credit market’s bifurcation isn’t a temporary disruption—it’s the new normal. About 25% of the U.S. population now has a FICO credit score below 660, meaning they are subprime, while super prime borrowers continue to accumulate wealth at unprecedented rates. Financial institutions that can effectively serve both ends of this barbell will capture disproportionate market share.

Automated prescreen marketing technology makes this dual-focus strategy not just possible but profitable. By eliminating the traditional trade-offs between scale and personalization, speed and compliance, these systems enable institutions to pursue growth opportunities across the entire credit spectrum simultaneously.

The question isn’t whether to adapt to the barbell effect—it’s how quickly institutions can implement the technology and strategies needed to thrive in this bifurcated landscape. Those that act decisively will find themselves uniquely positioned to serve the financial needs of an increasingly polarized but opportunity-rich market.

Learn More

By Devon Kinkead

Consumers are not in a long-range planning mood right now. They’re coping—juggling bills, scanning rates, and searching for someone to help them decide today. Steve Cocheo of The Financial Brand captured this shift bluntly: primacy now goes to the institution that delivers real-time, practical advice, not abstractions or generic content dumps. 

At Micronotes, we agree—and we’ll go a step further: advice only changes behavior when it happens at the exact moment of intent. That’s why our deposits playbook centers on detecting those moments (life-event signals in the data), starting a 30-second digital conversation, and routing the right next step automatically. It’s how you grow quality deposits without a rate war.

What Consumers Want (and Don’t Want)

• Short-term, actionable guidance. The era of “someday” financial content is on pause; people want help with this week’s cash flow, where to park savings for 6–12 months, and whether to roll a maturing CD. Real advice—timely, personalized, with a clear call to action—wins attention and trust.
• Less noise, more relevance. Creative brand ads and long articles have their place, but they won’t stop an outbound transfer when a customer’s making a move now. Your message must show you know the customer, the context, and the decision they’re weighing.

The Micronotes Angle: Advice at the Moment of Decision

Micronotes operationalizes this “help me right now” expectation inside mobile and online banking:

1. Detect intent in real time. Instrument digital banking to flag statistically exceptional deposits, new or changing ACH inflows, brokerage outflows, or dormant-to-active shifts—the life-event breadcrumbs that precede big choices.
2. Start a microinterview (not a pitch). In-app dialogs open with empathy (“Congrats on the sale proceeds—have plans yet?”), then branch to the right path: CD ladder, high-yield savings, money market, or investment guidance. Average time: 12 seconds.
3. Hand off with precision. Route to an advisor or auto-fulfillment with clear “handoff contracts” so work flows without email ping-pong. Leaders only touch atypical cases; everything else flows.
4. Measure quality, not just quantity. Track retention lift, balance persistence, and NIM impact—because “good” deposit growth sticks, deepens relationships, and costs less to keep.

Why This Works (Fast)

• You meet customers at the moment they’re deciding. That’s when advice is most welcome and most likely to change the outcome—e.g., keeping a windfall local instead of letting it drift to a brokerage sweep.
• Advice creates primacy. J.D. Power finds recall of bank-provided advice is up sharply, and customers reward institutions that offer frequent, personalized guidance with clear next steps. Translation: advice drives engagement and share of wallet.
• It scales in digital. You can’t staff every micro-moment—so let software find them, start the conversation, and escalate only when human expertise adds value.

A 5-Step Playbook to Turn Advice into Quality Deposits

1. Wire your signals. Enable real-time flags for:
   • Large “exceptional” deposits
   • New payroll sources or step-ups
   • External transfers to brokerages/fintechs
   • CD maturities and rate-sensitive behaviors
     These are your advice triggers.
2. Design micro-advice flows (90/10 rule).
   Cover 90% of cases with three paths:
   • Immediate access, competitive yield (HYS/MMA)
   • Time-bounded growth (CDs or “Growth CDs” with partial withdrawal)
   • Human consult (complex goals, tax timing, rollovers)
     Each flow should end in one tap to act or book time.
3. Speak human.
   Lead with the customer’s context, not products:
   • “Parking funds until your next purchase?” → 6-month HYS + rate-hold option
   • “Planning income from this balance?” → 12–24-month CD ladder with monthly rungs
   • “Unsure?” → 10-minute consult with a named banker
     The Financial Brand’s point is clear: advice beats content. Keep it concrete and empathetic.
4. Close the loop—automatically.
   Push confirmations, renewal reminders, and “what changed?” check-ins at 30/90/180 days. If balances start drifting out, trigger a retention dialog before money leaves. 
5. Prove ROI with “quality” metrics.
   Report monthly on:
   • Retention delta for “exceptional deposit” cohorts
   • Balance half-life vs. non-intervened peers
   • Product mix shift toward stable, profitable deposits
   • NIM impact and advisor time saved

What “Good” Looks Like

• Right advice, right moment, right format. Customer receives a friendly in-app nudge minutes after a large deposit posts: “Is this $91,000 deposit earmarked for a need within the next 12 months?.” Two taps later, they’ve split funds across a 6-month HYS and a 12-18-24 CD ladder, with an optional call on calendar. That’s advice that sticks and deposits that stay.
• Quality over quantity. BAI and Micronotes both emphasize that the next round of “deposit wars” will be won by relevance, not raw rate. Catch the decision, carry the customer through it, and you won’t have to buy back the balance later.

The Bottom Line

Customers are anxious, decisions are compressed, and patience is thin. If you want primacy, show up when it matters with advice that changes the outcome. Micronotes turns those micro-moments into measurable, high-quality deposit growth—without turning your P&L into a rate giveaway. 

Learn more

By Devon Kinkead

The banking industry stands at an inflection point. While global banking achieved record profits of around $1.2 trillion in 2024, with revenues hitting $5.5 trillion, market valuations still trail other industries by nearly 70 percent McKinsey & Company. This disconnect reveals a fundamental truth reshaping the industry: scale alone no longer guarantees success. Instead, precision strategies that generate value are becoming essential for institutions to catch the next growth curve.

For community banks and credit unions, this shift from scale to precision isn’t just good news—it’s a competitive advantage waiting to be claimed.

The End of the Scale Advantage

The traditional banking playbook emphasized size above all else. Bigger balance sheets, broader branch networks, more customers—these were the metrics that mattered. But recent industry analysis reveals this model is breaking down. Even smaller banks can outperform if they embed focus and discipline into every part of their strategy TechRepublic, with precision becoming “the great equalizer” in the industry.

Consumer behavior tells the same story. In the United States, only 4 percent of new checking account openings now come from existing customers, down from 25 percent in 2018 (TechRepublic). Loyalty isn’t automatic anymore. Customers expect their financial institutions to understand them, anticipate their needs, and deliver personalized solutions—capabilities that require precision, not just scale.

Why Community Institutions Have the Edge

While large banks struggle with legacy systems and organizational inertia, community financial institutions possess inherent advantages in the precision economy:

Deeper Customer Knowledge: Community banks don’t just have data—they have context. They understand the local economy, know their customers’ businesses, and can identify life events that trigger financial needs.

Agility in Decision-Making: Without layers of bureaucracy, community institutions can adapt quickly. Financial institutions must have a sharp focus on step-by-step priorities that transition them to modern systems while also sustaining momentum through early benefits (The Financial Brand)—something smaller institutions can execute more readily.

Trust and Relationships: In an era of AI-powered banking, the human element becomes more valuable, not less. Community institutions already excel at combining technology with personal service.

The Micronotes Model: Precision at Scale

This is where innovative solutions like Micronotes become game-changing. Rather than trying to outspend large banks on broad marketing campaigns, Micronotes enables precision execution through post-campaign analytics and continuous optimization.

Consider this real-world example: Recent results from a personal loan campaign targeting debt consolidation prospects in Greater Los Angeles revealed that despite distributing 15,161 offers across 42 cities, the campaign only captured 13% of the total available market—well below the 23% benchmark (Micronotes). Traditional marketing would chalk this up as a partial success and move on. But with AI-powered post-campaign analysis, the platform quickly diagnosed specific gaps and delivered four actionable, compliance-cleared recommendations to improve loan acquisition rates by 5-8% and increase funded volume by up to 40% (Micronotes).

This isn’t just about better targeting—it’s about creating a learning system that improves with every campaign. After each drop, the platform ingests multi-dimensional outcome data — loan amount, FICO, income, DTI, rate won/lost, CPA — and applies programmatic optimization that treats every campaign as a controlled experiment (micronotes).

From Batch-and-Blast to Continuous Optimization

The transformation enabled by precision analytics represents a fundamental shift in how community institutions can compete. Traditional quarterly marketing campaigns become continuously optimized systems that improve conversion and win-rate every cycle (micronotes). This approach delivers three critical advantages:

1. Resource Efficiency: Instead of competing on marketing spend, community institutions optimize return on every dollar invested.
2. Speed to Market: While large banks navigate complex approval processes, agile community institutions can test, learn, and adapt in real-time.
3. Compliance-First Innovation: Built-in regulatory guardrails mean innovation doesn’t come at the cost of compliance risk.

The Primacy Opportunity

The real prize isn’t just new customer acquisition—it’s achieving primacy. Research shows that primary relationships generate 3.2x more revenue and 8x lifetime value compared to secondary relationships (Micronotes). For community credit unions and banks, precision execution offers a path to primacy that large banks can’t match through scale alone.

The Path Forward

McKinsey estimates an industry-wide cost reduction potential of 15 to 20 percent through AI implementation (Finnews), but for community institutions, the opportunity goes beyond cost savings. It’s about competing differently—using precision and execution excellence to overcome scale disadvantages.

The institutions that will thrive aren’t those waiting for perfect conditions. They’re the ones taking action now, implementing targeted solutions that deliver immediate value while building capabilities for the future. As one credit union executive noted after implementing precision prescreen marketing tools: “When we are getting those reports—your tracking mechanisms and your data analytics—and we’re getting those reports of number of clicks, number of conversions… month one” Micronotes.

The message is clear: in banking’s new era, David doesn’t need to become Goliath. With precision, execution excellence, and the right technology partners, community financial institutions can win by being exactly what they are—deeply connected, highly responsive, and uniquely positioned to deliver the personalized banking experience customers increasingly demand.

The question isn’t whether precision will define banking’s future—it’s whether your institution will seize this moment to transform a competitive disadvantage into your greatest strength.

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By Devon Kinkead

Context. Cheyenne Stansberry (Kasasa) argues—rightly—that community institutions won’t win the deposit race by outbidding megabanks on APY. They’ll win by out-valuing them with modern products and tight execution. Here’s that strategy, sharpened with lessons from 20 years of deposit history and translated into a Micronotes operating model built on first-party signals and short, guided conversations inside digital banking.

Two decades that rewired deposit strategy

• 2005–2007: Pre-crisis rate marketing. Branch-driven promotions and high teaser rates could buy balances quickly—often at the expense of margin discipline and relationship depth.
• 2008–2009: Crisis & flight to quality. Safety trumped rate. Government guarantees expanded; consumers consolidated deposits with trusted brands. Institutions that communicated clearly and moved fast on product simplification retained share.
• 2010–2021: The long, low-rate era. Deposits were abundant and cheap. Many banks de-emphasized deposit marketing, trimmed branch staffing, and under-invested in digital engagement. Fintechs and neobanks used this window to set new expectations: instant onboarding, goal-based saving, and relentless relevance.
• 2022–2024: Rapid hikes & hot money. Rate sensitivity snapped back. Outflows to money market funds and treasuries exposed a problem: balances grown by broad raises or brokered CDs were fickle. Institutions that matched timelines and purposes—and stayed present at maturity—kept more dollars for longer.
• 2025: Recalibration. Deposit pressure remains but is stabilizing. The winners are shifting budget from blanket rates to signal-driven engagement that captures money-in-motion and builds primacy.

Bottom line: Every cycle reinforced the same truth—relevance at the moment of decision beats raw rate.

Turn signals into 30-second conversations

Micronotes operationalizes Stansberry’s “out-value” thesis by catching decisions as they form:

1. Detect the moment. Instrument digital banking to flag statistically exceptional deposits, new or changing ACH inflows, dormant-to-active shifts, and rate-seeking behaviors (frequent transfers, brokerage outflows).
2. Ask intent—briefly. Trigger a 20–30 second in-app microinterview: How long will you keep these funds? What matters more—yield or access? Any upcoming purchase or payoff? Keep it human and optional.
3. Route to the best next step. Present one clear action based on the answers: open high yield savings for liquidity, fund a certificate of deposit (or a simple ladder) for time-bound goals, or book a banker for complex balances. Then schedule nudges and maturity choices to make retention the default.

This is not “more messaging.” It’s advice at the right second, delivered on the rails customers already know and trust.

Translate products into “answers,” not inventory

• High yield savings to park cash. The natural home for uncertain timelines or emergency funds: competitive yield, daily access, no term commitments. Pair with goal tracking and soft check-ins at 30/60/90 days to catch evolving needs.
• Laddered certificates of deposit for mid-term needs. For six-to-eighteen-month goals, a two- or three-rung ladder balances yield and access. Modernize with add-on or partial-withdrawal features tied to life events. At each maturity, present in-app options—roll, resize, or step out—so customers and members don’t drift to brokerage.
• Human handoff for exceptional deposits. Inheritances, asset sales, or business liquidity deserve rapid, contextual outreach. Pass the micro-interview summary (amount, horizon, objective) to the banker so the first call is consultative, not exploratory.

Across cycles, the institutions that framed products as solutions to stated timelines kept costs lower and relationships deeper.

Close the execution gap that history repeatedly punished

• One story, every channel. The sentence members see in-app—“Parking cash? Choose high yield savings for flexible access.”—must match email, website, contact center, and branch scripts. Consistency speeds decisions and reduces abandonment.
• Dashboards that coach. Review path-level conversion weekly (e.g., “parking” → high yield savings funded; “≈12 months” → certificate of deposit opened; “unsure” → banker booked). Coach to the prompts and follow-ups that perform.
• Run an operating loop, not a campaign. Detect → interview → fulfill → follow-up → measure. Define handoff contracts (what data, to whom, by when) so momentum never stalls—especially around CD maturities, where silent attrition historically spikes.

Define “quality deposits” and measure like a CFO

History is clear: volume without durability compresses margins when cycles turn. Anchor the scorecard to:

• Retention of exceptional deposits at 30/90 days versus matched controls.
• Certificate of deposit rollover rate at first maturity (with proactive in-app choices).
• Primacy growth (direct deposit + bill pay + card usage) after the initial deposit action.
• Incremental margin (net interest plus fees) net of acquisition and servicing costs.

Signal-driven conversations lift these metrics because they intercept decisions that otherwise leak to money markets or brokerage.

A 90-day plan that reflects the last 20 years—and proves ROI fast

Weeks 1–2: Instrument the signals

• Turn on detection for exceptional deposits, ACH changes, and rate-seeking patterns.
• Deploy a three-question microinterview in digital banking to capture purpose and time horizon.
• Map each path to a single, obvious action: high yield savings, a certificate of deposit (or ladder), or a banker appointment.

Weeks 2–4: Publish one modernized offer and its story

• Pick a high-impact SKU (e.g., add-on certificate of deposit or community-impact certificate of deposit).
• Write a plain-English explainer and train front-line teams with a one-page script that mirrors the in-app dialogue.

Weeks 4–8: Launch with discipline

• Activate triggers; track path-level conversions; coach weekly.
• Keep language identical across channels to build confidence and reduce friction.

Weeks 8–12: Prove lift and rebalance budget

• Report exceptional-deposit retention, certificate of deposit rollovers, primacy gains, and incremental margin vs. controls.
• Shift dollars from blanket rate spend and brokered balances to the signal-driven program that’s compounding returns.

Bottom line

Every cycle since 2005 shows the same pattern: you can rent balances with rate, or you can earn them with relevance. Stansberry’s guidance—to out-value, not out-rate—is the right call for 2025. The fastest way to deliver it is a Micronotes operating model that turns first-party signals into timely, guided conversations inside digital banking—so more dollars stay with you, at a lower cost, and with deeper primacy.

By Devon Kinkead

In an era where deposits walk at the first sign of a better rate and fintechs promise instant gratification, financial institutions face a critical question: How do you keep deposits not just for today, but for decades? The answer increasingly lies in reimagining one of banking’s oldest products—the certificate of deposit—as both a retention tool and a relationship deepener.

Two complementary approaches are reshaping how community banks and credit unions think about CDs and deposit retention: First Alliance Credit Union’s mission-driven Impact CD and Micronotes’ technology-enabled exceptional deposit strategy. Together, they reveal a powerful truth: the most effective deposit retention combines emotional connection with intelligent intervention at life’s pivotal moments.

The Deposit Retention Challenge: Why Traditional CDs Fall Short

For decades, certificates of deposit served a straightforward purpose: lock in funds at a fixed rate for a set term. But this transactional approach misses the deeper dynamics of deposit retention in today’s market.

Research shows that up to 50% of large deposits exit within 90 days without proactive intervention—a sobering reality for community institutions competing against both rate-chasing depositors and digital-first competitors. Traditional CDs, while offering rate incentives, often fail to address the underlying reasons customers move money: they don’t feel understood, they’re navigating major life events alone, or they simply don’t see their deposits making an impact beyond personal gain.

The institutions winning at deposit retention understand that every significant deposit tells a story—whether it’s an inheritance, a home sale, a business success, or a bonus. These “exceptional deposits” signal life events that require thoughtful guidance, not just product pitches. And increasingly, the most successful institutions are using CDs not merely as rate vehicles, but as relationship-building instruments that address both practical needs and deeper values.

First Alliance’s Impact CD: Turning Deposits into Community Capital

First Alliance Credit Union’s Impact CD represents a bold reimagining of what a certificate of deposit can be. Rather than letting deposits “rest quietly in an account that compounds in silence,” this innovative product transforms member funds into visible community impact.

The Mission-Driven Difference

The Impact CD operates like a conventional certificate—offered in five-, seven-, or ten-year maturities—but with features that turn it into something more meaningful:

Transparency Through Impact Reporting: Members receive an Annual Financial and Community Impact Report tracing their deposit from vault to community outcome—whether that’s a family’s front door, a startup’s first storefront, or someone’s financial fresh start. This transparency creates an emotional connection far deeper than basis points alone.

Flexibility That Builds Relationships: Unlike traditional CDs that penalize any change, Impact CD holders can add to their principal at any time during the term without resetting the clock. This flexibility recognizes that life events—the very moments that create exceptional deposits—happen throughout a CD’s term.

Mission Alignment: Members can direct interest earnings to the First Alliance Credit Union Foundation, amplifying their impact while maintaining the safety of their principal investment.

Extended Protection: For larger balances, supplemental share protection extends deposit insurance beyond standard NCUA limits, addressing a common concern for high-balance depositors.

Results That Matter

In just twelve months, First Alliance’s deposit strategy—anchored by the Impact CD—fueled remarkable outcomes: credit-building programs for 550+ people, affordable homes for 31 families, nearly $5 million to 55 entrepreneurs, and fair financing for 175 immigrant neighbors through ITIN loans.

President/CEO Brent Rempe describes the Impact CD as “a way to turn private prosperity into shared possibility”—a positioning that transforms deposit retention from a defensive financial strategy into an offensive relationship-building opportunity.

Micronotes’ Exceptional Deposits: Technology That Recognizes Life’s Pivotal Moments

While First Alliance shows how purpose can retain deposits, Micronotes demonstrates how technology can identify and respond to the critical moments when deposits are most at risk—or when relationships can be most profoundly deepened.

The Exceptional Deposits Approach

Micronotes’ platform uses predictive analytics to identify “exceptional deposits”—statistically anomalous deposits that typically signal major life events. The moment these deposits occur, the system initiates personalized microinterviews through digital banking channels, creating conversations rather than broadcasting sales messages.

The technology addresses a fundamental insight: every large deposit represents a life event, and the window to respond is narrow. Without intervention, these deposits often leave quickly as customers navigate major transitions—home purchases, inheritances, business launches, retirement planning—often feeling overwhelmed and underserved.

How It Works in Practice

The Micronotes approach transforms the CD from a passive product into an active retention tool:

1. Immediate Detection: The system flags unusual deposit activity in real-time, identifying customers likely experiencing major life transitions.
2. Personalized Engagement: Rather than generic marketing, the platform initiates relevant conversations: “I see you’ve made a significant deposit. Are you planning for retirement, considering a home purchase, or navigating another major financial decision?”
3. Intelligent Product Matching: Based on customer responses, the system connects them with appropriate solutions—including CDs—that match their life stage and goals.
4. Seamless Handoff: When customers express interest in speaking with advisors or learning more about products like CDs, the platform delivers qualified leads to relationship managers in real-time.

Measurable Impact

Financial institutions using Micronotes’ Exceptional Deposits solution have seen dramatic results:

• Engagement with customers who would typically withdraw large deposits within 90 days
• Substantial new CD purchases from previously at-risk funds
• Successful retention of significant deposits, more than half of which would otherwise have been withdrawn
• Preempting fund transfers to competitors by proactively offering competitive CD and investment products

One community bank customer shared: “I was planning on investing into a money market with Wells Fargo at 5.4%.” With Micronotes-enabled intervention, the bank offered competitive CD products that retained the relationship.

The Synthesis: CDs as Strategic Retention Instruments

When we combine First Alliance’s mission-driven approach with Micronotes’ technology-enabled intervention, a comprehensive CD retention strategy emerges:

1. Use Technology to Identify the Moment

Exceptional deposits are retention opportunities in disguise. Whether someone receives an inheritance, sells a home, or gets a major bonus, they’re navigating a life transition that requires financial guidance. Technology like Micronotes identifies these moments instantly, creating the opportunity for timely intervention.

2. Lead with Understanding, Not Rates

The most effective retention conversations begin with empathy, not product pitches. Micronotes’ microinterview approach asks questions and listens before recommending solutions. This mirrors First Alliance’s understanding that members want to be co-authors of impact stories, not just rate shoppers.

3. Offer CDs That Match Values and Goals

Traditional CDs compete solely on rate and term. But modern depositors—especially those navigating significant life events—seek more. They want:

• Safety and growth: Traditional CD benefits remain important
• Flexibility: The ability to add funds during life transitions (like First Alliance’s Impact CD)
• Purpose: Connection to community impact and mission alignment
• Guidance: Expert advice during major financial decisions

4. Create Ongoing Engagement, Not Just Maturities

First Alliance’s annual impact reports and Micronotes’ continuous microinterview technology both recognize that deposit retention isn’t a one-time sale—it’s an ongoing conversation. CDs with longer terms (five, seven, or ten years) become relationship anchors when institutions stay engaged throughout the term.

5. Build Household Relationships Through Life Stages

Micronotes research emphasizes that financial decisions don’t happen in isolation—they occur within household contexts. A large deposit for a home down payment might involve parents helping children; an inheritance affects multiple generations. CDs positioned within these household relationships become stickier because they’re woven into family financial planning.

The most sophisticated institutions use technology to identify when a member’s child is approaching college age, when families might be planning for eldercare, or when multiple generations could benefit from coordinated CD laddering strategies.

Practical Applications: What This Means for Your Institution

How can community banks and credit unions apply these insights to transform CDs from commodity products into retention powerhouses?

For Institutions Without Advanced Technology

Start with mission and positioning:

• Reframe your CD offerings: Move beyond rate sheets to tell stories about what deposits accomplish. First Alliance’s Impact CD proves that transparency about fund deployment creates emotional connection.
• Train staff on life event recognition: Even without automated exceptional deposit detection, relationship managers can identify life transitions through conversations and use these moments to position CDs as solutions.
• Create flexibility where possible: Consider allowing additions to CD principals during the term, recognizing that life events continue after the initial opening.
• Develop impact reporting: Even traditional CDs can connect to community impact through aggregate reporting on how deposits fund local mortgages, small business loans, and community development.

For Institutions Ready to Invest in Technology

Deploy intelligent intervention:

• Implement exceptional deposit monitoring: Use platforms like Micronotes to automatically identify at-risk deposits and life event signals in real-time.
• Create CD-specific microinterview sequences: Design conversation flows that help customers understand when CDs make sense for their goals versus other products.
• Build CD laddering guidance into digital experiences: Use technology to show customers how multiple CDs with staggered maturities can provide both liquidity and higher rates.
• Integrate household view analytics: Identify opportunities to serve multiple generations with coordinated CD strategies tied to life stage planning.

For All Institutions

Focus on these universal principles:

1. Respond quickly to exceptional deposits: The 90-day window is real. Whether through technology or process, create systems that engage significant depositors immediately.
2. Lead with consultation, not sales: Ask about life events, goals, and concerns before recommending CD terms and rates.
3. Differentiate on more than rate: While competitive rates matter, purpose, flexibility, and relationship depth create stickier deposits.
4. Measure retention, not just origination: Track how many exceptional deposits convert to long-term CD relationships versus leaving the institution within 90 days.
5. View every CD as a relationship anchor: Use CD terms as opportunities for regular engagement—annual reviews, maturity planning conversations, and life stage check-ins.

The Future of CD-Based Retention: Where Purpose Meets Precision

The convergence of mission-driven products like First Alliance’s Impact CD and technology-enabled intervention like Micronotes’ Exceptional Deposits platform points toward the future of deposit retention.

Successful institutions will:

• Use predictive analytics to identify life events before customers tell them
• Offer values-aligned products that connect deposits to community impact
• Create flexible CD structures that recognize life’s unpredictability
• Maintain ongoing engagement throughout long CD terms
• Build household relationships that span generations
• Compete on purpose and service, not just rates

In this future, CDs evolve from simple rate vehicles into sophisticated relationship tools that:

• Signal commitment to community impact
• Provide stability during life transitions
• Create engagement opportunities throughout their term
• Connect individual financial goals to broader household planning
• Demonstrate institutional understanding of what matters to depositors

Conclusion: Reinventing the Humble Certificate of Deposit

The certificate of deposit—one of banking’s oldest and most straightforward products—is being reinvented for the modern deposit retention challenge. Financial institutions that view CDs merely as rate-driven commodities will continue losing deposits to whoever offers 25 basis points more this month.

But institutions that follow First Alliance’s lead in creating mission-aligned CD products, combined with Micronotes’ approach to technology-enabled life event identification, will transform CDs into relationship-building instruments that retain deposits not through penalties or rate games, but through genuine understanding and shared values.

The path forward requires both heart and technology: the emotional intelligence to understand that every exceptional deposit represents a human story, and the technological capability to identify and respond to these stories at scale. When purpose meets precision, CDs become more than financial instruments—they become the foundation of multi-generational banking relationships built on trust, transparency, and shared community commitment.

The question for your institution isn’t whether to offer CDs—it’s whether your CDs are retention tools or just another rate on the board. First Alliance and Micronotes show that when you reimagine these foundational products through the lens of life events, community impact, and intelligent engagement, they become among your most powerful deposit retention strategies.

Because in the end, deposits don’t leave institutions—people do. And people stay when they feel understood, valued, and connected to something larger than basis points. That’s the true power of strategically positioned certificates of deposit in the modern deposit retention playbook.

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By Devon Kinkead

When Savana Morie’s recent article in Credit Unions Magazine highlighted Wright-Patt Credit Union’s transformative Pathways to Homeownership initiative, it struck a particularly personal chord for me. Having spent the first 18 years of my life in Dayton, Ohio, I’ve witnessed firsthand the challenges facing Northwest Dayton—the very communities Wright-Patt is working to revitalize.

But beyond the personal connection, this story represents something even more powerful: the intersection of mission-driven purpose and data-driven precision that defines modern credit union growth.

The Challenge Hidden in Plain Sight

Wright-Patt Credit Union ($9.3B, Beavercreek, OH) has emerged as one of the two largest purchase-money lenders in the Dayton area, with more than half their mortgages going to first-time buyers. As President and CEO Tim Mislansky shared with Morie, “Affordable homeownership is one of the keys to financial success. When we can help members become homeowners, we can help them build wealth, strengthen families, and create lasting communities.”

That commitment is admirable—and it’s backed by a $1.3 million investment from the WPCU Sunshine Community Fund to construct 30 new homes in Northwest Dayton over the next three years. But here’s the question every mission-driven credit union must ask: How do you find the right people to fill those homes?

The Data Behind the Dream

This is where prescreen marketing transforms theory into impact. Our recent (Sep 2025) Growth Opportunities Analysis for Wright-Patt Credit Union revealed something remarkable:

Within just 5 miles of Wright-Patt’s 40 branches, there are 172,328 credit-qualified individuals ready for mortgage opportunities—representing a potential loan volume of $35.8 billion.

Let me put that in perspective. While Wright-Patt is building 30 homes over three years through their Pathways initiative, there are over 172,000 qualified mortgage candidates already living in their branch network footprint. These aren’t random names—these are real people who:

• Have FICO scores between 680 and 850
• Have demonstrated responsible credit behavior with no current delinquencies
• Meet industry standard underwriting criteria (below)
• Live within a short drive of a Wright-Patt branch
• Are currently without a mortgage or are first-time homebuyers

Criteria Definition	Rule Summary
FICO Score	Between 680 and 850.
Total number of debt counseling trades excluding collections	Equal to 0.
Total number of trades presently 30 or more days delinquent or derogatory excluding collections	Equal to 0.
Total number of trades ever 30 or more days delinquent or derogatory occurred in the last 12 months including collections	Equal to 0.
Total number of trades ever repossessed	Equal to 0.
Number of months since the most recent trade ever charged-off including indeterminates	No charged-off trades ever.
Total number of public record bankruptcies	Equal to 0.
Total number of trades excluding collections and student loans including indeterminates	Greater than or equal to 3.
Number of months since the oldest trade was opened excluding collections and student loans including indeterminates	Greater than 36.
Total number of non-medical collection trades	Equal to 0.
Total balance on medical collections	Less than or equal to $2,000.
Total number of first mortgage trades ever foreclosed including settled first mortgages	Equal to 0.

Not all 172,328 will qualify for enough of a loan to meet market home prices so, the credit union should take market prices into account when designing the prescreen campaign ensuring that any such policy does not create a disparate impact under the ECOA or Fair Housing Act.

From Mass Marketing to Mission Alignment

Traditional mortgage marketing casts a wide net and hopes for the best. Prescreen marketing does something fundamentally different: it identifies individuals who already qualify for your specific lending criteria before you ever reach out.

For Wright-Patt’s Pathways to Homeownership initiative, this precision matters even more. Director of Community and Social Impact Ivy Glover told Morie that the program includes a five-week homeownership readiness program, one-on-one coaching, and financial education sessions. That’s a significant investment of time and resources—which makes targeting the right candidates from the start absolutely critical.

“We didn’t just cut a check,” Glover explained. “We committed to making homeowners.”

The Micronotes Advantage: Turning Data Into Opportunity

Our Automated Prescreen™ platform analyzed 1,809,213 Experian records within 5 miles of Wright-Patt’s branch locations. After applying Wright-Patt’s underwriting criteria, we identified 723,188 qualified prospects across all loan categories.

For mortgage opportunities specifically, here’s what we found:

• 172,328 qualified mortgage candidates
• $35.8 billion in potential loan volume
• Average loan qualification: $154,314
• All candidates living within a 5-mile radius of 40 branches across 182 zip codes

Once the program is executed, each prospect receives a personalized, firm offer of credit—not a generic “you might qualify” message, but an actual pre-qualified offer with specific loan amounts, rates, and monthly payments based on their individual financial profile.

Bridging the Education Gap

One of Glover’s key insights in the article particularly resonates with our approach: “I wish we’d started the education piece sooner.”

This is where prescreen marketing creates a natural bridge between acquisition and education. When you reach a qualified prospect with a specific, personalized offer, you’re not starting a conversation from scratch—you’re answering a question they may have already been asking themselves: “Can I afford a home?”

For Wright-Patt’s target demographic in Northwest Dayton—where over 70% of residents rent and more than 40% are housing-cost burdened—seeing a concrete, qualified mortgage offer can be the catalyst that transforms “someday” into “now.”

The Ripple That Could Become a Wave

Glover shared with Morie: “I tell my team all the time: Every drop makes a ripple, but some make a much bigger one. This is a big ripple moment.”

She’s absolutely right. But imagine if Wright-Patt could systematically identify and reach every qualified mortgage candidate in their branch network? What starts as a ripple could become a genuine wave of homeownership transformation.

Our analysis reveals opportunities across multiple product categories that support the journey to homeownership:

• 104,890 qualified personal consolidation loan prospects ($1.4B volume) to help clear high-interest debt
• 53,010 HELOC/HELOAN consolidation opportunities ($6.7B volume) for existing homeowners looking to refinance
• 47,764 auto loan refinance prospects ($1B volume) to free up monthly cash flow

Each of these products plays a supporting role in the homeownership journey—helping members improve their debt-to-income ratios, build credit, and position themselves for mortgage qualification.

A Personal Note on Coming Home

As someone who grew up in Dayton, I’ve watched neighborhoods transform—sometimes for better, sometimes for worse. The 2019 Memorial Day tornadoes that sparked the original Pathways to Homeownership initiative devastated communities I knew well.

What Wright-Patt is doing goes beyond lending. As Glover notes, “My teacher lived down the street; my doctor was two blocks over. One of the goals is to restore that sense of community and accountability where people know their neighbors and look out for one another.”

That’s the kind of community impact that makes this work meaningful. And data-driven prescreen marketing is the bridge that connects mission to execution—ensuring that every qualified member who could benefit from these programs actually knows they exist and can access them.

The Path Forward

Wright-Patt still needs to raise an additional $2.75 million to complete Phase III of their housing initiative. But as Mislansky told Morie, “We believe this, along with continued fundraising and collective storytelling from all the partners, will lead to the additional funding needed to complete the next phases.”

Perhaps, if Wright-Patt can help more first-time homeowners at lower cost, it can funnel some of those savings into Phase III.

That storytelling becomes even more powerful when backed by data. When donors and partners can see not just 30 new homes, but 172,328 qualified opportunities waiting to be realized, the vision expands from a project to a movement.

Making Every Connection Count

Wright-Patt’s Housing Collective represents exactly the kind of cross-departmental, mission-driven thinking that defines successful credit unions today. But mission without mechanism is just aspiration.

Prescreen marketing provides that mechanism—the ability to:

1. Identify qualified prospects with surgical precision
2. Reach them with personalized, firm offers of credit
3. Convert interest into applications
4. Learn from post-campaign analytics and improve next campaign performance
5. Scale successful programs across your entire branch network

For a credit union committed to making “more than half” of their mortgages to first-time buyers, the ability to systematically identify and reach 172,328 qualified mortgage candidates isn’t just a nice-to-have—it’s a strategic imperative.

The Bottom Line

Wright-Patt Credit Union is doing exactly what credit unions were founded to do: serving people of modest means and rebuilding communities from the inside out. Their $1.3 million investment, their five-week education program, their partnership with community organizations—all of it represents the best of the credit union movement.

Micronotes’ role is to ensure that this incredible work reaches everyone who could benefit from it. That James, the single father in Northwest Dayton who’s been renting for years discovers he actually qualifies for a $154,000 mortgage. That the young couple making ends meet learns they could consolidate their high-interest debt and free up $261 per month. That the family dreaming of homeownership finds out their dream is actually within reach.

As Mislansky concluded in his conversation with Morie: “We believe this program can change lives, revitalize communities, and demonstrate what’s possible when mission-driven organizations work together.”

With 172,328 qualified opportunities waiting within just 5 miles of Wright-Patt’s branches, the question isn’t whether they can change lives—it’s how many, and how fast.

Start your credit marketing journey today