Credit Union Chooses Fincentric Software

In a bid to better understand its clients, Kootenay Savings Credit Union has licensed the i-Wealthview software system from Fincentric, Richmond, British Columbia.

The system will enable Kootenay "to better understand our membership portfolios and their propensity for specialized financial products," according to Douglas Stanley, president and CEO at Trail, B.C.-based Kootenay.

Although Kootenay is the largest credit union in southeastern B.C., it's not a huge organization, noted Brent Tremblay, VP of marketing and planning at Kootenay. It's IT department has about 14 employees. Therefore, he said, "we need something that we can capably manage in-house."

Kootenay selected the i-Wealthview product based on a "long and very successful relationship" with Fincentric, said Tremblay. "We were familiar with the company and in the end that played a key role."

Kootenay has 13 branches with 40,000 members and manages C$500 million. The 80/20 rule applies: 20 percent of clients generate 80 percent of the credit union's profits. It's hoping that i-Wealthview will allow it to expand profitability across more clients.

"We try to stay away from the term wealth management," Tremblay noted. Rather, he sees the challenge as "profitability management," and that's what he expects the i-Wealthview Banking system from Fincentric to deliver. "We'll be able to get a clear view of the membership and segment it so we're priced accordingly."

i-Wealthview is an integrated end-to-end system comprising five modules: banking, enterprise server, data aggregation, personal portal and wireless.

It uses one database to allow customers and financial institutions to access real-time information through any channel, including the Internet or wireless. It's highly scalable and is architected based on open standards.

The installation will be completed by mid-year. Thus far, Tremblay said, things have gone according to plan. The next step is in-depth training of all employees.

Kootenay will use i-Wealthview's data aggregation module. However, because it owns an insurance agency and an asset manager there are "some regulatory issues that we have to deal with," said Tremblay. "What you can do technically, you can't necessarily do legally."

Fincentric, formerly Prologic Computer Corp., has built tools designed to assess and analyze a customer's profitability. Users can track a customer's commercial transactions and "relationship transactions." The system automatically segments clients into profit tiers based on their activities and holdings. It analyzes the financial institution's share of the customer's wallet and assesses potential profitability.