VANCOUVER, B.C., December 17, 2021 – Central 1 continues to build momentum with its Forge 2.0 digital banking solution, including recent launches with BC-based Coastal Community Credit Union and Ontario’s Kindred Credit Union. These implementations now bring Forge 2.0 to 117 committed clients as of today.
“The importance of delivering modern and seamless digital banking experiences to Canadians is greater than ever, and we are proud to have a platform that enables our clients to do so,” says Mark Derraugh, Interim Chief Digital & Payments Officer at Central 1. “As a trusted system leader, we are excited to drive this journey in collaboration with our members and clients within the credit union system.”
While Central 1 is still in the early stages of the Forge 2.0 launch, 15 clients have already begun implementation in the first three months, a result of a refined approach leveraging gained insights from successful adoptions. The latest versions of the Forge digital banking channels rely more on Central 1’s intellectual property and digital banking technologies, ensuring greater efficiency, innovation and new functionality.
“Our members have been asking for improvements to our app’s layout and usability, so we are very excited to launch on the Forge 2.0 platform” says James Mitchell, VP Technology at Coastal Community Credit Union. “The team at Central 1 helped us move quickly through our implementation, allowing us to get the new app in our members’ hands and deliver a better user experience.”
Kindred Credit Union is the first credit union to launch the Forge 2.0 iteration of Retail Online Banking in Ontario, and the second in Canada.
“We are excited to collaborate with Central 1 on building digital solutions for Ontarians to experience banking with purpose, wherever they’re at,” says Ian Thomas, Kindred Credit Union’s Chief Executive Officer. ”The new user experience is more intuitive, current and visually appealing, and opens up further opportunities for us as the platform promises to support open innovation in the near future.”
To learn more about Central 1’s Forge 2.0 digital banking platform, please visit us here.
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About Central 1
Central 1 cooperatively empowers credit unions and other financial institutions who deliver banking choice to Canadians. With assets of $13.2 billion as at September 30, 2021, Central 1 provides critical services at scale to enable a thriving credit union system. We do this by collaborating with our clients, developing strategies, products, and services to support the financial well-being of their more than 5 million diverse customers in communities across Canada. For more information, visit www.central1.com.
About Coastal Community Credit Union
As the largest Vancouver Island-based financial services organization, helping you improve your financial health and protect what’s important is what we’re here to do. We provide expert advice plus a full range of products, solutions & digital innovations to over 120,000 islanders. To help build stronger communities for us all, each year we give back over half a million dollars to support local initiatives and causes. Learn more at cccu.ca.
About Kindred Credit Union
Kindred Credit Union is a member-owned financial cooperative based in southwestern Ontario. Kindred’s values-centred approach is woven into everything we do and makes us the one-of-a-kind choice for those who want to connect their values and faith with their finances. Kindred offers a complete range of banking, borrowing, and investing products and services through eight branches and online. Members benefit from access to over 43,000 surcharge-free ATMs through THE EXCHANGE® Network in Canada and the Allpoint Network in the US. To learn more about Kindred, visit kindredcu.com.
For media inquiries:
Paige Strand
Manager, Communications
Central 1
T 778.994.9979
E pstrand@central1.com
Allyson Prescesky
Senior Manager, Community Experience and Communications
Coastal Community Credit Union
T 250.619.2615
E Allyson.Prescesky@cccu.ca
Frank Chisholm
Director, Brand and Marketing
Kindred Credit Union
T 519.503.8556
E Frank.Chisholm@kindredcu.com
