How Chartway Credit Union Turns Partnerships Into Growth

Chartway Credit Union brought in $2 million in CD deposits in under 45 days, cut manual fraud reviews by 40%, and had a new solution in production testing in under two weeks.

Each of those results came from how Chartway selects and manages its solution partners. With 265,000 members, 85% of them banking through the mobile app and roughly 1.7 million logins a month, digital has become the credit union’s relationship channel, and every partner it adds either strengthens that relationship or gets replaced.

In this episode of The Experience Factor, recorded at Q2 CONNECT 2026 in Austin, Jim Marous talks with Esteban Guerra of Chartway Credit Union, named Q2’s 2026 Credit Union of the Year, about how a smaller financial institution picks its partners, turns member feedback into the roadmap it hands those partners, and moves at a speed that used to belong to the largest banks.

In this episode:
→ Chartway surveys its members first, builds its digital roadmap from what they ask for, and then searches Q2’s Innovation Studio for the partners who can deliver it.
→ With 85% of members banking through the mobile app, every potential partner is judged on one test: whether it adds friction to the mobile experience.
→ Account opening through Clutch, embedded in both online banking and the website, addresses the front door where banks and credit unions can lose up to 60% of potential members.
→ During a fraud spike, Chartway added background authentication from Entersekt rather than tightening controls, and manual fraud reviews dropped 40% without slowing members down.
→ A personalized Pulsate push to members with known excess liquidity, one-tap sign-in and end-to-end account opening and funding brought in $2 million in CD deposits in under 45 days.
→ Implementations that once took six to nine months now take weeks. Chartway had ScribeUp subscription management running in a production pilot in under two weeks.
→ Esteban’s advice for less digitally mature banks and credit unions: start with your members, invest in your people as much as your technology, and check references with peers on a similar stack.
Chartway still invests in its branches, and it pushes its partners as hard as they push it. How does your bank or credit union decide which partners make the roadmap? Share your thoughts in the comments.

The Experience Factor is a special Banking Transformed series with Q2, where Jim talks with consumer banking experts and financial institution leaders about how account holder experience and engagement drive long-term success.

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