Coast Capital: Digital transformation in record time

Coast Capital is the largest Canadian federal credit union, and it has big digital ambitions. It manages nearly $27 billion in assets, operates 45 branches and serves 600 000 members - more than any other credit union in Canada. Founded in 1940, Coast Capital was the first credit union in British Columbia to gain approval to become a federal credit union.

Although Coast Capital’s brick-and-mortar branch infrastructure has always been a core part of its business, they recognized that members were seeking digital services to allow them to engage with their finances anytime and anywhere. They partnered with ebankIT in 2018 and launched a mission to become a fully digital credit union. The solution was delivered in 18 months, with a new banking app released in the summer of 2019.

Coast Capital’s purpose of “Building Better Futures Together” underscores its commitment to unlocking opportunities to help its members achieve their financial goals. Providing a comprehensive digital banking platform was a key component in fulfilling this purpose.

Working in close partnership with ebankIT, Coast Capital has achieved its goal to become an innovative, competitive digital banking financial institution that supports the changing needs of its members while being well-positioned for future growth and expansion across Canada.

Award-winning innovation

In 2019, ebankIT demonstrated its banking platform in front of an audience of 120 expert speakers and 1 500 influencers at Finovate Fall. After 75 demos from a wide range of innovative competitors, ebankIT won two awards: Best of Show and Best Fintech Partnership with Coast Capital.

Surviscor, a company that specializes in competitive assessments of online and mobile banking experiences, rated the Coast Capital mobile banking app as the #1 mobile banking experience amongst Canadian credit unions, and in the Top 5 overall in 2023, beating out several large banks.

Surviscor said Coast Capital provides the best mobile banking credit union experience as a result of the platform’s improved security features, personalization capabilities, and the integration of Money Manager, a market-leading Personal Financial Management tool. iSky, another third-party researcher, also ranked in 2023 Coast Capital’s iPhone app as the third best in Canada across all credit unions and banks.

Competition and transformation

Before partnering with ebankIT, Coast Capital was working on plans to expand their market nationally. They wanted to harness best-in-class financial technology to drive rapid, cost-effective penetration of new markets.

Coast Capital required a multi-channel digital banking platform that could support its website as well as online and mobile banking channels. They needed to comply with strict Canadian legislation, whilst offering the flexibility to adapt to the demands of a fast-moving market and the changing needs of digital customers.

The credit union also faced the challenge of migrating 240 000 members over to the new platform, while accounting for the diverse needs of members and their differing abilities to adapt to change.

The decision to partner with ebankIT was made after a comprehensive market evaluation process to find the ideal service provider to help Coast Capital extend their capacity and capabilities to offer leading digital banking solutions that meet changing digital demands.

ebankIT offers members features such as personalization, best-in-class security, modern user experiences and strong small business capabilities, differentiating Coast Capital in the market and allowing it to leapfrog competitors.

Our partnership with ebankIT has been instrumental in bringing our vision of a cutting-edge digital banking solution to life. Together, we've redefined convenience, security, and accessibility in banking.

- Calvin MacInnis, President & CEO, Coast Capital Savings.

A bright digitized future

The award-winning ebankIT omnichannel platform now powers Coast Capital’s web and mobile banking channels, each channel is integrated, yet independent enough to have its own configuration to achieve greater security and flexibility. Data can be collected and shared across all channels to drive the development of truly customer-centric products and services. The platform also supports third-party technologies, giving Coast Capital the ability to drive ongoing digital channel innovation.

The ebankIT platform offers a feature-rich, business focused middleware facilitating seamless integration among Coast Capital’s digital channels, internet banking solution, and mobile banking solution with its core banking system, Temenos Transact, the world’s most popular digital core-banking solution utilized by over 1 000 banks across more than 150 countries.

The ebankIT platform uses the same core connector for both internet and mobile banking, which both operate using the same logic to limit risk and enable faster deployment of new front-end channels.

Coast Capital deployed a comprehensive marketing campaign to proactively notify its members about what to expect from the updated experience. To limit the impact on front-line services, it migrated members in phases, maintaining two platforms during the transition process.

With ebankIT’s versatile platform and award-winning digital banking experience, we will be able to offer a wide range of exciting new features to Coast Capital members in the future along, with rich security and personalization features. The ebankIT platform also has the flexibility to integrate with third-party solutions, which will enable Coast Capital to drive ongoing digital channel innovation. 

- Jeff Wong, Chief Digital, Information and Technology Officer, Coast Capital

Coast Capital overcame many traditional development processes by adopting an agile mindset. Pairing the ebankIT platform with Coast Capital’s Enterprise Service Bus & Cloud Architecture framework enhanced the credit union’s ability to innovate, reducing time-to market.

The new Coast Capital digital banking platform has laid the foundations for further digital transformation. The credit union is continuing to iterate and enhance the platform, adding new capabilities that focus on providing members with the very best experiences.

Together, ebankIT and Coast Capital delivered a world class, customer-centric omnichannel digital banking platform that has delighted existing members and helped win new members in a competitive market.

One of 7 Vendors Worldwide that supports digital banking across all key areas in the bank enterprise...

 - Gartner