TriVerity and Akuvo Team to Ease Collections for Credit Unions

Collection agency TriVerity has teamed with collections/credit risk company Akuvo.

The collaboration, announced Tuesday (July 30), is designed to ease the process of third-party charge-off collections through Akuvo’s cloud-based collections platform to help maximize credit unions’ (CUs) recoveries from nonperforming loans.

“We are thrilled to incorporate Akuvo’s cloud-based capabilities into our comprehensive delinquency management suite through this partnership,” TriVerity Senior Vice President, Client Service and Marketing Wendy Elieff, said in a news release provided to PYMNTS. “This relationship will bolster TriVerity’s ability to efficiently recover charged-off accounts while providing credit unions with a single-source delinquency management solution that elevates the member experience.”

According to the release, Akuvo’s platform, which employs automation and analytics, will enhance TriVerity’s offerings by delivering “guidance and improved workflow through continuous connections with core processors, credit bureaus, payment providers, text messaging services, legal resources and more.”

In other recent credit union news, recent research by PYMNTS Intelligence and Velera shows that CUs that innovate in self-service banking are well poised to increase memberships among younger consumers.

“Data shows a correlation between how consumers most often access financial services and their interest in self-service banking convenience,” PYMNTS wrote earlier this month.

“While 18% of CU members who prefer using ATMs say self-service banking convenience is important when choosing to use a CU as their primary [financial institution], just 9.1% of CU members who prefer in-person banking say the same. CUs wanting to reduce churn and attract new members need to focus their innovation efforts on providing self-service banking,” PYMNTS added.

Meanwhile, PYMNTS also spoke recently with Brian Scott, chief growth officer at Velera, to discuss the state and prospects of embedded finance and payments innovation, as part of the series “What’s Next In Payments: July Halftime Report.”

Scott underlined a dichotomy between small and large financial institutions: Those below the $10 billion threshold, often referred to as Durbin-exempt, typically focus intensely on serving specific consumer segments or communities. They leverage their smaller scale to create deep, personalized relationships with their clients.

“We see a lot of opportunities for Durbin-exempt financial institutions to focus on certain aspects of a consumer need and focus on serving that really well,” Scott said. “They are entrenching themselves into a marketplace, into a community, into an employer group.”

By contrast, institutions above the $10 billion mark are focused on more broader market growth, face higher regulatory burdens and have their interchange fees capped, leading them to seek expansive growth strategies.

Scott stressed that embedded finance is shaping up to be a key offering for Durbin-exempt institutions to differentiate themselves and capture market share from bigger rivals.