Velera Aims for Card Diversification With Arroweye Partnership

Credit union service organization Velera has launched a collaboration with Arroweye Solutions.

According to a Tuesday (Oct. 15) news release, Velera has chosen Arrowye as a provider of card production, personalization and fulfillment for Velera’s debit and credit card portfolio.

“We are pleased to add Arroweye services to our portfolio,” Velera Senior Vice President, Product Enablement and Growth Cody Banks said in the release.

“Supporting Velera’s card diversification strategy, Arroweye’s capabilities will help Velera enhance time to market and deliver a more seamless, frictionless card personalization experience to our financial institution clients.”

The multi-year partnership will offer Velera and its partner institutions benefits such as the ability to launch new card programs in days instead of months, and “totally dynamic” card personalization across card details, carriers and inserts.

There is also zero inventory involved, the release notes, as cards are “manufactured, personalized and fulfilled as needed, eliminating forecasting requirements and the headache and cost of managing pre-printed inventory.”

The partnership is happening at a time when credit unions (CUs) are holding more revolving credit, as PYMNTS wrote earlier this month. Federal Reserve data showed that the total revolving credit outstanding held by those firms came to $83.9 billion for August, up from $83.1 billion in the previous month.

And it’s all happening at a moment when CUs are attracting younger consumers who are looking for more personalization from their financial institutions.

Research by PYMNTS Intelligence, in the report “Local Roots: How Community FIs Can Win the Digital-First Generation,” estimated that more than half of Gen Z and millennial consumers were considering a switch to community banks, with 47% looking to CUs as viable alternatives.

“The trend underscored a growing dissatisfaction with the impersonal service often associated with larger banks,” PYMNTS.

And in an interview with PYMNTS, Jeremiah Lotz, senior vice president, product and data experience at Velera, said that digital tools and engagement have been crucial to helping smaller banks attract consumers, adding that “all generations have had higher demand, and higher expectations, of digital capabilities” from their financial institutions.

“Every generation is asking for new functions and new features, and even providing information through the digital channels that maybe we didn’t expect a few years ago when it comes to applying for credit cards and loans, for example.”