Early in the conversation, Barry Kirby shares a statistic that quietly reframes everything credit unions think they know about growth. Younger consumers are not finding credit unions online and most are not looking for them at all. They are making financial decisions somewhere else entirely. The moment hangs there, not as a warning, but as an invitation to rethink where opportunity actually lives.
That idea sets the tone for Sarah Snell Cooke’s discussion with Barry, co-founder/chief revenue officer at Union Credit, on The Credit Union Connection. What follows is a grounded look at how credit unions already know how to win at point-of-need lending. The difference now is where those moments are happening and who controls the experience.
What makes the conversation compelling is how quickly it moves past theory. Barry talks about friction, the kind that shows up when digital convenience collides with legacy processes. Membership requirements, account openings, even familiar product assumptions become obstacles when consumers expect speed and simplicity. It is not that credit unions lack competitive offerings. It is that timing and placement matter more than ever.
The discussion also takes an unexpected turn around AI. Instead of using it to push products, Union Credit is using it to help credit unions better understand what younger members actually want. Sometimes that means questioning products that have been treated as universal for decades. The shift is subtle but important. Adaptation starts internally before it ever shows up in the market.
By the end, the takeaway is not a checklist or a prediction. It is a mindset shift. Credit unions do not need to abandon what makes them strong. They need to meet people where decisions are already being made and do it without adding friction. The rest of the story unfolds in the conversation itself.
NOTE: The AI-generator that created this transcript should not quit its day job.
Sarah Cooke
Hello and welcome everyone. I am Sarah Snell Cooke your host at The Credit Union Connection. I’m here today with Barry Kirby, welcome. Thanks for having me. Sarah. And Barry is the Co-Founder and Chief Revenue Officer at Union Credit, which is such a cool platform, embedded finance. We were just talking about phrases, catch phrases right now. Embedded finance certainly one of them, but you guys just marked two years. Woo hoo!
Barry Kirby
Yes, yeah, exciting. Thank you.
Sarah Cooke
And what, almost $1 billion in embedded loans, the credit lines. So that’s a lot of what we’re going to talk about is embedded loans. And what? How are credit unions using embedded offers to increase their membership, increase lending, that type of thing.
Barry Kirby
Yeah, so embedded lending, I’ve described this a couple of times, is kind of a new way of describing, really, what the credit union space is doing for some time now, which is, imagine indirect auto lending, so providing financing at the point of sale or the point of service. The difference now is we’re just now embedding that same type of process, that financing option, in a digital experience, so somebody checking out at the Lowe’s website or leveraging their Experian app. So yeah, I mean, we’re trying to ultimately help credit unions connect with the next generation of membership. So your Gen Z, your millennials, and this is where they are conducting their business. They’re not going into the traditional branches or seeking out a credit union as an option for them.
Sarah Cooke
And so how are they using that to grow, though. I mean, the, I guess it’s obvious, but I want to make sure that everybody understands the opportunity with embedded financing. So can you talk a little bit about the actual growth and how, if you have a case study or something?
Barry Kirby
Yeah, totally. So a couple of stats that kind of start off, and then it’ll shed light on how credit unions are using this so only 4% of Gen Z today are credit union members. Of the 4% of that population, only 7% are joining a credit union through their public facing website. So 4% of the population is a credit union member, and of that 4% only 7% found them through their credit unions website. So really, the big message here is the younger population is not interacting with traditional media and channels that we’ve used to acquire them. And so what union credit does is we are meeting these consumers, these younger generations, where they’re actually conducting their business. They’re leveraging, for example, the Experian app. Experian’s got roughly 100 million people that are using it to check their credit scores and to look for financial products. And we’re able to surface up these credit unions, offers their credit cards, their auto loans, to these consumers and really just call more attention to the credit union space, because it’s been dominated by the same old names as the chase banks, the Bank of Americas, the SoFIs of the world. And a lot of these younger consumers just aren’t really aware of what a credit union is and how competitive their products really are.
Sarah Cooke
Yeah, one of the reasons I started The Credit Union Connection when I helped credit unions learn to build their brands, to build their brands right. And I think a lot of the tools are starting to help get credit unions there, including AI talking about, how do you how do credit How can credit unions use AI to help drive members where they want them to go and grow through that, that experience.
Barry Kirby
Yeah, so we’re taking AI a little bit differently, so we rolled out recently an AI platform within our experience, mostly from an analytics perspective. So to give you some context, so the average consumer, for example, who say, is 25 years old, may not be interested in not alone. I know that sounds crazy, but for a lot of us who have teenage drivers, they aren’t actually wanting to get their license at 16, but we’re still selling a product to them that has been traditionally associated to our 50 year old number. So we’re leveraging AI on the back end to say, based on this Gen Z population we see interacting with these products, how they’re interacting what type of lending products or deposit products should we be designing at the credit union, and then providing that feedback loop? To our lenders, really just helping them understand that what we’ve been selling for the past 50 Years may not be what this generation wants. And so we have to change those products and sort of adapt to them, and then market them and present them differently to them. And so that’s how we’re leveraging AI versus steering a consumer. We’re steering our credit unions to help understand this population of what they’re looking for, versus vice versus the other way of just sell them what we’ve always sold them, right?
Sarah Cooke
Yeah, it’s really great to take those analytics and turn it into actionable, actionable actions, right? Yeah, that that credit unions can use to attract Gen Z and buy what they actually want, rather than like you were saying what we’ve always put out there. And how do you so credit unions have really had trouble competing in the digital channels in the past. So I imagine this is a huge bump, huge boost for credit unions in that regard.
Barry Kirby
Yeah, yeah. It’s been a huge bump. Yeah. I mean, one of the biggest challenges, really, in the digital space for a credit union, and I think most of them would agree with this, is where, again, just take an auto loan, for example, if we’re trying to promote an auto loan versus, say, Bank of America, we have this one thing that is putting a lot of inertia between us and that new consumer, and that is we have to memorize them. So we have to first create that membership, open the share account, before we can actually give them even a decision on whether we’ll approve them for the auto loan or not. And so just going digital is not that’s not even the first answer. The first answer is, how do we remove the memorization piece? Because if we’re going to go digital, that is going to become a friction point for us. And so that was one of the components that we learned very early on at Union credit, that we had to eliminate the memorization. And so ultimately, that’s what we’ve been able to eliminate that process of them creating a membership and help usher a consumer through that process, very much like they would with Sofi. So now the playing ground is a lot more even, and credit unions notoriously have way better products and way more competitive rates. But it’s not all about rates these days, it’s about convenience, and consumers are buying convenience over the rate. And so the convenience is, eliminate the memorization, meet them in the channels they’re doing business, and then you’ve got a really good chance to win.
Sarah Cooke
Yeah, you must have read our article recently. I think it was two thirds said that it member experience is more important than your race, and I 100% I’ve been pushing that for a while now, and you have done that by and I want to ask you, how you eliminate the Field of Membership issue, yeah.
Barry Kirby
So what happens in our platform? So when we onboard a credit union, we’re actually housing their Field of Membership. So they define their Field of Membership, whether it be geographic or deployment stack, whatever their Field of Membership may be, before we ever come in contact with a potential new member, we define are they within that membership criteria. We don’t want to show somebody a product if they can’t actually join the credit union. And then on the other side of the house, we’re taking lessons that we learned from indirect auto lending. So for the past 25 years, credit unions have allowed an F and I the dealership to memorize a consumer to transact an auto loan. And so we are essentially taking components of that as well. So we are actually memorizing that consumer through the process, so that when they get brought into the credit unions ecosystem for funding, that’s it’s already been memorized. The inertia is out, and really it’s just now issuing those loans and those proceeds and then upselling them additional products and so forth. So it’s worked out really well. I mean, we have. Some lenders last year you’re talking about like case studies and facts. I mean, one of our lenders last year brought in somewhere around 11 to 12,000 new members via credit cards alone. And that’s a big deal. Like most people, 12,000 members, you know, you have to have a pretty heavy branch footprint to even hit that. And we’re able to do this all digitally without an entire account opening process involved,
Sarah Cooke
Yeah, and I was curious too, because you obviously deal in lending, yeah, where I mean, that would be even more important when credit gets tight. I would imagine which it could happen because delinquencies are arising, and so how does this counter? I mean, is this going to help credit unions continue to reach more members, even as credit is tightening up? Yeah.
Barry Kirby
I mean, it’s a great question. I mean, just if you just remove your hat as a banker or a lender, 70 this that is somewhere around 70 to 80% of consumers who become a credit union member find the credit union through a loan. That’s really where a consumer seeks out a financial institution. I have a need. Can you fill that need? It’s pretty rare. They’re like, Hey, I got 10 grand sitting in the right mattress. I’d love to open up a checking account today, on Tuesday. Let’s go searching for a lender. And so credit quality and tightening aside, then in a boardroom. And we hear this all the time. It’s like they’re telling us, on one hand, I need younger Gen. I need a younger generation to come in. We need new members, but our credit standards are tightening up, and so it’s, it’s a delicate balancing act where they need to understand that the way we acquire new members is through the products that they need when they have that need, and then finding that balancing act.
Sarah Cooke
Yeah, for sure. And where do you see embedded finance growing. I mean, I see it all the time. Now, when you’re at you know a retailer, and it’s available right there, even if you have their card, you don’t have to use it necessarily. So, right, yeah, how, where do you see the growth going?
Barry Kirby
I think it’s everywhere. I mean, every anywhere you’ve again, if you just take the theme of convenience, wins the battle no matter what like I firmly believe that times of a PFI are dwindling pretty quickly. So having a primary financial institution, I think, is, is going to become a rarity. And so providing that convenience factor is wherever you can embed. We believe in this philosophy of embed everywhere, like we are working right now with a home improvement chain in California that we were talking to owner, and it’s a large place, imagine like a smaller version of Home Depot, but for California only, and this business owner wanted to offer finance, financing options for kitchen purchases and cabinets and so forth, but didn’t want to bring in the big old synchrony card, because those higher rates actually limit their checkout experience. So you can buy less goods with the higher limits, because they’re looking at the payments. And he was like, I would love to connect with some of the local credit unions to offer financing at the point of purchase, and so you can start seeing like, again, that’s not necessarily a digital transaction, but it’s there’s traffic going through this channel to where now they can provide financing options, and they do it through union credit now. And so, again, we believe wherever there’s either foot traffic or digital foot traffic, or, you know, digital real estate, provide those, those opportunities from a crediting perspective within those environments.
Sarah Cooke
And how do you connect with those points of sale, those companies that need to offer financing, like home improvement? So it seems like a perfect one.
Barry Kirby
Yeah, totally. So, I mean, we have two sides of the coin here at Union Credit. So we have credit unions that are participating in our marketplace. We’ve got, I think, roughly 80 today that are within our marketplace side of the house. What’s that? How many about 80 today that are participating? 80?
Sarah Cooke
What’s that? How many?
Barry Kirby
About 80 today that are participating
Sarah Cooke
80?
Sarah Cooke
Yes
Sarah Cooke
Okay, sorry, I thought I heard 8. I’m like, That can’t be right?
Barry Kirby
Oh, yeah, last month. And then on the other side of the house, we have what we refer to as merchants and publishers. So we work with most of the publishers, the my FICO Bank Rate experience, kind of the nerd wallets and so forth. And then we also are onboarding merchants. We’re taking a little bit of a different spin to this. We are, our credit unions are telling us, these are the businesses that we want to work with in our communities, and in about five minutes, those businesses can actually open up our storefront and now connect to that institution. There’s no tech involved from their perspective, but it’s a different approach, like we’re not signing up these merchants in these business. Of our credit union saying, this is a local institution that we want to work with, and we want to provide those people financing options within that experience.
Sarah Cooke
There, again, it’s a better experience because people are working with people companies they trust, right?
Barry Kirby
And I mean, the big benefit for this, especially like this home improvement store, is now their branding and their marketing has a compounding effect, because they’re marketing locally, and now they’re also marketing they offer financing from a local institution as well. So now you have two entities that are magnifying the voice within their community, versus like his other option was synchrony, and it’s like synchrony is not in your community. In that perspective, they’re a national player who applies one template to every single type of transaction.
Sarah Cooke
Yeah, yeah. So the personalization of each transaction in each business really matters, especially if you believe in credit unions in the local feel of them as well as you know, just shopping local in general.
Barry Kirby
So great opportunity, Gen Z, by the way. So we’re talking about Gen Z, and got to cut you off here, but Gen Z, so number one for them is the convenience factor. Number two is shopping locally, yeah. So that’s literally the second purchasing reason for the younger generations, which is interesting, because when you ask them who they bank with, they say, Chase or so funny. And the challenge there is they just haven’t been connected to these local institutions. From a banking perspective, they haven’t been connected digitally to them. And so ultimately, that’s what we’re doing. We’re telling them these folks are local to you, and then meeting them with that convenience, and then you have essentially the perfect formula to connect with that younger generation.
Sarah Cooke
And how are you seeing the growth there with the younger members?
Barry Kirby
The last our average consumer coming through the door is about 37 which is good. I mean, that’s about the sweet spot for most credit unions, you’re getting into people building out their families, purchasing homes and so forth. We’re seeing a lot of newer consumers in the 20s range coming in seeking their first or second credit card, which is a good opportunity for a lot of credit unions that we’ve typically shied away from credit cards, and if and you’ll notice that the SoFI of the world have, they’ve created their footprint on this younger generation by offering personal loans. And so it’s good to see them, this younger consumer understanding that a credit card and a personal loan are very interchangeable, and these credit unions offer phenomenal credit card products. And so, yeah, we’re seeing kind of two different trends, but ultimately trying to skew down into the younger generation and bring them into the ecosystem.
Sarah Cooke
That’s exactly what credit unions need, raising their brand, getting them younger members, perfect. So I always allow, as you know, a repeat offender. As a repeat offender, my guess the final thoughts, what would you like to leave our credit union professional audience with?
Barry Kirby
I would I pretty much leave all of them with kind of and I do this when I’m talking to any credit unions. I tell them, just start somewhere. You don’t have to be working with me, but you but you have to be doing something. And I would tell them not to accept the same old answer. They’re like, Oh, we’re doing SEO, we’re doing Google ads, we’re doing Facebook and meta, fine, but the audience that you’re looking for is not there. And so figure out where you know these younger populations are in your community, and then try to bridge relationships where, where they’re purchasing, if they go to the brewery, if they go to a local yoga shop, whatever it may be, start somewhere, and then try to figure out how to really expand your brand from a local perspective, because that’s ultimately what we’re selling here, is we’re local financing and local institutions.
Sarah Cooke
Yeah, awesome. Appreciate it. Thank you so much for your time and insights Barry.
Barry Kirby
Yeah, thank you for having me.