May News: Decision Making with "The Door Test", AI Trends & Partner Success
This month in our InfoNews, explore the practical "Door Test" framework for decision making, how credit unions leverage AI for real answers, the upcoming FPAN Swap deadline, and a special celebration of 80 years of BAY Credit Union!
Tech Trends
How Credit Unions Are Using AI to Deliver Real Answers
Credit unions are no longer just automating routine tasks. They are now using AI to gain deeper insights, make faster lending decisions, and create more personalized experiences for their members.
This shift from simple automation to intelligent, answer-driven technology is helping institutions work more efficiently while staying true to their member-first values. As AI continues to evolve, the focus is moving toward tools that not only save time but also improve outcomes across lending workflows and everyday member interactions.
Industry News
Payments Canada Calls for Stronger Multi-Sector Collaboration to Fight Fraud
Payments Canada has reinforced the need for a coordinated, multi-sector approach to protect Canadians from increasingly sophisticated fraud. In its feedback to the federal consultation on a National Anti-Fraud Strategy, the organization highlighted the importance of bringing together financial institutions, telecommunications providers, and digital platforms. The goal is to improve information sharing, strengthen detection capabilities, and support the secure rollout of modern payment systems like the Real-Time Rail and ISO 20022 standards. A united effort across sectors is seen as essential to maintaining trust in Canada’s payment ecosystem. Read the full article here.
Tip of the Month
The Door Test
Last month, our CEO Tucker Sholtes wrote about getting comfortable with what you don't know. The natural follow-up is what to do next: How do you act when the full picture still isn't there?
Jeff Bezos framed it well in one of his shareholder letters, that some choices are one-way doors that are hard (or sometimes impossible) to reverse — but more often than not, most decisions are two-way doors that can be walked back.
So when deciding what to do next, ask yourself, “can this decision be undone"? The answer tells you how much caution it actually deserves, and learning to correctly answer this question is often what stops good decisions from stalling out.
Here's how you make it actionable for yourself and your team:
1. Assume it's a two-way door until proven otherwise.
Too many decisions get treated as permanent when they aren't, and the real cost is the months spent deliberating over something that could have been undone in an afternoon.
2. Turn one-way doors into two-way doors where you can.
Before labeling something irreversible, is there a smaller version of it that can be walked back prior to committing. A pilot, a phased rollout, a single-branch test; these can help you turn your "irreversible" decision into a testable, learning-rich two-way door.
3. Remember that waiting is a decision too.
Choosing not to move is still a choice that carries its own risk. Bezos's own rule of thumb was to decide once you have around 70% of the information ( and if you're waiting for 90%, you're probably moving too slow). On a two-way door, the cost of being a little early is almost always lower than the cost of being late.
None of this is about moving fast for speed's sake. It's about being cognizant as to where you spend your caution, and not letting the reversible decisions slowly (but surely) pile up while everyone waits on a certainty that was never promised.
Product Updates
Among the First Banking Hosts Ready for FPAN Swap!
We're pleased to share that Infonancial is one of the first banking hosts ready to support the mandatory FPAN Swap initiative, having partnered closely with CUCC throughout the development cycle. This is an important milestone in delivering a smoother card experience for your members.
FPAN Swap allows a member's underlying card number to be updated when their physical card is replaced (whether due to expiry or a routine reissue) while their existing mobile wallet token stays active. In practice, that means members no longer need to re-add their cards to Apple Pay, Google Pay, or Samsung Pay after a replacement, and it resolves a known gap so that refunds tied to the prior card are correctly routed to the replacement.
FPAN Swap is mandatory update across CU industry, with a deadline for implementation of October 2026. For any credit union with questions about what FPAN Swap means for your members, we encourage you to reach out to us or CUCC - we're happy to assist!
For the credit unions who rely on printed reports, here's how we keep them flowing
Plenty of credit unions still depend on printed overnight or month-end reports as part of their daily routine, and when that's the case, those reports need to show up on time, every time. One thing we've noticed is that when a printed report doesn't come through, it's usually something small behind it, like a printer got swapped and the drivers didn't come with it, a unit ran low on its maintenance kit over the weekend, or the print quality slowly went downhill. The headache is that everything's tied to one machine, so when it has a bad day, the whole reporting routine stalls.
So instead of just chasing the broken printer, we reroute the reports to a backup first so they keep coming, then fix the hardware in the background. We've done this for credit unions whose main printer went down over a weekend, pushing everything to their backup, recovering what hadn't printed, and getting the dead unit serviced without missing reports.
For anyone whose routine runs this way, the move is simple: don't let the reports depend on one printer. Picking a backup ahead of time and sending it a test report so you know it can handle the load goes a long way, and it's worth remembering that when a printer gets swapped or moved, the banking software may need its own configuration. A printer working fine in Windows doesn't mean it'll print those reports. The takeaway is - a little prep and having backups goes a long way, and the best time to sort it out is before you actually need it.
Partner Spotlight
BAY Credit Union Marks 80 Years of Community
This year, BAY Credit Union is proudly marking its 80th anniversary. Founded in 1946 in Thunder Bay, Ontario, the credit union has spent eight decades putting members first and making decisions locally.
Under the leadership of CEO Lynne LeGros, BAY continues to celebrate this milestone with special rate offers and community-focused initiatives, including support for local students through post-secondary bursaries. Their story is a strong reminder of the lasting value credit unions bring when they stay rooted in the communities they serve.