Coast Capital connects systems to give members a seamless experience

Challenge

Taking greater ownership of internal platforms and payment systems

Coast Capital is a financial cooperative with around 600,000 members. Based in Canada, it offers expert advice and financial products to help members shape a better future and build resilient local communities. Its three guiding principles are investing in education, supporting equitable employment, and promoting inclusive finance.

To deliver exceptional and competitive member experiences, Coast Capital made the strategic decision to take greater control of its digital systems and payment capabilities. The goal was to reduce reliance on third-party providers – which limited its ability to develop new products quickly – and to get closer to members and prospects so it can offer personalized packages and advice in the future.

Objectives

Connecting the systems behind the member experience

To streamline and connect the member experience, Coast Capital defined three goals for its digital transformation:

• Connecting backend systems such as the core banking system and digital services and establishing unified real-time data streams.
• Reducing reliance on third-party partners and taking management of systems – such as Interac, which handles electronic transfers – in-house.
• Establishing a secure, scalable, and reliable architecture to support new and existing services.

Solution

Building a scalable, digital banking platform with MuleSoft APIs

Coast Capital developed an internal digital baking platform and used MuleSoft to integrate it with its core banking system, Financial Services Cloud, and lending system, enabling seamless online banking experiences for members. This connected system unifies data and facilitates real-time access across the digital ecosystem, while eliminating silos.

The IT team also reduced manual workloads with automation, which improves operational efficiency and resource optimization. The transformation has removed barriers to innovation, allowing developers to build and launch new products – such as unlimited electronic transfers – without external constraints or delays caused by third-party vendors.

Around 49% of MuleSoft APIs are reused across the business, which improves system performance and scalability. MuleSoft’s dynamic scaling also means the critical banking system can handle peak loads with no downtime, giving members uninterrupted access to services – a requirement of Coast Capital’s service level agreement with Interac.

Improving security and data handling

Across the organization, there are more than 1,000 API endpoints and 120 API applications. MuleSoft integrations are key to providing secure, real-time experiences. The integration between Coast Capital's banking system and Interac enables Coast Capital to manage and deliver the Interac payment experience directly for their members.

MuleSoft APIs also speed up dispute resolution and enable proactive security measures including real-time fraud detection and automated transaction monitoring. These allow Coast Capital to quickly identify and prevent fraudulent transactions, ensuring compliance with industry standards such as anti-money laundering (AML) regulations and payment security requirements.

Finally, MuleSoft’s API-driven real-time connectivity enabled the company to launch a digital ID verification in just over a month, streamlining onboarding and security processes.

Results

Improving performance and scalability while reducing operating costs

At Coast Capital, MuleSoft played a significant role in enabling it to take control of banking and payment experiences, inspiring other credit unions to use API integration to achieve their goals.

MuleSoft optimized and consolidated APIs to improve the performance and scalability of critical banking systems, while reducing operating costs. The transition to e-statements allows members to opt in and receive their account statements digitally via Coast Capital’s online banking platform. Digitizing more than 205,000 paper statements contributes to an estimated $350,000 in savings while improving convenience and sustainability.

The company made further cost savings by connecting its digital ID verification tool, which saves $500 per month or $4 per request. ID verification rates have also increased from 32% to 50%. MuleSoft APIs instantly send the data to third-party verification services to Equifax for authentication. The verification response is then returned through MuleSoft APIs, allowing Coast Capital to proceed with the next stage of onboarding without delays.

Overall, the new digital environment gives members faster, more reliable banking experiences while allowing Coast Capital to develop new features in house. Since implementing MuleSoft in 2017, the company has won Surviscor’s Best Credit Union Mobile Banking Experience award five years in a row.

In the future, Coast Capital will be able to adopt open banking frameworks to facilitate data sharing with trusted third parties, streamline mergers and acquisitions with APIs, and adapt quickly to changing customer expectations.

It’s also exploring AI-driven customer services and automation. MuleSoft’s ability to aggregate and analyze data will enable intelligent agents to give members personalized support, while AI insights can also be used to anticipate member needs to help agents deliver tailored financial advice. All this provides a cost-effective route to further the company’s omnichannel strategy while continuously improving the member experience.