At Cardinal Credit Union, Small Investments Offer Big Financial Lessons

Cardinal Credit Union is using fintech to improve how high school students learn about investing.

Cardinal ($358.5M, Mentor, OH), which teaches financial education in six area high schools, was on the lookout for more ways to engage with students. Part of its eight-week curriculum includes a module on investing. Rather than just teach the concepts in an abstract way, a fintech partnership allows some students to get hands-on experience.

Many credit unions offer investment resources aimed at young adults and mid-career members with an eye toward retirement planning and wealth building. Fewer programs tailor investment strategies to those just entering adulthood. That could be a mistake. A late 2022 study from CFA Institute Research and Policy Center found many young adults are already investing and eager for more opportunities.

Cardinal’s financial education curriculum targets high school juniors and seniors, and all students open an account with the credit union in the first week of the program as part of a module on money-management, budgeting, security, and more. Students also have access to the credit union’s app, and those students who are 18 years old can access the fintech Bits Of Stock through the app once the investment module begins.

The credit union’s debit rewards program offers rewards points, explains Cardinal CEO Christine Blake, which students can then use to buy small bits of stock through the app.

“We don’t want them to use their own money because it’s supposed to be a teaching moment,” Blake says. “This minimizes the risk because they’re using the reward points as they invest in these fractional shares.”

Cardinal has pre-selected a dozen or so stocks that users can select. Some are big names — think Apple, Amazon, and Disney — and some are companies headquartered close to the credit union’s market. Cardinal’s instructors provide classroom guidance on how to pick stocks and the students may also access tutorials built into the app.

Users don’t receive any dividends, since they’re only investing in fractional shares. Keeping users’ own money out of the equation and focusing on debit rewards points helps keep things low-risk while still hands-on.

Soft Launch

Approximately 1,000 students have open accounts through Cardinal’s financial education programs. About a quarter of those account holders are old enough to be eligible for investing, and only a portion of those are using Bits of Stock. Blake says that’s expected, as the credit union only rolled it out in early 2026.

In fact, the CEO says, “soft launch” is the better term. The formal rollout will come sometime this summer, when the full membership will gain access to the fintech.

Those who have used it so far have been enthusiastic, Blake adds.

Although would-be investors must be at least 18 years old to use a brokerage account, leadership is examining whether the credit union can still be in compliance if a student younger than 18 can use the service through a joint account with an adult. After all, Blake notes, many 17 year olds are also taking the class, and Cardinal wants them to have the same educational experience.

For the first year, Blake says, account holders can make investments exclusively through debit rewards points. Cash-based investments will follow, but leadership wants to wait at least one year to monitor usage trends before opening up that option.

It’s also planning to monitor longer-term analytics, including whether the investing service helps retain members and whether those accounts grow over time. It will take at least three years of data to have a representative sample, Blake says, and five years might provide a better view.

“We’ll be looking at different phases to set up our dashboards accordingly so we can track it all,” she says.

Lessons Learned

The experience has served as a reminder that there’s no substitute for a great user experience — with this product and all others.

“The students move quickly,” Blake says. “Everything has to move very smoothly for them to want to use a product. That’s across the board for all youth. They’re used to things working smoothly, quickly, and efficiently, with a great member experience.”

And, she adds, it’s been a reminder that young members really do want financial education.

“The educational piece can never be understated,” Blake says. “Just as we always suspected, there’s definitely a need and a desire for the education.”