Vantage West Credit Union ($2.9B, Tucson, AZ) has found its side hustle. Or, more accurately, side HUSTL.
The Arizona-based cooperative launched HUSTL as a virtual brand less than two months ago as part of a bid to dig deeper into its field of membership, explore new markets, and experiment with new product lines and potential revenue drivers. The digital-only brand carries the same membership eligibility requirements as the credit union and is aimed specifically at freelancers and others in the gig economy.
“Credit unions can’t be everything to everyone,” says Kelly Mobley, Vantage West’s assistant vice president of digital banking.
With HUSTL, though, Mobley says Vantage West can tailor tools, products, and services to a niche market.
Vantage West’s move is part of a broader trend of financial institutions searching for new growth opportunities in specific consumer segments identified by employment, race, ethnicity, and more. That’s been the credit union model for decades, but bank-backed fintechs — sometimes called neobanks — have begun pursuing specific markets of their own, whether that be Purple (for consumers with disabilities), Cheese (for the Asian-American community), Nerve (digital banking for musicians and other creatives), or countless others.
Credit unions, too, have begun taking steps into that space. USAlliance FCU ($3.0B, Rye, NY) and others launched Dora in August 2021, and Michigan State University FCU ($7.7B, East Lansing, MI) has introduced Collegiate and Alumnifi within the past year. More recently, Coloramo FCU ($174.5M, Grand Junction, CO) debuted Real One.
The Opportunity
Tucson-based Vantage West maintains several branches in the Phoenix area. The city has been a rising tech hub but was rocked by mass layoffs in 2023, leading many workers to explore freelance opportunities rather than go the nine-to-five route, Mobley says.
Initially, the credit union planned to exclusively target tech freelancers, but further research showed gig workers in Arizona came from all industries. So, Vantage West cast a wider net to include all freelancers, a group that is not exclusively consumers but also not exclusively businesses.
“We saw an opportunity to bridge that gap with a banking solution that would span both of those needs,” Mobley says. “Fast, seamless banking that would match the speed of their business.”
Vantage West debuted HUSTL in March after a year-long development process in conjunction with tech vendor Nymbus. The credit union left much of the operational components up to Nymbus and focused its efforts on service and marketing. HUSTL ads are currently running on LinkedIn, Instagram, and other social sites as well as on YouTube and podcast platforms freelancers frequent.
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Year One
As a digital-only brand, HUSTL runs independently but parallel to Vantage West, Mobley says. It has the same eligibility requirements as Vantage West, including geography, select employer groups, and more. Vantage West has already introduced HUSTL in its core market, and organizers are currently considering how to give the platform a wider reach.
Vantage West knows the financial needs of freelancers are often different from those with more traditional jobs. HUSTL caters to those needs by allowing users to separate expenses for different projects, categorize different transactions, create reports around budgets and cashflow, use a round-up functionality to make it easier to save for tax payments, and more.
CU QUICK FACTS
VANTAGE WEST CU
DATA AS OF 03.31.24
HQ: Tucson, AZ
ASSETS: $3.0B
MEMBERS: 186,531
BRANCHES: 20
EMPLOYEES: 500
NET WORTH: 10.5%
ROA: 1.58%
HUSTL entered the market with high-yield checking and savings accounts that carry no monthly service fees or minimum-balance requirements plus a CD that offers a 5.5% APY with a 12-month term on a $500 minimum balance.
“What I really think helped us make a big splash with market entry was knowing that every penny counts for freelancers,” Mobley says. “The goal is to help this group not just stay organized but also earn more on their money.”
Those products will also help boost liquidity at Vantage West in addition to attracting users, and the credit union plans to expand HUSTL’s offerings with the addition of lending by year-end. That’s likely to be focused on signature loans and credit cards — services that can help freelancers afford tools and equipment to advance their careers or simply bridge the gap between jobs.
“We want to get into the lending space,” Mobley says. “Everybody’s targeting deposit growth, but overall, the long-term strategy of launching HUSTL checks a lot of boxes for us. One being deposit growth, but more importantly, building a highly efficient operating model for the credit union. So we’re leveraging Nymbus’s tech stack and resources … that will allow us to scale quickly and develop new products that could move the needle.”
Mobley declined to share HUSTL’s initial goals around membership, deposits, or other growth metrics.
Although the two brands aren’t being presented together, onboarding documents and disclosures do acknowledge HUSTL is backed by Vantage West. That’s intended to reassure users that the new fintech is powered by a real financial institution that’s well-known and respected in its market.
HUSTL and the credit union do share the same charter, but HUSTLers won’t automatically have an account with Vantage West. The two use different core systems as well as different online and mobile banking interfaces. A robust onboarding journey is intended to engage users over a period of months to steadily build loyalty and deepen relationships. And if users need a service HUSTL doesn’t offer, they can reach out to Vantage West.
“At the end of the day, HUSTL members are Vantage West members, HUSTL deposits are Vantage West deposits, HUSTL’s success is Vantage West’s success,” Mobley says. “Anything that happens, it ultimately rolls up to our balance sheet.”
MX Matters
Vantage West and HUSTL have separate membership bases and brand promises, but both are dedicated to providing superior member service. HUSTL users won’t have access to Vantage West’s call center or branches, but they do have fee-free access to Vantage West’s ATMs (and soon the wider CO-OP ATM network). Organizers also are working with Nymbus to ensure HUSTL members have the same ease of access and humanized digital experience that Vantage West provides its members, Mobley says. The credit union was able to dictate how calls are handled, how certain situations are approached, and even worked with the vendor to ensure extended hours are available for HUSTL users to reach a live person.
“The goal is the same for both: Fast, seamless access to financial tools, and to make it easy to do banking with us — whether you’re a HUSTL or Vantage West member,” Mobley says.
Although credit unions have been slower than some of the competition to embrace virtual brands, Mobley suggests that tide could soon turn.
“I think we’re on the edge of everybody trying to do something different,” she says. “Just because you’re a little old credit union doesn’t mean you can’t do something like this and take those big leaps.”