Empowering Members: Kindred Credit Union’s Journey of Purpose-Driven Digital Banking Innovation
Kindred Credit Union is a partner of Intellect Design Arena. In the conversation that follows, Chief Technology and Innovation Officer Nolan Andres and Chief Digital and Marketing Officer Leanne Nullmeyer discuss how Kindred is translating decades of purpose-driven leadership into digital-age innovation.
Kindred Credit Union has served members across southwestern Ontario, in Canada for more than 60 years, guided by faith-inspired values of integrity, compassion, and stewardship. Its promise to members—Make Peace with Your Money—reflects both a commitment to money wellness and a focus on using money for good through impact investments in food security and housing stability.
As Kindred enters its seventh decade, the credit union is implementing Intellect’s eMACH.ai Digital Engagement Platform (DEP) with iTurmeric to build digital capabilities that amplify relationship, not replace it—preserving the human connection at its core. iTurmeric is Intellect’s low-code/no-code platform that empowers Kindred’s citizen developers to build new user journeys—including UIs, APIs, and workflows—furthering Kindred’s commitment to help members make peace with their money.
Kindred Credit Union’s leadership in delivering financial choices spans more than six decades. How does that long-standing leadership present itself in today’s rapidly changing financial system?
From Nolan, Chief, Technology and Innovation
There’s a compelling irony at the ‘roots’ of Kindred’s story: we were founded on Mennonite values of community, simplicity, and human connection, yet those same values compel us to focus on innovation. While some of our values could be called ‘old fashioned’, the past six decades haven’t been about preserving the past; they’ve been about intentional adherence to our purpose through continuous development.
This is how sixty years of leadership shows up today: we have the confidence to boldly change while staying anchored to our purpose, and the wisdom to know that serving members well has always required us to meet them where they are, even when ‘where they are’ keeps changing.
From Leanne, Chief Digital and Marketing Officer
Our Member Experience today is one where members do not need to choose between high-touch relationships and digital experiences. They do not have to engage with digital at all. Our roots lead us to ask, “how does this serve the community?” That question remains our filter for every investment, every platform upgrade, every new capability. The answer increasingly involves technology—not as a replacement for relationships, but as an amplifier of it.
Kindred Credit Union recently took a leadership role in a coalition of Canadian credit unions to advance digital banking capabilities. What is the strategic advantage of this partnership-led approach to innovation for your members?
From Leanne, Chief Digital and Marketing Officer
This coalition embodies something fundamental to the credit union movement: the belief that we accomplish more together than we ever could alone. When we partner with other credit unions to build digital banking capabilities, we’re not just sharing costs—we’re choosing cooperation over competition in ways that directly benefit our members.
There’s also a deeper strategic truth here: when credit unions collaborate on technology platforms, we preserve capacity to compete where it actually matters—on service quality, community impact, and purpose-aligned advice. We’re not wasting resources reinventing the wheel; we’re focusing our energy on the distinctive value only Kindred can provide.
From Nolan, Chief, Technology and Innovation
From a technology standpoint, this coalition model delivers three critical advantages. First, it accelerates our pace of innovation; shared development cycles mean we can roll out new capabilities in weeks or months rather than years. Second, it strengthens our security posture by pooling expertise and resources to defend against increasingly sophisticated threats. Third, it future-proofs our infrastructure through interoperable, composable platforms built to incorporate distributed development and evolve as member needs and regulatory requirements change.
Equally important is risk management. By collaborating with other credit unions, we distribute the risk by sharing both the investment burden and the implementation learning curve. This means we can adopt emerging technologies more confidently, test thoroughly within a broader ecosystem, and course-correct quickly based on collective insights. We also maximize the likelihood of continued platform relevance via the inherently increased mindshare of a collaborative model.
The result is enterprise-grade capability delivered with credit union accountability; our members gain sophisticated digital banking backed by the resilience of cooperative development, all while their data and their relationship remains rooted with Kindred.
What does the future of Kindred Credit Union’s leadership look like as it relates to the next generation of members who require both values-centered products and a top-tier, omnichannel experience?
From Leanne, Chief Digital and Marketing Officer
The next generation of members is not choosing between values and convenience; they expect both. Our leadership is focused on designing products and experiences that seamlessly integrate purpose with performance. That means intuitive digital journeys, consistent experiences across channels, and financial products that reflect members’ beliefs about stewardship, community, and impact. As leaders, our role is to ensure Kindred remains deeply human in how we show up, even as our delivery becomes increasingly digital.
In an era of rising competition, how is Kindred Credit Union using its digital transformation to become more agile, ensuring that ‘Making Peace with Your Money’ remains a competitive advantage in the modern market?
From Nolan, Chief, Technology and Innovation
Agility requires composable architecture. By modernizing our technology stack and embracing modular, API-driven, cloud-enabled solutions, we’re reducing complexity and increasing our ability to adapt. This allows us to test, learn, and improve more quickly, ensuring our systems support innovation rather than constrain it.
From Leanne, Chief Digital and Marketing Officer
Our digital transformation is distinctive because it’s not just about speed—it’s about ensuring our agility serves our purpose. We’re excited about the future Intellect DEP with iTurmeric specifically because it will enable my team to act as citizen developers, creating and iterating digital experiences without waiting for lengthy development cycles. This means when we see an opportunity to help members make peace with their money, we can build the solution in weeks, not months.
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