BECU: Leveraging Data To Improve Member Savings and Financial Health

Founded in 1935 in Washington state as a financial cooperative, BECU has grown into one of the largest credit unions in the country, with total assets of nearly $29 billion. The credit union experienced a watershed moment in 2015, spurred by a startling statistic reported in The Atlantic: 40% of Americans couldn’t cover a $400 emergency expense.¹ This revelation ignited a paradigm shift for the credit union, challenging the organization to think about the role it could play in improving the financial lives of its nearly 1.5 million members. 

BECU realized that improving financial health outcomes would require more than simply offering financial education resources.² Recognizing the importance of pairing financial education at pivotal moments with well-designed products that encourage sound financial behavior, BECU saw an opportunity to transform its approach to supporting members’ financial health.

Over the last decade, BECU has embedded financial health into the core of its business with support from the Financial Health Network. Energized by a deep commitment to improve member well-being, BECU has collaborated closely with the Financial Health Network to establish and optimize its strategy – ultimately helping its members lead better financial lives.

Financial Health Measurement Framework
BECU began exploring how to align financial health with its broader business strategy to improve member financial health outcomes. To inform its approach, the credit union conducted a survey to measure the financial well-being of its membership, using the Financial Health Network’s framework. BECU leveraged this survey data to identify gaps in its product and service offerings and prioritize initiatives that would produce high-impact financial health solutions.³ 

Next, BECU established a Financial Health Council in 2018 to champion a cross-functional, organization-wide strategy around the shared goal of improving financial health outcomes while achieving business goals. The Financial Health Council built an internal model that would use transactional data to measure the financial health of the credit union’s membership and deepen BECU’s understanding of members’ financial pain points.⁴ The transactional model’s dashboard would complement financial health insights the credit union gained annually through its financial health survey, allowing BECU to observe members’ financial health in real-time and track ongoing trends.

Quick Save
With the financial health dashboard established, BECU was now equipped to leverage financial health insights to inform its product development and marketing. In 2020, BECU launched the Quick Save mobile app feature in partnership with MX. Quick Save is a digital feature on the credit union’s mobile banking app that prompts members to spontaneously transfer small amounts of money into a savings account.^{5, 6} 

BECU partnered with the Financial Health Network to measure the impact of the digital feature on savings outcomes for members and understand how the savings behaviors of members varied depending on a member’s starting savings balance. The study found that members who started with a savings balance between $5.01 and $500 when Quick Save launched saw their savings balance increase by 17% on average. Meanwhile, members with a starting balance of more than $2,000 had reduced savings deposit sizes and balances. 

Members invited to join Quick Save were more likely than those not invited to make at least one savings deposit during the five-month study. Additionally, among members with $5 or less in a BECU savings account when the digital tool launched, Quick Save increased the number of members who made at least one savings deposit by 10%. 

Since 2015, Financial Health Network has worked closely with BECU to advance its financial health-focused purpose. Some of our collaborative efforts have included:

• • Creating the FinHealth Maturity Assessment Program (FinHealth MAP) framework, a four-part assessment that helps businesses evaluate and adjust their financial health strategy for maximum impact. 
  • Measuring the financial health of BECU’s membership using the Financial Health Network’s FinHealth Score® and eight indicators of financial health.
  • Understanding the impact of the Quick Save mobile app feature through BECU’s participation in the Financial Health Impact Lab.
  • Connecting BECU to resources, expertise, and partnerships as a Financial Health Network Member to accelerate progress. 

To dive deeper into BECU’s financial health journey and see what’s next for the credit union, read the full case study.