Skyla Credit Union

Skyla Credit Union grew membership by 70% while reducing fraud with the help of Alloy and Clutch

How a faster, smarter onboarding experience helped Skyla boost growth and reduce fraud, without additional marketing spend.

01. At a Glance 02. The Challenge 03. The Solution 04. The Outcome

At a glance

Industry
Credit Union
Headquartered
USA

A faster, smarter onboarding experience helped Skyla boost growth and reduce fraud, without additional marketing spend.

70%
70% growth in account openings
74%
74% reduction in fraud losses every month
65%
65% reduction in operational costs

The challenge

Skyla Credit Union empowers members to move confidently toward their financial goals, guided by its mission of helping make your possibilities a reality. To bring that promise to more people, Skyla prioritized modernizing and streamlining its deposit onboarding journey – building a faster, clearer, and more welcoming beginning to every new member relationship.

Before partnering with Clutch and Alloy, Skyla’s member application process was slow and heavily manual, with nearly every application requiring hands-on review. Even straightforward submissions took 15 – 20 minutes, while more complex applications could take up to two days. Fraud checks also relied on outdated out-of-wallet questions – tools that were not only cumbersome for applicants but increasingly ineffective against sophisticated fraud attempts.

This combination created a growing backlog that strained operations, introduced unnecessary friction for prospective members, and constrained Skyla’s ability to grow. To deliver a faster, safer, and more scalable account-opening experience, Skyla knew it needed a modernized approach to meet members with the ease and confidence they expect.

"In late May, we went viral after a TikTok influencer said we help with credit repair. Applications skyrocketed over Memorial Day weekend and didn't slow down until August. If we didn't have Alloy, we'd still be working through that surge manually months later. We would have completely missed the opportunity to welcome those new members because we simply would not have been able to approve them fast enough."

Aaron Crumbley, AVP Consumer Lending and head of Digital Branch

The solution

To support sustainable, scalable growth, Skyla implemented Clutch for digital account opening and Alloy for identity and fraud decisioning.

Together, these solutions enabled Skyla to automate key steps in its onboarding process, intelligently layer identity checks, and deliver a seamless experience – whether a member starts online, visits a branch, or connects wth Skyla at a community event. With Alloy, Skyla gained access to a broader set of data sources and decisioning tools that provided a more complete picture of each applicant. Alloy also made it easy to define policies that determine when additional verification is needed and when it’s not. This waterfall approach helps the credit union keep fraud rates low while controlling operational costs.

The impact was immediate. The simplified onboarding process and stronger fraud controls contributed to a 70% increase in new account openings, a lift Skyla has sustained for more than a year without any additional promotion or marketing efforts. At the same time, the credit union reduced monthly fraud losses by 74% and cut operational costs by 65%. 

“We’ve seen a tremendous return on our investment in Clutch and Alloy. In addition to the improvements in growth and user experience, we’re seeing major improvements in funding rates for new accounts. By connecting systems across the credit union, members can now open new financial products with Skyla in as little as 30 seconds – and that ease has significantly increased the number of products members choose to take advantage of.”

Aaron Crumbley, AVP Consumer Lending and head of Digital Branch

The results

A few key features of Alloy and Clutch’s integrated solution have been instrumental in driving Skyla’s results. 

Streamlined application form

Smart forms and public-record pre-fill capabilities reduced initial application time from 15 – 20 minutes to roughly 3 minutes. Returning members can open an additional product in just 30 seconds thanks to pre-populated data. 

This intelligent pre-fill removes friction for legitimate members and delivers a smoother, more intuitive experience.

Waterfall decisioning

Skyla’s onboarding workflow begins with in-house checks – deny lists and IP controls – before layering the synthetic ID verification. Only when necessary does the system pull data from additional (and more expensive) third-party services, minimizing costs and improving overall efficiency.

Automated compliance operations

Alloy and Clutch also automated several previously manual compliance tasks, including sending adverse action letters. This eliminated delays, reduced manual burden, and ensured consistent, timely communication.

Member onboarding at community events

At in-person events, Skyla replaced paper forms with a simple QR-code-based flow that routes applicants through Alloy, allowing prospective members to open accounts on the spot, while eliminating the time-consuming manual entry that once fell to Skyla’s back-office teams.

Through its partnership with Clutch and Alloy, Skyla Credit Union has reimagined onboarding – scaling digital growth, significantly reducing fraud losses, and delivering the fast, member-friendly experience its community expects.

Want to see how Alloy and Clutch can help your financial institution achieve the same results?

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