OnApproach announces collaborative data lake for the credit union industry, Caspian
MINNEAPOLIS, MN (March 14, 2018) — OnApproach (http://www.onapproach.com/), the leading provider of big data and analytics solutions for credit unions, is pleased to announce the upcoming credit union industry data lake, Caspian. The only data lake of its kind, Caspian represents the third and final pillar of the CU Analytics Ecosystem and serves multiple unique advantages that have never before been witnessed in the credit union industry. The goal of the CU Analytics Ecosystem is to enable collaborative analytics for the industry.
Credit unions have valuable member and transaction data, but advanced analytics has proven to be out of reach for most financial institutions due to issues such as inability to access the data, lack of standardization, or insufficient data sets. Many objectives, such as loan risk analytics, simply require more standardized data than is available within the walls of most credit unions.
With Caspian, credit unions will be able to leverage several big data technologies, including secure, frictionless transport of data to and from the lake. As a result, credit unions will be able to contribute and access very large, secure data sets, all normalized to the CUFX standards, without having to give up their ownership of valuable member data.
Notable firsts for the credit union industry and features that will be enabled by the Caspian Data Lake include:
- Daily peer-to-peer benchmarking/analysis – With constantly fluctuating economic conditions, credit unions should not be forced to make important decisions with summarized data that is 90+ days old. Upon launch, daily transaction level data updates will allow credit unions to make decisions with reliable and timely data.
- Maintain ownership of your data – Member data is an incredibly valuable asset. Credit unions should be able to monetize this data rather than sending it out to companies that want to monetize it for themselves. Developers within the ecosystem will not be able to access personally identifiable information and cannot remove data. Caspian is a data lake for credit unions, provided by credit unions, via a CUSO.
- Structured/unstructured data source capabilities – While a robust data warehouse is exceptional for analysis of structured data, Caspian is equipped to easily integrate 3rd party and unstructured data sets (i.e. email, social media, phone calls, etc.).
- Access to ecosystem of developers – Credit unions and trusted developers/data scientists will be able to create more accurate applications and models utilizing the robust data within Caspian. By complying with CUFX standards, tools developed within Caspian can easily be shared and applied at any participating credit union for a fraction of the price it would be to build individually.
- Secure, anonymized, and CUSO governed – Data security is a key feature of Caspian. Automated process and blockchain technology will be in place to secure and encrypt data in transit and at rest. An important security feature of the data lake is the control that credit unions have over their data. Developed and administered by a Credit Union Service Organization (CUSO), Caspian’s data governance policies are designed with the best interest of the credit union industry, not a 3rd
- Data Quantity – The majority of credit unions simply do not have sufficient data sets to produce reliable predictive analytics for initiatives, such as complying with the upcoming CECL regulations. With many credit unions around North America already anticipating the launch, Caspian will eliminate this problem by making it possible for credit unions to access very large, standardized data sets to test models, benchmark, and perform advanced analytics.
“The Caspian Data Lake is a massive milestone, not only for OnApproach, but for the credit union movement as a whole,” said Paul Ablack, CEO, OnApproach. “The CU Analytics Ecosystem, powered by M360 Enterprise, has made collaborative analytics a reality for credit unions of all sizes across North America. The days of the internally developed data warehouse are over. We only win as an industry by collaborating on a common data standard that supports both: a forum for building and sharing applications and a data lake that ignites the research and innovation needed to remain relevant to our members. Caspian is the next step to empower credit unions with capabilities that even large banks and fintech startups can only dream of at this point.”
About OnApproach
OnApproach is the only CUSO dedicated to credit union success through a collaborative analytics ecosystem. By providing a secure and frictionless data experience, OnApproach empowers credit unions to take full control of their own data and their own futures. We exist to serve the credit union movement with technology and expertise required for the digital transformation of the industry business model. OnApproach’s collaborative ecosystem enables communities of users, data scientists, and application developers focused on analytics innovation
