Hanscom Federal Turns Banking Into a Game to Win Gen Z Business

Consumers have grown used to managing nearly every aspect of their financial lives on their phones, but convenience alone is no longer enough.

Many now expect digital banking to help them understand and improve their financial health. For credit unions, that expectation means balancing the personal trust that has long defined the cooperative model with the demand for modern technology.

Massachusetts-based Hanscom Federal Credit Union is working to deliver on both. It’s centered on a mobile banking experience that integrates gamified tools for financial wellness. Hanscom’s goal is to extend its long-standing commitment to member education through digital channels that engage younger, more mobile members while preserving the trust that has anchored the credit union for decades.

“People want to engage digitally; they don’t want to walk into a branch,” said Jared Silver, senior vice president of digital innovation and data strategy at Hanscom Federal Credit Union. “We have members all over the country and the world because we have a large presence within the military community. The only way to scale what we do is digitally.”

Hanscom’s membership stretches across the United States and overseas. Silver said that shift, combined with a smaller branch footprint, made it essential to scale member services through technology.  The credit union’s service reps are financial wellness coaching certified, he said.

That digital engagement also plays an important role in attracting new generations. “Capturing the younger generations is absolutely part of our strategy,” Silver said. “Meeting folks with the technology where they’re at has become so important within the gamified space.”

Hanscom began experimenting with gamification before moving online. “We started our journey in gamification with our physical locations,” Silver said. “We have one in Burlington, Massachusetts, and we recently opened one in downtown Boston. These are gamified financial wellness spaces—almost like if you could imagine an escape room meets a bank.”

The physical installations, he said, focused on helping people learn about fraud, debt, and credit management through interactive play. “Often people, especially younger generations, feel that financial wellness is wealth management and is inaccessible,” Silver said. “We’re trying to turn that paradigm on its head by saying financial wellness is part of overall wellness—physical health, mental health, financial health. It all goes hand in hand.”

The app was developed with Alkami. Alkami’s chief technology officer Deep Varma said the design of the new mobile experience builds on those ideas but ensures relevance. “Gamification works when it is relevant to someone,” he said. “In the context of what the members want, it enables them to increase financial literacy and understand their potential.”

The Hanscom–Alkami partnership was formed as a co-creation rather than a standard vendor engagement. Varma noted to PYMNTS that “our platform enables Hanscom to deliver their goals, and they build a layer on top of our platform because they understand their members.”

Silver described that collaboration as essential to creating an experience that feels personal. “We wanted to make the financial wellness user experience front and center,” he said. “Your traditional banking app is transactional and operational. In order to make things engaging, we wanted to own the user experience and build gamification and awareness to drive engagement.”

He said other institutions often treat wellness tools as add-ons that few members use. “So often financial wellness within other apps are bolt-ons,” Silver said. “You bolt on a credit score or a wellness survey and it’s not the primary function. Those get low engagement.”

Hanscom intends to make its new app available to members and nonmembers alike, using digital engagement to build awareness and credibility. “Our mission is to be the trusted advisor that people turn to for financial advice,” Silver said. “We want it to be so useful that you want to become a member.”

Silver said Hanscom serves about 100,000 members, with roughly 75 percent using its current mobile app. “We’d love to increase that adoption,” he said. “We’d love to see user expansion, user adoption, and ultimately new member conversion.”

Silver said that focus on trust remains Hanscom’s core differentiator. “Banking itself is so commoditized,” he said. “You can get a credit card from any bank, you can get a deposit account from any bank. What it comes down to is trust.” 

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