SavvyMoney, a company powering innovative, market-leading credit score solutions, recently celebrated signing its 900th financial institution client, Community Financial Credit Union. Beyond a notable milestone, this partnership has extra meaning for Community Financial’s new CEO Tansley Stearns and SavvyMoney CEO JB Orecchia, who’ve had a long-standing industry relationship.
“Tansley and I go way back. Our paths crossed in 2014 while at Filene, a research think tank and incubator for credit unions. At the time, she was Filene’s chief impact officer and was responsible for growing our strategic partnership. We immediately connected over a shared passion for driving consumer financial wellness, which continues today as reflected by our new partnership. ” stated Orecchia.
The Community Financial and SavvyMoney connection goes even deeper, she also has known SavvyMoney’s Senior Vice President of Sales and Partnerships Chris Fraenza for many years.
“We first met at a credit union in Connecticut and we also worked together at Filene, and I knew he was a rock star that was just starting an incredible career,” said Stearns. Seeing his potential, she connected Fraenza to Orecchia when he was looking for his next big opportunity.
“JB was seeing early success with SavvyMoney’s new flagship Credit Score product and I knew Chris would be someone who could really help him build that business. You don’t cross paths with someone as smart, hardworking and humble as Chris in your career very often. I wanted to make sure he was placed under the wing of a good leader and mentor,” said Stearns
As the CEO of Community Financial, Stearns has a clear and simple focus – help members’ dreams come true by offering them the tools, transparency and unwavering support to accelerate financial progress and feel good about their financial future. “As I see it, I have two main priorities. The first is to make our members financially successful and the other is to grow the balance sheet by building the credit union’s share of wallet,” remarked Stearns.
Throughout her career, Stearns has observed the critical role that personalization has played in building consumer trust and loyalty. “People always want to feel as if the content, services, and products you are offering are customized to meet their specific needs. Today’s consumer especially values this personalization from a digital perspective. Coming in, I knew that elevating digital member experience must be prioritized.”
Having advocated for SavvyMoney as the credit score solution in her previous role at Canvas Credit Union, Stearns knew there was no other solution that was as powerful or as easy to implement. “I wanted to make an impact in my first 60 days. I knew I could trust JB, Chris and the SavvyMoney team to get things up, running quickly and immediately offer value to our members. I reached out to JB and here we are,” said Stearns. Stearns has always believed that you can’t effectively promote a product you don’t love yourself, she plans to really encourage Community Financial’s team members to take advantage of this new value-added service to benefit their own financial freedom. She added, “By becoming true champions of the solution, they can more effectively encourage members to use it. I look forward to seeing the impact SavvyMoney’s solution will have on the team here and our membership at large.”