Case Study: First Tech Federal Credit Union achieves 5x higher average initial funding with Plaid

With Plaid, First Tech Federal Credit Union was able to increase their average initial funding amount by 5x

First Tech Federal Credit Union, a San Jose–based credit union serving more than 700,000 members, faced a high-friction new‑member onboarding flow that relied on manual bank account entry, was error‑prone, slow, and exposed the institution to fraud and a capped initial funding limit. To fix this, First Tech turned to Plaid, deploying Plaid Auth, Identity, and Balance to streamline account linking and verification.

Plaid enabled instant, secure connections to members’ external accounts, let First Tech verify ownership and display balances, and reduced user errors—allowing the credit union to increase its transfer limit by 50x and raise the average initial funding amount from $144 to $717 (a 5x increase). The integration took four weeks, improved the member experience, and let First Tech grow deposits without increasing risk, thanks to Plaid’s authentication and balance tools.

First Tech Federal Credit Union

Matt Hicks

VP of Deposit Products & Member Insights