Unit21, an AI risk infrastructure platform specializing in fraud prevention and AML (anti-money laundering) monitoring, has announced a partnership with Corelation, Inc., the core processor behind KeyStone, which serves more than 300 credit union clients — member-owned, not-for-profit financial cooperatives. The integration embeds AI fraud detection, AML transaction monitoring, case management, and regulatory filing directly into the KeyStone core environment.

"Together with Corelation, Unit21 gives credit unions a way to catch fraud, stop it in the core, and file on it, all from a single case," said Tyler Allen, CEO of Unit21. "That means fewer dollars lost, fewer members harmed, and fraud teams that finally get ahead instead of cleaning up."

A Bidirectional Integration

The integration connects KeyStone and Unit21 in both directions. Member, account, card, and transaction data flows from KeyStone into Unit21 for detection and investigation. When action is needed, analysts take that action back in KeyStone through Corelation's KeyBridge API — blocking cards, stopping payments, and placing holds without leaving the case. Credit unions running on KeyStone can now detect, investigate, act on, and report fraud and AML risk within a single system.

The integration closes a gap that credit union teams have long bridged by hand. Previously, an analyst could see suspected fraud in one system but had to log in to the core separately to stop it, look up the member again, and re-key the account. Under the partnership, the evidence, the decision, and action live on the same record, and the audit trail is written the moment the analyst acts.

Two-Way Value Across Both Customer Bases

The partnership creates a two-way value exchange spanning both companies' customer bases. For credit unions using Corelation, the integration brings Corelation data into a modern, AI-native platform for fraud prevention, AML transaction monitoring, case management, and filing, delivered on a data feed that Corelation builds and supports.

For Unit21's credit union customers on KeyStone, investigations no longer stop at the edge of the platform. Card blocks, card activations, stop payments, and check holds are sent to KeyStone from inside the Unit21 case, with every request, response, and user action logged alongside the evidence that justified it.

Together, the companies are pairing a person-centric core built for credit unions with Unit21's flexible detection platform. The result is a single, defensible workflow that runs from a suspicious transaction to an investigated case to a protected member account to a filed SAR or CTR. SARs (Suspicious Activity Reports) and CTRs (Currency Transaction Reports, required for cash transactions above $10,000) are the filings U.S. financial institutions submit to FinCEN, the U.S. Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, under the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), so a workflow that keeps the triggering evidence attached to each case speaks directly to how those obligations are documented.

"Fraud moves at the speed of real-time payments, and credit unions can't fight it with next-day files and a second login," Allen added. "Together with Corelation, we're giving credit unions a way to catch fraud, stop it in the core, and file on it, all from a single case."

How It Works

Corelation delivers a dedicated Unit21 AML Extract, configured within each credit union's KeyStone environment by its own administrator or data team. Following an initial historical load, the extract sends incremental changes covering entities, joint account holders, accounts, cards, and transactions approximately every five minutes, giving Unit21 a near real-time view of member activity. Because that extract is set up institution by institution, the integration reaches KeyStone's 300-plus credit unions one at a time as each completes its own configuration, rather than switching on automatically across the entire client base.

Unit21 runs the credit union's self-service rules and AI Agents against that data, and when action is required, sends instructions back to KeyStone through the KeyBridge API. Credit unions can also connect their digital banking platform to Unit21 for real-time decisions on logins, profile changes, and payments — a separate, optional link layered on top of the core extract.

"Our clients choose KeyStone because it puts the member at the center of everything," said Tim Maron, Chief Revenue Officer at Corelation. "Partnering with Unit21 extends that to fraud and BSA, giving credit unions a modern way to protect members and act on risk directly from their investigations."

The announcement reflects Unit21's deep investment in the credit union and community banking ecosystem. The company will attend and sponsor the upcoming Corelation Executive Forum, taking place next week in Chula Vista, California.

Source: GlobalFintechSeries — Unit21 and Corelation Bring AI-Native Fraud Prevention and AML Monitoring to Credit Unions on Keystone