Payfinia, an independent payment services firm offering an open payments framework, has announced a strategic partnership with Dublin, California-based Patelco Credit Union. The partnership is marked by Patelco's investment in the Payfinia Credit Union Service Organization (CUSO). CUSOs are collaboratively owned entities through which credit unions pool resources to access technology and services that would be costly to develop independently—a model that has long enabled the sector to compete with larger financial institutions. Patelco, which holds $9.5 billion in assets and serves more than 550,000 members, will also take a governance role in the CUSO's direction.

As part of the collaboration, Patelco Chief Technology Officer Kal Majmundar has joined the Payfinia CUSO Board of Directors. His appointment is intended to deepen ties between the two organizations as they work to advance embedded payment solutions for credit unions.

Majmundar brings over two decades of technology leadership experience spanning high-growth startups and Fortune 500 companies. At Patelco, he oversees enterprise technology and transformation initiatives across application development, data governance, infrastructure, information security, project management, systems integration, payments, and operations. His work supports Patelco's broader mission of improving the financial health and well-being of its membership through technology-driven innovation.

"At Patelco, we are committed to delivering modern financial experiences that evolve alongside our members' needs," Majmundar said. "Through our investment in Payfinia and participation on the CUSO Board, we are helping shape the future of embedded payments while delivering payment experiences that are faster, more secure and seamless for our members and business partners."

Over the past year, Patelco has used Payfinia's Instant Payment Xchange (IPX) platform to expand its real-time payment capabilities across both consumer and business banking. The move comes as U.S. financial institutions face growing pressure to adopt instant payment infrastructure, accelerated by the Federal Reserve's FedNow Service launch and the expansion of The Clearing House's RTP network. IPX's open, flexible architecture enables financial institutions to accelerate payment innovation, streamline fintech connectivity, support back-office workflows such as instant loan disbursements through loan origination system integrations, and unify fraud and risk management controls across payment workflows.

Beyond enhancing existing payment capabilities, the partnership positions Patelco to support emerging payment experiences ranging from digital wallets to QR-code payments and expanded business payment services. For credit unions, embedded payments represent a key avenue for retaining member relationships as fintechs and neobanks increasingly compete for deposits and transaction volume.

"Patelco brings tremendous technology leadership and strategic vision to Payfinia," said Keith Riddle, CEO of Payfinia. "Its investment demonstrates a shared commitment to building the next generation of payment infrastructure and embedded payment experiences for credit unions. We are especially excited to welcome Kal to our Board, where his deep expertise in enterprise technology, digital transformation and innovation will help guide our continued growth and ensure we're delivering solutions that help credit unions succeed in the quickly growing payments ecosystem."