Industry

Credit Union

Core impact

• Vendor onboarding reduced from 6+ weeks to < 3 weeks; initial vendor risk review went from 8 to <2 hours

• Immediate clarity on missing documents and risks

• SME time preserved and optimized; no more unnecessary meetings

• Kobalt caught errors in financial reviews that prior manual reviews missed

“Within 5 minutes of getting the vendor's packet, Kobalt can tell me exactly where I need to follow up. I don’t even have to think about it anymore — it’s now my default first step because it cuts out all the noise and differences in formatting.”

Blaine Brankis, Vendor Risk at Meriwest Credit Union

The Story

Meriwest Credit Union is a leading credit union in the Bay Area, serving over 80,000 members with a wide range of financial services and $2.1B in AUM.

As the credit union has scaled its partnerships with third-party vendors, managing risk and accelerating vendor onboarding became a key operational priority.

The challenge

Before Kobalt, Meriwest’s vendor risk team faced slow, manual onboarding processes:

• Vendor documents varied wildly in structure and completeness

• Reviewing policies, procedures, security reports, and contracts required looping in multiple subject matter experts (SMEs) and internal stakeholders

• Blaine, who runs vendor risk, isn't an SME and waited days for internal input

• Full onboarding took at least 6 weeks, delaying revenue-generating partnerships

• Contract reviews meant 15-person meetings going point-by-point through documents

The solution and implementation

Blaine brought in Kobalt to streamline and automate the review process:

• The moment a vendor packet arrives, Blaine uploads all documents into Kobalt

• After an initial Kobalt analysis, he already knows:

  • Which documents are missing

  • What additional information to request

• Vendors now typically send missing items on day one, dramatically reducing back-and-forth cycles

• Kobalt’s deeper review highlights specific regulatory citations and contract risks, giving SMEs precise focus areas

• Contract reviews shifted from full-team meetings to asynchronous review of Kobalt’s flagged risks

Implementation was immediate — no engineering required.

The Impact

For the Vendor Risk team

• Onboarding time dropped from 6+ weeks to 3 weeks - and shrinking with broader team rollout

• Automatic reviews across BC/DR, Privacy, Infosec, etc.

• Full visibility into missing documents and risks within minutes of uploading vendor packets

• SME time preserved; no more wasted meetings or premature involvement

“It made me a subject matter expert in every part of this process. Before, I’d be waiting on others to tell me what was missing or sufficient. Now I know exactly what’s needed before anyone else gets involved.”

Blaine Brankis, Vendor Risk at Meriwest Credit Union

For contract management 

• Kobalt flagged contract terms (including unusual indemnification clauses) the team had not previously identified

• Contract reviews became asynchronous and focused, cutting meetings and freeing up time across departments

“Kobalt flagged unusual indemnification terms that we hadn’t questioned before. It’s making our contracts better and smarter.”

Blaine Brankis, Vendor Risk at Meriwest Credit Union

For financial reviews

• Kobalt correctly caught financial discrepancies missed in prior manual calculations

• Increased trust and confidence in the numbers

For the organization

• Increased confidence across leadership in the vendor risk management program

• Stronger cross-functional engagement — when stakeholders are pulled in, they know their time is well spent

“It’s made our entire vendor risk program stronger and more credible. People are more engaged because they trust that we aren’t wasting their time anymore.”

Blaine Brankis, Vendor Risk at Meriwest Credit Union