Australia's largest credit union, CUA, is continuing its push into digital banking with a new app, which it claims is the first in Australia to allow customers to select a personal banker - and to keep in contact via instant messaging.At a media briefing yesterday, CUA's chief executive officer Rob Goudswaard said the instant messaging app iM CUA, which has been in trials since November 2017, is the first product to emerge from a collaboration with Pivotus Inc in the US, and several other banks.Along with CUA, Pivotus was also backed by US West Coast bank Umpqua and the Netherlands de Volksbank.More recently, US digital banking specialist Kony Incorporated - the provider of CUA's new mobile banking platform - announced that it had acquired Pivotus incorporated. Goudswaard expects that this tie-up will lead to closer integration between CUA's mobile banking and its iM CUA apps.CUA's rollout of its IM app follows a successful trial with around 2500 users on Apple devices. Goudswaard said CUA was tracking promoter scores throughout the pilot and uses of IM CUA ranked it with the promoter score of over 50, well ahead of CUA's overall PS which is an already very healthy 38.He said the trials indicated a single personal banking advisor could handle up to 1000 people.The technology is part of a much wider push by CUA to expand its services, sensing an opportunity to attract more customers away from the major banks. For instance, in January next year CUA will have a chief marketing officer - the first time it has employed someone in this capacity.Goudswaard claimed that other marketing pushes, such as its sponsorship of a T20 cricket team, has seen a spike in home loan enquiries, which are up 105 per cent on last year's levels.