If you missed Michael Fry's session at the XP2 Educational Conference, here's the recap — what the Message Board actually is, how one credit union built on it, and what it takes to do the same.
XP2 Educational Conference 2026 | Thursday, June 25
Michael Fry is with IT at Knoxville Teachers Federal Credit Union, where he's spent close to 11 years, several of them building on a corner of XP2 most credit unions don't even know exists. He found the Message Board almost by accident, noticing extra icons across the top of a Fiserv specialist's XP2 screen during a routine visit and eventually figuring out what they were.
The Message Board is an iframe, a reserved space at the top of every XP2 page, regardless of which screen a teller is on. Because it's just a web page rendered inside another web page, it can connect to any data source a credit union wants and display almost anything, limited only by a small footprint and some imagination.
What KTFCU actually built
KTFCU's first build replaced a shared spreadsheet of written-off loans, a system Michael described as prone to lock conflicts and hard to maintain. Their solution compares an internal SQL database against XP2's DB2 data by social security number. When a teller pulls up a member with a written-off loan, a flashing alert appears automatically, linking out to the full record instead of requiring a separate lookup.
From there the use cases expanded. Member birthdays trigger a flasher, since that feature existed in the legacy Focus XP2 platform but didn't carry over to XP2. Because KTFCU serves teachers and follows the school calendar rather than a standard bank calendar, they're sometimes open on federal holidays like Columbus Day, so the Message Board now reminds staff which holidays actually apply to them. Next up: flagging members without a current cell phone number on file, since KTFCU relies on text messaging to reach members.
How to build one
Announce to staff and gather feedback first — they know what they need to see.
On the technical side, Michael walked through what's required. XP2's DB2 backend needs IBM's proprietary drivers, while the front end needs a web server, a language, and a valid SSL certificate.
- IBM DB2 drivers
- Database (optional)
- Web server (Apache, Nginx, or IIS)
- Front-end language (PHP or ASP.NET)
- SSL certificate
"You're only limited by your imagination — and a pretty small piece of screen real estate." — on what's possible inside the Message Board
A credit union can host it internally or through an MSP, but hosting decisions come with real tradeoffs around firewalls, security policy, and who maintains it long term.
Final tips
Every part of the build is optional beyond the two hard requirements — a backend and a front end. Everything displayed in between is entirely up to each credit union. Want the full walkthrough, including Michael's live demo of the written-off loan and birthday alerts? It's all in the recording and transcript above.