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Just over one week remains in what is a memorable year in many ways, especially in the world of financial services and, specifically, the credit union movement.
In a Dec. 9 webinar, CUES Supplier member CO-OP Financial Services offered “The Top 14 Stories of 2014” – our own estimation of the leading trends and events that influenced the company, our clients and the industry. Any such list is subjective—more art than science. Still, here’s our view of the top 14 in ’14:
14. From Omnichannel to Integration.
Omnichannel means consistent access across many channels; integration means making many channels work together as one. Omnichannel has given way to industry focus on how those channels should work together in a single, integrated, streamlined way.
13. Integration at CO-OP.
Talk of integration at CO-OP often starts with Sprig by CO-OP, which began as our online and mobile shared branching platform. It now hosts many features, including mobile banking with the added ability to conduct transactions between accounts at different participating credit unions.
12. Integration in Real Life.
We think this is well represented by our credit card programs – integration lowers member risk and improves engagement and access – and helps credit unions manage their card programs effectively.
11. Partnerships in Focus.
We’re seeing more need for integrated products, systems, processes and experiences, and we’re also seeing more pressure on what we might call vendor excellence. There has never been a time when having great partners that work well with others has been more important than right now.
10. The Security Gap.
The Target breach of December 2013 was followed by a number of high-profile data breaches in 2014. Focus on card (and member) security became a major theme throughout the year.
9. Changing Attitudes Toward Security Technology.
The security gap gave rise to changed attitudes about security technology. The Target breach heated the demand for EMV. The Apple Pay announcement made the security technology behind it – tokenization – hot once again. CO-OP is working to bring both technologies to credit unions.
8. What Did We THINK?
There is a trend afoot known as “The New Engagement” – through social media, entrepreneurial approaches to managing and the importance of every employee. This was the idea behind CO-OP’s THINK 14 conference. Videos of conference speakers can be found at www.co-opthink.org.
7. Consumer Channel as Case Study for Reaching Consumers.
CO-OP launched its “Empowering People. Amplifying Dreams” campaign in May 2014 to reach Millennials on behalf of our industry. We have learned a lot that can be useful to credit unions in their own outreach to Millennials, as we detailed on CUES Skybox.
6. Listen More, Talk Less.
There is one consistent message we heard via THINK 14 and our consumer campaign. Whether you are creating a community on social media, designing a member feedback system or re-examining your business model, the same advice applies: Listen more, talk less.
5. Surprising Millennial Facts.
In doing our homework before launching “Empowering People. Amplifying Dreams,” we discovered some facts we didn’t anticipate. Did you know 96 percent of Millennials are satisfied with their credit union? There’s a lot of potential for credit unions to do well with this market.
4. Revenue.
New products can sometimes create revenue opportunities; but so can the “standards.” CUES Supplier member Callahan & Associates reported that the number of credit union-issued credit cards was up 8.1 percent at midyear. That should incentivize credit unions to use their card programs to drive income.
3. Harnessing the Hurricane.
This was a big year for change. Whether it was Apple Pay or something else, we all had to move quickly and decisively in new, unfamiliar directions. We relearned an old lesson – whatever doesn’t kill us, makes us stronger.
2. Speed + Brilliance.
That’s what consumers want – especially Millennials. An October 2014 study by JWT found that 50 percent of Millennials want faster mobile payments, and 52 percent want mobile payment to help track spending.
1. Apple Pay.
Apple finally entered the payments space after years of speculation. We have talked about little else since September. CO-OP believes this is an outstanding opportunity for credit unions.
If you would like to access the PowerPoint slides or listen to the recording of CO-OP’s webinar, you can access it here.
Ryan Zilker is senior manager/market analysis for CUES Supplier member CO-OP Financial Services, Rancho Cucamonga, Calif. Zilker can be reached at ryan.zilker@co-opfs.org and 800.782.9042, ext. 3482.
