3 minutes
Credit union and bank CEOs share their top priorities for 2024 and 2025.
Sponsored by CUES Supplier member Jack Henry™.
Amid rising competition and volatile market conditions, credit unions are under pressure to increase profitability, address non-interest income concerns and find innovative ways to attract new business and nurture existing relationships.
Your success over the next few years depends on how well you adapt to and overcome these challenges—and that, in turn, depends on the strength of your strategic plan.
Jack Henry™ recently published its 2024 Strategy Benchmark—and the results can give you the data, analytics and insight you need to design and implement an effective strategic plan.
For the study, 127 CEOs from across the country representing financial institutions with assets ranging from under $500 million to more than $10 billion completed an online assessment of their top strategic priorities for 2024 and 2025.
6 Key Takeaways from the Study
I’ve compiled a list of six key takeaways that can help you assess your credit union’s priorities and refine your strategic plan to ensure it’s aligned with everything that’s happening in the industry.
1) 44% of credit union CEOs say growing deposits is their top strategic priority in 2024 and 2025. Total deposits are contracting, members are chasing better rates and money movement is becoming easier, so credit unions must reevaluate their deposit strategies to remain competitive.
2) With expenses putting downward pressure on net income, credit unions entered 2024 with a greater urgency around improving operational efficiency. Automating expensive and manually intensive processes is top of mind—and budget—for the next couple of years. To this end, enterprise workflow, robotic process automation, machine learning and AI are in high demand.
3) 37% of credit unions plan to increase tech investments between 6% and 10%. Fraud detection and mitigation is the leading technology investment planned for 2024 and 2025, with digital banking and data analytics rounding out the top three. Credit union CEOs prioritize making investments in AI, and consistent with past years, are also allocating more of their budgets to data analytics and automation.
4) An overwhelming 92% of financial institutions plan to embed fintech into their digital banking experiences. While most plan to embed payments fintechs, credit unions are also looking to embed consumer financial health and digital marketing fintechs.
5) Adding payment services—specifically, FedNow® Service—is a top priority for credit unions. While 96% of all financial institutions plan to add payment services within the next two years, credit union CEOs are more interested in adding a P2P alternative to Zelle®. Digital card issuance, contactless cards and same-day ACH are also major areas of interest in payments for credit unions in 2024 and 2025.
6) Enhancing lending capabilities is a priority for 97% of all financial institutions—and credit unions are focused on underwriting using AI and automated prequalification campaigns.
As you plan, refine, and implement your strategy, keep these six key industry focus areas from Jack Henry’s 2024 Strategy Benchmark in mind to equip you with the insights you need to navigate current market challenges and position your credit union to achieve operational success in the coming years.
Jennifer Geis is senior analyst/payments at CUES Supplier member Jack Henry™. Geis spearheads primary research for the Corporate Strategy team at Jack Henry, bringing her expertise in the payments and analytics space to our payments team as the liaison between product and executive members. She also recommends product enhancements and vendor relationships and forecasts payment trends.
