Posted by Christopher Stevenson
Rumor has it that when an idea is greeted with raised eyebrows or furrowed brows, you may have stumbled upon a truly innovative concept. Well, when Filene i3's Lesley Carrell (Fibre Federal Credit Union, Longview, Wash.), Dave Brooke (Point Loma Credit Union, San Diego), Steve Koenen (Altra Federal Credit Union, La Crosse, Wis.), Linda Armyn (Bethpage Federal Credit Union, Bethpage, N.Y.), and Scott Moriarty (Virginia Credit Union, Richmond, Va.) presented their idea for virtual finance at last week's i3 meeting, the room was filled with furrowed brows and raised eyebrows. And the folks in that room are some of the most innovative, forward-thinking credit union professionals in the U.S. and Canada.
Here's the general idea. Create a credit union island in Second Life, an online virtual world created by its "residents," that would function as a central online location for the industry. Participating credit unions can set up a portal to the island through their Web sites. Check out the video below.
The island itself will include financial management games, virtual stock market tickers (yes, there really are virtual stock markets in SL), and a simulated currency-exchange-rate display. Even cooler is that credit union members will be able to use a virtual ATM to convert their Linden dollars (the virtual currency of SL) to U.S. dollars and deposit them directly in their CU accounts. No one else does that, not even Wells Fargo, which was an early adopter of virtual worlds.
Teenagers and young adults are already entrenched in virtual worlds. There are over 7 million subscribers to Second Life worldwide, many of whom participate actively in its virtual economy, buying and selling products and services, and earning Linden dollars. More than 80 universities across the globe are offering virtual classes through online worlds. The i3 team has done their homework. They understand their target market's drivers and are building a service that is tailored to them. (See my previous post for more about that.)
It's an amazing concept. This project may be an important step in attracting younger members and showing them that CUs aren't just for the middle-aged and elderly. Nevertheless, I'm old (relative to the average user of SL) and tend to be out of the pop-culture loop (What, you mean kids aren't listening to the Spice Girls and Hanson anymore!?!), so this project is tough for me to get my head around. I imagine that it will be equally tough for CEOs, many of whom are pushing retirement age, and boards, some of which are well beyond retirement age, to grasp.
What do you think are the most important questions of CEOs and boards that will need to be addressed in order for Credit Union Island to get traction? How would you address them?
