For an industry that has been based on the personal relationships between members and credit union branch staff, the growing mobile revolution represents a new way of doing business that isn’t exactly congruent with the old model. A recent webinar delivered by The Members Group to credit union leaders underscored the need for these high-touch organizations to shift to the digital equivalent of high touch. That means a rich mobile banking experience for smartphones in addition to a strong online banking offering.
The digital relationship is especially important if credit unions are serious about attracting younger customers. Addicted to real-time debit account balance access, this group can’t and won’t tolerate awkward digital tools, never mind a hunt for an ATM or branch.
This shift away from physical branches and plastic cards is hardly unique to credit unions. Every financial institution and issuer is confronted by the same need to put strong digital offerings into the market. From a Credit Union Times article:
And then there is the revolution that is transforming payments from something that happens with a plastic card to something that happens with a mobile phone. “We are going through an intense period of innovation in payments,” said Day, adding that what shapes the revolution are three Ps: “Presence, preference, payments,” all of which can revolve around a smartphonethat knows who the consumer is, where he or she is, and how they want to pay for this transaction now.
Plentiful opportunities exist for credit unions amid this rapidly changing environment, stressed Day, but he stressed that institutions need a mobile wallet strategy, an alternatives payment strategy, and “they need to think beyond the swipe.”
Click here to read more from Credit Union Times.
