RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif.—What got CUs to where they are today won’t be enough in a future in which CUs will compete with many more emerging players, and not just banks, asserted Sarah Canepa Bang.
Especially with credit unions remaining so unknown to so many.
Credit Unions 2020: A CUToday.info Series
The chief strategy officer of CO-OP Shared Branching, a business unit of CO-OP Financial Services, had some strong words for CUs as they head toward 2020 and what could be a totally new financial services landscape.
“Everything is going digital,” said Canepa Bang, whose comments came as part of CUToday.info’s “Credit Unions 2020” series. “Members already have the ability to cherry pick services from banks, insurance companies and credit unions. But the digitization of financial services makes a great runway for new players like Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Square and the like. It is one thing to compete against banks, but quite another to compete against brands whose customer loyalty borders on addiction.”
Canepa Bang added that credit unions can have all the advantages of going digital while still being physically visible and local.
“Also, because credit unions are not well known with consumers—sorry, it’s true—they have a chance to brand themselves less like banks and more like a caring disruptor in the marketplace.”
Fresh Eyes
All that gives CUs little time to waste in looking at financial services with fresh eyes.
“What got credit unions to where they are today is not enough to sustain them in the future,” Canepa Bang said. “If you were to start a brand new financial institution with all the advantages of being a credit union, what could it look like?”
Over the course of the next five years CUs must also begin to rethink, repurpose and reconfigure their branch structure, said Canepa Bang.
“Branches won’t go away and they will be more expensive,” she said. “Can the expense be offset or mitigated by mobile and shared branching? Can branches be reconfigured for self-service? Can excess space be repurposed? For example, can the branch provide social space for meetings, training or even concert space for local artists?”
Canepa Bang said CO-OP Financial Services will continue to help credit unions thrive by providing products that make it more convenient for members to do business with them.
“CO-OP offers a host of emerging ‘mobile/virtual’ products, including mobile, online, check imaging and bill pay services; call center services; debit and credit card payment processing services; and the industry’s leading ATM and shared branch networks—all of which are key to credit union success in the next five years,” she said.