By Paul Fiore
In financial services, nobody builds personal relationships like credit unions can—and nobody understands your credit union’s members better than you do.
More and more members want to connect with their credit union through the mobile channel. Mobile banking is expanding five times faster than Internet banking, and mobile wallets continue to build on that growing popularity. In the past year alone, the number of consumers completing point-of-sale payments with their mobile device has nearly tripled.
Propelled by new entrants like Apple Pay, mobile wallet usage will undoubtedly surge in the months ahead. This presents a unique opportunity for credit unions to not only better serve their current members, but also generate new revenue streams and attract the next generation of members.
Winning the payments race begins with developing an effective strategy. Despite the ongoing debate regarding the various methods for deploying mobile payments, consumers continue to indicate their preferred mobile payment provider is their current financial institution. This is good news for the credit union industry. However the window to capitalize on this opportunity is closing.
Mergers, acquisitions and new entrants continue to rattle the mobile payments industry and with each passing day the field of providers narrows. Future success for credit unions depends in large part on how quickly you adapt to this changing environment. Hesitating not only puts your institution at risk of losing members to attrition, but also greatly hinders your ability to grow membership.
Paving the Way for Payments: A Mobile Wallet Roadmap
Developing a mobile wallet roadmap must be a top priority for every credit union regardless of size or location. While every credit union’s strategy will be unique, the following core components will remain the same:
- Branding: A credit union-branded mobile wallet creates new relationship-building opportunities and keeps intermediaries from coming between you and your members.
- Integration: Successful wallets will be integrated and work with your existing technology infrastructure to ensure a fluid member experience.
- Revenue: When executed strategically, mobile wallets create additional streams of revenue that replace dwindling non-interest income including interchange.
- Marketing/Advertising: Mobile wallets provide a new channel to directly communicate with your members at the point-of-sale, including marketing new products and services.
- Structure: Multi-platform, multi-device mobile wallets provide members with the best user experience. The success of your credit union’s mobile wallet hinges on member adoption, so this point cannot be ignored.
As the mobile payments race continues to heat up,, it’s important that credit unions develop an effective strategy that aligns with their objectives and members’ expectations and needs. It’s also critical to create a mobile wallet strategy that keeps the credit union brand front and center at point-of-sale transactions—something that third party platforms in the marketplace don’t support..
The payments industry as a whole continues to shift, however, the opportunity for credit unions remains the same. Creating the right strategy around mobile wallets ensures credit unions are positioned to meet members’ needs—regardless of the type of mobile device they are using today or in the future. Now is the time to ensure your credit union has a roadmap to successfully meet the needs of an increasingly mobile membership.
Paul Fiore is the founder and CEO of CU Wallet, a credit union-owned and operated mobile wallet platform. Mr. Fiore can be contacted at pfiore@cuwallet.com.