ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.-From PSCU Financial Service's perspective, the coming year is about CUs saving money and gaining efficiencies to deal with revenue threats-but it's also about taking advantage of growth opportunity.
The continuing corporate cleanup and mounting regulations that are eating into fee income have placed credit unions in the interesting position of having to be even thriftier, but not at the expense of missing an unprecedented growth opportunity, explained acting CEO Michael Yatros. "As we know, credit unions have a tremendous opportunity to capture greater market share in light of the trust factor banks are struggling with. The time to take market share is now."
To lend support, PSCU is investing in new delivery channels that provide convenience and efficiency, particularly mobile banking. "For example, we are the first organization in the credit union industry to offer SMS texting for VISA alerts," Yatros said. "We rolled it out a month ago and already have seen that product pay for itself-being able to alert members about suspicious activity and shut down perpetrators before damage is done to credit balances."
Credit unions can gain economies of scale and drive revenue through PSCU's expansion of its member contact center. "We are calling this the branch expansion of our credit unions," Yatros said. "We are picking up some of their workload-whether that be on loan apps, members transferring funds, answering questions, cross selling... We can become a 24/7 branch for credit unions."
Cutting Calling Costs
Yatros explained that its hosted PBX and IVR environment lower CU costs for interacting with members, as does PSCU's ability-due to its size-to negotiate favorable contracts with telecommunications providers. The size of PSCU's call center team, Yatros added, allows credit unions to reach more members, which improves revenue.
Internally, PSCU continues to institute greater cost controls so it can reduce its expenses and return higher dividends to its member owners to offset credit union earnings challenges, Yatros added.
