MADISON, Wis. – CUNA Mutual Group sees great opportunities for credit unions in the mobile banking channel, but there are significant obstacles to overcome.
“As I look at mobile and how it’s developed in other countries outside of the U.S., that’s where... [there] could be a real challenge to us,” said CUNA Mutual CEO Jeff Post. “Mobile represents about 13% of the space here, but there are countries where you can’t even use a credit card anymore because it’s all mobile.”
Post, who said he is not particularly tech savvy, spoke to a handful of reporters yesterday via a Google+ “hangout” in which he and other CUNA Mutual executives were joined by reporters in a web-cam chat session.
CUNA Mutual introduced an iPhone app late last June, and since then, about 600 credit unions have signed up to use it, Post related. “We have had a significant number of loan applications filed through this channel,” he said. “A member can get a loan on his smart phone while he’s at the dealer looking at a car. That’s a powerful tool, considering how many loans credit unions lose to dealerships, despite the use of indirect lending programs.
“You can take a picture of a VIN on the car lot, and it will tell you about similar cars within a certain radius, approximately how much you should pay, and if you’ve got the password and everything, it will populate a loan app and send it to the credit union,” Post added.
