LAS VEGAS -
"The big reason is the desire to support commercial services," said Anthony M. Jabbour, EVP-Integrated Financial Solutions Division of Fidelity National Information Services (FIS) in Maitland, Fla. "Core system replacements are only done if there is a real, dire need, and business services are one such reason. And banks seem to be getting their act together and putting pressure on credit unions."
Another factor is the number of ancillary services credit unions are also seeking to integrate with their core systems, according to James A. Susoreny, also EVP with the Integrated Financial Solutions Division of FIS.
Not surprisingly, he says those CUs using multiple FIS solutions will see greater efficiencies, but he noted FIS also sells its various offering as standalones. The company estimates it has some sort of presence in one out of every two credit unions, in part because it offers a bundled suite of solutions that reduces the time demands on credit union staff to manage programs. In addition to the cost-per-unit reductions, there are also potential FTE reductions, and the meantime-to-problem-resolution also improves, Jabbour said.
"More than ever, today we are at the front end of an opportunity to set a roadmap for the credit union," Susoreny said. "We all have to work together now. We don't tell you that you have to take our product. But what the roadmap does for the credit union is review all the ancillary relationships and the touchpoints, and have you analyze where you are happy and where you are not happy. There has to be a detailed analysis of that. But you can no longer 'horse' credit unions to your product. You can't say 'Come and take everything.' "
Jabbour said the proof of that lies in FIS having "more interfaces to other providers than anybody else out there. Our business culture is open to working with credit unions on what they ant to work with."
"We see all of our competition at our users' meetings," Susoreny added.
Meanwhile, Susoreny said FIS is seeing increased interest from credit unions in moving into secured debit transactions, especially now that there is a quasi-indemnification policy in place for most that mitigates much of the risk.
"On the debit side, one issue has been not understanding how the revenue flows," Jabbour added. "But these programs now have the loyalty rewards; there are multiple different kinds, but ScoreCard is most popular. You can incent behavior."
