MADISON, Wis. A team of young credit union professionals working with the Filene Research Institute has created a deposit account that would allow up to five friends to add equally to a joint savings account through automatic payroll distributions.
When the balance on the “TruAccount” reaches a minimum threshold, one or more of the friends may use the funds to take out a secured loan. The Filene group said it incorporated a concept known as “design thinking,” with which designers, researchers and practitioners come together to find practical and creative solutions to problems of human understanding. The process puts people at the center of the design and development process, it said.
A group of 15 young credit union professionals from across the country gathered to “Crash the Credit Union National Association’s America’s Credit Union Conference” with the purpose of learning about and applying design thinking to address the problem of serving un- and underbanked consumers. At the end of the week, the Crashers developed a product concept called the TruAccount.
