As the country emerged from the COVID-19 pandemic in May 2023,
When Casey Bacon, chief executive of Statewide Federal Credit Union in Flowood, Mississippi, was facing the same drop-off in new deposits, he leaned on fintech partnerships to boost new member acquisition and, in turn, deposits.
"We didn't have the deposit growth like we had throughout [the pandemic]. … As the interest rate environment changed, we had to become more aggressive with both retaining our existing deposits and attracting new deposits," Bacon said. "Even today, the competition just continues to basically accelerate."
It was around this time that the $177 million-asset Statewide began rolling out the first phase of its targeted campaign to
Bacon began by working with Strum Platform, a Seattle-based financial customer data firm Statewide has partnered with for more than four years. The fintech's analytics engine allowed credit union executives to use core and online banking information to profile the different lifestyles of members and create concise market segments.
Those cohorts gave the credit union a deeper insight into its relationships with members and helped determine how best to tailor the marketing of products and services to those who could benefit most from them.
"The strategy here was both to lean into existing members and [figure out] how do we both retain the deposits before they're gone, and then how do we ensure that strategy also finds new opportunities to grow more deposits," said Mark Weber, CEO and chairman of Strum.
Combining the August 2023 launch of the new savings account with aggressive marketing efforts proved fruitful for the credit union, pulling in more than $8 million in deposits in less than a year as of May.
The second key component of the campaign involved a partnership with Bankjoy, the Royal Oak, Michigan-based digital banking provider which has been working with Statewide for roughly two years. The company's online account onboarding product helped reduce the time needed to open an account with Statewide and uses integrations with Plaid to give members the option to add accounts with other financial institutions to the digital banking platform for easy viewing.
Other institutions have seen similar success leaning on fintech partnerships and new product launches to help boost the inflow of consumer deposits.
The $20.1 billion-asset
Upgrading to digital account opening has been a common theme for banks and credit unions aiming to boost deposits.
Data from Cornerstone Advisors' annual
Amanda Swanson, senior director in the delivery channels practice and practice leader of marketing and growth at Cornerstone, said that organizations like Chime, SoFi and JPMorgan Chase set the bar for account opening standards, and those with fragmented processes are falling behind.
The process "needs to be very seamless," which from a digital point of view means removing redundant "hoops and boundaries" but should also include more human connectivity throughout the steps to address questions.
"That human piece is where I think it becomes critical," Swanson said.
Statewide plans to focus next on tailoring existing products and educational resources to foster relationships with consumers in different age ranges.
"The big rates are what gets you in the door, and it's really common in business. … But the question then becomes how do you keep those people around that maybe have a chance of sticking, even when that rate goes down," said Dylan Lerner, senior analyst in Javelin Strategy & Research's digital banking practice.
