Unemployment at 5.5%. Gasoline prices out of control. Food costs enough to rip apart a grocery bag. Members facing layoffs and cutbacks in work hours who may be packing up and moving to other areas where jobs seem more plentiful. It's depressing to any credit union and to your members, as well.
But with the right strategies in place, your credit union- and, for that matter, your members-can weather the storm. With shared branching, you don't have to lose active members. You can keep members happy-wherever they call home-by ensuring they always have easy, ready access to their accounts.
Shared branching is an excellent way to serve your members located near and far. It allows you to offer them convenient access to financial services while saving your credit union the cost of building, maintaining and staffing branch locations. You also can boost interchange revenue by providing guest members access to your CU.
What to look for in a shared branching provider.
* Innovative technology: A good service provider will be able to offer robust technology and the functionality you need. Look for select features that will enhance service, such as messaging capabilities, advanced member information fields and transactional history capabilities.
* Robust security and fraud protection: Choose a service provider that offers fraud-resistant safeguards, such as the ability to send and receive supplemental verification data on each member. This ensures peace of mind for your members- and your credit union.
* Power of many: A benefit of working with large networks is their greater ability to provide access and strong economies of scale. Larger providers can also keep costs down and pass through those savings to participating credit unions. Make sure you choose a provider that is working for your credit union to keep costs low.
* Business continuity: When the unexpected happens, your members must have account access when and where they need it. Check out what pre-arrangements your provider offers to ensure continuous access even if your systems are down.
* Extras that matter: Make sure the extras offered by a provider are the extras you need. For instance, ask about customer service for your credit union: How does the provider facilitate implementation and ongoing support? What kinds of reports are provided, and how often is information updated? And is that information provided in a way that's easiest for your credit union to use?
And for your members, ask how easy it is for your members to find a shared branch. Website listings are helpful, but not if your member is on the run. Look for a provider that offers a variety of ways to find a shared branching center.
Your credit union can further reduce costs-for you and your members-by offering self-service options, such as check-imaging solutions. Check-imaging allows members to scan digital check images and transmit them to your CU from shared branch kiosks, at deposit-taking ATMs or from their own homes.
* Shared branch kiosks. Self-serve, stand-alone kiosks offer members the ease of touch-screen imaging technology and capability to handle approximately 80% of the functions that can be done in a branch.
* Deposit-taking ATMs. Providers with extensive networks of surcharge-free and deposit-taking ATMs add to your members' convenience and cost-savings. Look for a service provider that makes it easy for your members to access ATMs wherever they are.
* Remote consumer deposit. Services such as CO-OP's My Deposit program allow your members to make deposits from their home computers and printer/scanners.
For your credit union, shared branching reduces the expense of operating multiple branches and exemplifies the credit union philosophy of cooperation at its finest. Check imaging cuts paper-handling and transportation costs. But it's your members who have the most to gain, making it important to offer them convenient, reliable and cost-effective services.
With gas hovering around $4 a gallon, your credit union must be easy to access. The more access points you can provide-without the cost of brick and mortar - the happier members will be.
Craig Beach is SVP, Marketing/Business Development, with CO-OP Shared Branching, Duluth, Ga. (c) 2008 The Credit Union Journal and SourceMedia, Inc. All Rights Reserved. http://www.cujournal.com/ http://www.sourcemedia.com/
