RALEIGH, N.C. — New online account opening tools are proving themselves at Coastal FCU here, with nearly 200 new members enrolling at the CU's website every month since March.
"When you look at the total balances of all accounts opened online, we have $12 million in accounts that we may not have gotten without online account opening services," said Kris Kovacs, VP-eCommerce technology at the $2.3-billion CU.
Accounts opened online constitute more than 13% of all new accounts at the CU, he said. Coastal uses Fiserv's Voyager Consumer Banking for Internet banking, which Fiserv has integrated with uMonitor's uOpen & uFund online account opening and funding product. Coastal launched the uMonitor tools in March as part of its first venture into online account opening. Considering the brisk business the tools have generated, however, the 195,000-member CU may be wishing it had launched the platform long ago.
Indeed, online account opening and funding solutions have been available for years, but Coastal waited to deploy in part because it was focusing on growing business at physical branches, Kovacs said. "The addition of online account opening means that that conversion from shopper to buyer can happen immediately," Kovacs suggested. "We can convert website visitors to members. Before, the process was 'sell online and buy in a branch.'"
Online account opening "has broken down the typical barriers that keep some from joining us," he continued. The CU has extended its reach to potential members "within and outside of the geographic footprint. And it allows us to open accounts in the middle of the night when branches are closed."
Technology is no longer holding back membership growth, which now hinges more on the success of Coastal's marketing campaigns, Kovacs said. Once people visit online, "we believe our compelling product set and sales-focused website can funnel new accounts to us." Kovacs cited the CU's "Go Green Checking" product, which pays 3.01% APY per month on deposits in accounts where members complete 12 debit purchases per month.
Online funds transfer tools are also bolstering deposits, he added. Members moved in more than $9 million in deposits from March through July using the external funds transfer application. More than $4 million was moved out in the same period, he said.
Coastal seems to have the rare ability to prove how online tools are contributing to membership and deposit growth: many CUs aren't tracking growth at the website, or they are reluctant to share results, several online banking vendors told Credit Union Journal. "I suspect that many credit unions may be struggling with which business unit 'owns' online account opening," suggested Kovacs. "When there is a lack of clear ownership, it can create an environment where important things like performance reporting are reduced to the basics," such as whether online account openings have increased or decreased.
"We established our eCommerce Technologies Team in 2008 specifically to own our online applications, identify problems and issues, manage improvements and build new functions and services," he added. "In order to measure our effectiveness we are almost forced to provide robust reporting on our solutions."
Coastal is "a leader in tracking the ROI of their online channel — they have stated goals and are measuring progress toward them," said Steve Shaw, director, strategic marketing, electronic banking services, Fiserv. "They know what to focus on in order to deliver the best experience, and this has resulted in strong adoption and usage metrics that they are willing to share as a benchmark."
