ONTARIO, Calif. With new data showing 32% of U.S. adults bank using their mobile devices, every credit union should have a mobile strategy, according to Brad Ganey, COO with Catalyst Corporate.
Ganey told approximately 50 credit union leaders at the recent Shapiro Summit here (sponsored by the California and Nevada Credit Union Leagues for CUs with less than $50 million in assets) there are steps to a mobile strategy that can be followed. He used as a case study the example of one $35-million Texas credit union. That CU launched mobile banking and mobile capture services in April and after four months it is experiencing a monthly growth rate in active users of 42.2%.
The key considerations in that CU’s due-diligence process, said Ganey, included determining whether the service would align with the credit union’s overall strategy, and whether members really “needed” mobile banking. It concluded that if it wanted members under age 50 to join, it had no choice.
Other strategic decisions, Ganey said, focused on the cost effectiveness of mobile. “Part of this credit union’s decision-making process was to determine whether mobile banking could serve as an alternative to branch expansion or to spending $20,000 to upgrade to an image-enabled ATM,” he said. “For many members, their cell phones never leave their sides. By incorporating mobile capture into this service, these members are able to deposit checks at any time, without locating a branch or an ATM.”
The credit union also views mobile banking with mobile capture as a tool to maintain relevance and increase deposit participation at its sponsor company. The strategy includes promoting the service at new hire orientations to increase the number of checking accounts opened, Ganey said.
Six tips from Ganey: 1) Introduce mobile banking to the membership utilize frontline staff; 2) Establish buy-in from your board through industry and mobile usage data; 3) Establish baseline requirements and longer-term goals for functionality; 4) Ensure alignment with overall strategy and philosophy (member demographics, branch and growth strategies); 5) Set vendor selection criteria (their vision and yours, integration with other systems, training and ongoing support, implementation assistance, analytics, cost); and 6) Determine if mobile can be justified financially (revenue and/or growth opportunities, expense reallocation, expense reduction).
