ONTARIO, Calif.-In 100 years, credit unions could be in the indirect lending business for spaceships.
"The average price of a car will be $180,000 and a spaceship will cost $1 million," kidded Tony Boutelle.
The Credit Union Direct Lending (CUDL) president took a more serious tone when he talked to Credit Union Journal about the opportunity for credit unions to become deeply engrained in members' lives. "The affinity relationship credit unions have with members today will have to get stronger - which I think it will - and become so deep that members will look to their credit union as really contributing to their financial well-being."
Biometrics and the "Big Brother syndrome" will only contribute to CUs getting closer to Americans than banks, Boutelle contended. Technology will make a great deal of consumer personal and financial data readily available, but Boutelle predicted that people will be able to control what information financials receive. "Since credit unions are highly trusted, I'm hopeful that will mean consumers in the future will make more of their personal data available to credit unions instead of banks."
A lot will change on the auto-lending front, added Boutelle. Citing a somewhat "antiquated" sales model employed by car dealers today, Boutelle envisioned that in 2109 manufacturers will sell directly to the public. "They will have showrooms to look at cars, but the actual product will be housed in a large central warehouse and delivered right to the person's home."
As far as the evolution of CUDL, Boutelle concluded, "We'd have to be relevant, and spaceship lending would be right up our alley."
