DES MOINES, Iowa-Count The Members Group among those that believe the economy has presented CUs with more opportunities than problems for the second half of 2010, and is devising solutions to help credit unions capitalize.
"In any kind of crisis you can focus on the danger or the opportunity," stressed Jeff Russell, EVP. "There is plenty of danger out there-loan losses, NCUA assessments, and pick whatever regulation you want. But we are working with our clients who are focused on this big opportunity to capture market share. That is the shorter-term issue."
Now is the time for credit unions to persuade consumers to move those sticky accounts, like checking, debit, and credit. TMG has efforts working in all of those areas, Russell explained. "On the credit card side we are in a pilot now with Edge to Edge Photo Cards to put pictures on credit cards."
Soon TMG will announce a mobile partnership to expand its efforts in this area to include transaction alerts-both text message and e-mail. The company is also planning to launch what it believes is the first reloadable prepaid card built for the Hispanic community and marketed by a credit union. "We are doing that in partnership with Coopera Consulting and local Affinity Credit Union, which received a grant from the National Credit Union Foundation. We think this is a great way to really capture membership growth in a younger, growing demographic."
Longer term TMG has it attention turned to the future of payments-what will be the networks in which payments are made in the future? "You see person-to-person payments emerging and ACH networks popping up and being used in different ways," noted Russell. "So the question is how do we stay on top of keeping credit unions in the middle of the payment stream, and how do we see the future of where this is going and keep credit unions on the front edge."
