How Credit Union Data Analytics Can Improve Financial Performance

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In the modern age, credit unions are increasingly turning to data analytics to gain a better understanding of their financial performance. By leveraging data analytics, credit unions can track customer preferences, improve the member experience and ultimately increase their profits.

With the right strategies in place, credit unions can use data analytics to gain insights into their customers’ behaviors and preferences, as well as uncover new ways of boosting their financial performance. Let’s explore how credit union data analytics can help improve financial performance and provide customer satisfaction.

Benefits of Credit Union Data Analytics

Financial institutions like credit unions are often behind the times when it comes to technology. And this new emphasis and dependency on data analytics is a chance for credit unions to upgrade some of their current solutions to capitalize on the immense benefits of top-tier credit union data analytics.

But what are the biggest benefits of data analytics? Here are a few:

  • See the big picture of your credit union’s financial performance
  • Increase agility
  • Improve decision-making

Data-driven profitability is created by gaining visibility into your credit union data and adjusting your transformation plans to suit that data’s story.

Agility is a core component of thriving businesses in the post-pandemic financial climate. As the marketplace changes with things like cryptocurrency, stock market fluctuations, emerging fintech, and more, your credit union can expand its reach and the viability of your solutions for current and future members by keeping your business model agile and flexible to change.

Decision-making is part of a credit union leader’s core responsibilities, but how do you know what the right decisions are when there’s so much diversification and specialization happening in the financial industry right now? Automation and data analytics are two of the most powerful tools you have at your disposal.

By drilling into your credit union’s available data, you can often make more accurate plans, gain a better understanding of your position in the current market, and streamline processes to cut costs and improve margins.

Using Data Analytics to Mitigate Risk

While we are sure your credit union has several fraud detection policies and protocols, it’s also important to use data analytics for fraud prevention.

When you are familiar with the flow of data and the types of data you are sending and receiving on a regular basis, you will notice when things look slightly left of center. You can also see trends in data flow on a monthly, quarterly, and yearly basis. This helps you identify fluctuations in the marketplace and help your credit union prepare its staff and members for possible changes, like interest rate hikes, inflation spikes, related market trends (like housing crises, rising debt, etc.), and more.

You can also use analytics to help manage your member-related risks. Investment risk modeling and credit risk analysis can help you determine which members are struggling, which can easily afford loans with the latest interest rates, and other trends in member behavior and market fluctuation.

Using Analytics to Manage Supply and Demand

Supply and demand are two sides of the same coin, and you need a good understanding of both to succeed in any business venture. And you can use data analytics to help ensure things stay as balanced as possible for your credit union.

You can’t help your members and your community without great sales performance. Data analytics can help you decipher branch and online channel sales in ways that will benefit your operations and help you bolster the programs that need work and highlight the success of those that are already working well.

Just like you can measure performance over time, data analytics enable you to track and measure the results of different lending, credit, and debit initiatives over time.

You can also use insights from data analytics to inform your approach to chatbots and other AI solutions.

When measuring and capitalizing on member demand, personalized marketing is a fantastic way to create momentum with data analytics. By putting your data to work for you, your marketing efforts are more informed and targeted, which means you pay less to get more. You can expand your reach and increase your success with regional campaigns, limited-time offers, and more.

Analytics also show the big picture of your member life cycle – you can use it to predict the lifetime value of your members, based on the types of credit union products and services they use during different parts of their financial life.

Analytics is a vast recommendation engine. If you know how to aggregate and sort your data, you can learn so much about your operational efficiency, market value, member experience, and so much more.

Credit Union Data Analytics: The Big Picture

In a recent study titled “CFO Outlook for Financial Institutions,” Syntellis found that when surveying finance professionals at banks, credit unions, and financial services companies in the U.S., 62% of respondents identified “pulling data from multiple sources into a single report” as one of the three most challenging reporting tasks.

There are so many ways you can use your credit union data analytics practices to create a detailed and helpful “big picture.” Data-driven digital transformation can create positive change by improving member intelligence, creating more efficient and productive processes, highlighting new business opportunities, and optimizing compliance and market factors to create a seamless experience for your staff and members.

But you need credit union data analytics and discovery to do all those things. Your raw, unfiltered data isn’t helpful if you can’t use it to glean new insights and inform your future operations approaches.

With IMS’s data discovery tool, DataArchiver, you can take advantage of on-premise, cloud, and hybrid storage while also taking advantage of powerful features including restore and recover, data compression and de-duplication, multi-remote site management, data life cycle management, and more.

Learning from the Digital Experience at Top 100 Credit Unions

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Credit unions are a popular financial institution for many, yet the digital experience offered to their members can vary greatly. There are lots of insights and ways credit unions can use the digital experience at the top 100 credit unions to augment and transform their own offerings and operations.

Recently, Finalytics.ai released its 2023 Credit Union Digital Experience report, which they call the “annual deep dive into the largest credit unions in America by asset size, to analyze digital experiences across the industry.”

This report evaluates credit unions based on several items, including website, online account origination, analytics, member experience as a whole, cybersecurity, and privacy offerings. We wanted to take a look at these findings and see what trends are emerging.

In the modern-day, digital experiences are becoming a cornerstone of the financial industry. Credit unions have been taking advantage of these advancements to better serve their members. By analyzing the strategies implemented by these successful organizations, we can gain insight into how credit unions can create an effective digital experience for their members and improve overall customer satisfaction.

Let’s examine what we can learn from the digital experience of the top 100 credit unions in terms of user-friendliness, accessibility and services offered.

Overall Digital Experience Winners: Here’s How They Did It

The top 5 credit unions when it came to overall credit union digital experience, were VyStar Credit Union, Alliant Credit Union, CommunityAmerica Credit Union, Wings Financial Credit Union, and Redwood Credit Union. In general, each of these institutions enhanced their members’ digital experience by providing them with the features, aesthetics, and overall experience they preferred.

CU UX (User Experience) Needs to Be Optimized

Finalytics.ai ranks the different categories on a scale from worst to best with scores from 1 to 5. The average user experience (UX) score was 2.31 out of 5, which shows a marked need for improvement across the credit union industry.

In order to improve your own credit union’s UX, product-focused primary navigation is a must. Though this seems like a no-brainer, Finalytics.ai found that slightly more than half of the credit unions studied actually had their products listed in their primary navigation – the website menu.

Members and prospects are often coming to your website for solutions, not philosophies. While your mission and community outreach are hugely important to your brand image, your CU website should cater to those looking for product- and service-based solutions to their current problems and questions.

Think of it this way: if you opened your favorite navigation app or website and had to click through three or four tabs before you could enter in your destination address or name, you’d likely find a new navigation app, right? The same is true for your members: if they need a loan, they want to be able to navigate to your home page and see a tab that will take them to the loan types you offer, or even a digital loan application form.

The member journey should be one that is reflected in the UX of your website. It spans multiple channels, touchpoints, and sessions – this means your online presence needs to help guide them through that journey with as little friction as possible.

Personalization Matters

We’ve talked here and on our sister site’s blog about the importance of including personalization at all steps in the member journey, and the Top 100 credit unions report agrees, naming it a top growth trend.

Only 7 of the top 100 credit unions in the nation are ranking on a deeper level for personalization, and only 21 had some level of personalization included in their online presence.

Along with personalization, segmentation of credit union audiences was also lacking. Those segments (which can include different audience targets and even primary navigation that helps those looking for Business Personal, and Wealth Management insights and products) were considered “well-defined” in just 30% of the website content analyzed by Finalytics.ai.

The Role of Security in the Digital Experience

Part of a credit union’s digital transformation strategy in 2023 and beyond will need to include the way we talk about and protect our members’ data and information. In the Finalytics.ai study, they found that security and privacy content consists of two primary areas: the credit union side (what they’re doing to protect their member information) and the user side (what your members can do to protect their own information).

One way to improve this score, Finalytics.ai found, was to increase the visibility and access to information pertaining to cybersecurity and personal data and banking best practices. If your credit union doesn’t already have a dedicated and highly visible area for users to find tips, tricks, and instructions for safe ways to use your apps, website, and other mobile or online banking offerings, it’s worth the investment to create those resources for your members.

It’s also important to communicate often and stay consistent with your messages to members about the state of your cybersecurity and other digital transformation strategy items. Transparency and honesty can often close the rift for prospects: if you can show your members and potential members that your credit union is committed to offering a similar level of protection that big banks can, it goes a long way in building trust in your brand.

Keeping the Momentum Going

Trust is the key to member satisfaction, and that means being intentional and transparent with your credit union’s offerings and operations this year.

Some exciting and positive findings in the Finalytics 2023 Credit Union Digital Experience Report include growth in all of the following: loans outstanding (16.2% increase year to year), shares and deposits (up 8.1%), and net worth (10.8% growth).

Finalytics.ai also had some insights into the top digital services members value and desire the most, which include:

  • Remote deposit capture
  • Digital cards that can be issued directly to a digital wallet
  • P2P payments
  • Digital wallets
  • Cardless cash withdrawals

With all that emphasis on increasing digital access and solutions, you’ll need powerful data and security solutions, and IMS has you covered.

With our IaaS (Infrastructure-as-a-Service) solutions, you can configure resources to meet your CU needs. You can skip the pricey setup and installation of an in-house data center and trust your members’ data to our self-service, enterprise-grade cloud IaaS that was built to meet your credit union’s dynamic needs.

3 Unique Challenges Small Credit Unions Face

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There are just over 5,200 credit unions in the United States, as of 2021. And more than 65% of those are classified as “small credit unions.” According to the NCUA, these are credit unions that have less than $100 million in assets.

In much the same way that any small business will have vastly different challenges than corporations, conglomerates, and other big business operations, there are also unique challenges for small credit unions. Let’s talk about some of the biggest challenges and share some ideas and opportunities small credit unions can take advantage of in the near future.

Challenge #1: Growing Your Member Base

Many small credit unions are struggling to grow their member base in recent years. This is due to several factors, including the COVID-19 pandemic, increasing technology and innovation, inflation, supply chain issues, rising costs, and the rise of digital banking.

Credit unions often serve a small or specific demographic, industry, or geographic area, and that makes it hard to increase membership. But there are many ways to incorporate growth-focused solutions into your credit union’s current programs.

The first thing you can do is differentiate. We are seeing member satisfaction drop and consumer complaints increase. Larger businesses and big banks all have the same problem – there’s no human element, and they often lack that personal touch that small credit unions are known for.

You can differentiate by updating your credit union’s brand imaging, colors, or even the name of your credit union. You can also leverage community outreach, sponsorships, and member experience. Authenticity and true connections to your members will be more powerful than a catchy slogan and empty promises. Your members and prospects want real, high-quality experiences with the brands they endorse, from the clothes they wear to their subscriptions, healthcare providers, and financial institutions.

Marketing is also another powerful tool you can leverage as you work to grow your member base. Because yours is a financial institution that works to integrate itself into the communities it serves, you can often highlight real members and real problems your communities are facing. Offer discounts and complimentary services for members who are willing to share their experience with your credit union on their social pages. Create video, caption, photo, and other contests and have your members create your marketing content for you – they’ll have the chance to be highlighted (and win or earn the contest prizes) in exchange for their true and relatable stories about how your credit union helped them realize their entrepreneurial dreams, or how your community outreach efforts made for a positive holiday experience for families in the area.

Marketing can no longer be a sporadic or piecemeal effort for small credit unions. You have all the promotional power that big banks do, and you can scale the costs to work with your budget while making real progress in capturing market share.

Challenge 2: Market Share

A third way to grow that member base and capture market share is to lean into the community you have and take a chance on some of the small businesses that have been turned down by other big banks and credit unions. Small credit unions can often offer solopreneurs and side hustlers small loans and financial assistance that can help them meet their goals and grow their businesses.

If a member just barely misses being able to qualify for one of your loans, sit down with them and try to get a clearer picture of what their financial situation looks like. There are opportunities here, and having a more personal approach not only increases your loan numbers, it also creates a valuable relationship and often means the member will work even harder to ensure they can fulfill their loan requirements. Positive reinforcement is a great way to build brand image and reputation, as well.

Challenge 3: Innovation & Technology

Another big hurdle for many small credit unions is the ability to innovate and implement the latest technology. This is one of the top challenges for small credit unions because often, to get these new technology offerings, you have to pay a premium. However, as social media marketing and app development have become easy to create based on existing templates or freelance work, the playing field on this front has been all but leveled.

Now it’s up to your credit union to stay on top of the latest innovations in banking, fintech, and the like to ensure that you are offering your members the latest and greatest in financial management and digital tools.

IMS: Scalable Private Cloud Solutions for CUs of All Sizes

IMS has positioned itself as a unique cloud-based partner for credit unions of all sizes. From disaster recovery to data analytics, our Private Cloud services are tailored to CU needs. We use the latest technology and best practices to ensure your data and your members’ data are stored, backed up, and easily recovered.

We’ve made a name for ourselves in the credit union industry, and our goal is to serve your CU with the best technology and support on the market. Check out all of our private cloud services today.

Cybersecurity Best Practices for Credit Union Lending

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Your credit union members are likely more worried about making sound and safe financial decisions, especially as housing and living costs rise with an unprecedented hike in inflation. In the last several decades, these costs have quadrupled in most areas of the country, while wages have yet to even double. That means your members and prospective members are looking for smart and secure lending options.

July through September is the peak lending season for most financial institutions, and you don’t want to alienate prospects by employing less-than-optimal lending cybersecurity.

There are several ways to incorporate cybersecurity into your credit union lending process and practices.

Start with a Good Foundation – Or Build It

Large, for-profit banks are the only organizations in the financial sector that can afford to create a proprietary system for loan processes. The rest of us, including your credit union, must rely on strategic planning, and smart tools.

Lending cybersecurity, like cybersecurity in other high-risk industries, can’t successfully rely on DIY programs to create a solid digital wall of protection around networks and systems within it.

Your cybersecurity program should have all-encompassing strategies, not just piecemeal solutions. Think of it this way: while you can build a boat with several hundred pieces of wood or metal and create a strong enough hull for the boat to float, you’ve now got hundreds of seams and potential cracks just waiting to be breached. Whereas, if you create the hull using something more akin to one seamless piece, your chances of water seeping in are much lower.

A good foundation includes things like reviewing your current digital landscape and cybersecurity. The first step is looking for potential security gaps. These gaps can be interwoven throughout this landscape: in data collection, storage, and encryption protocols as well as third-party vendor interfaces, mobile apps and platforms, servers, cameras, social media accounts, and more.

These things need to be audited regularly, starting from the first days of your newly integrated systems.

Simplicity is Key – But There’s a Limit

Lending cybersecurity mainly relies on the implementation of practices, education, and technology solutions that minimize the risk of a cyberattack. If you have fewer holes in your systems, that a hacker will find a way through them is going to be much smaller.

That’s why simplicity in your lending practices and tasks is key. The loan process is complicated by nature, but the more seamless you can make it for your members and your staff, the better the outcome will be.

User error is often touted as one of the most common causes of data breaches. The goal of your loan programs and the steps you employ to carry them out should be to create a user-friendly experience without skimping on network security and other precautionary measures.

For example, employing multi-factor authentication in parts of your data and lending information collection process is inherently more complicated than single-factor authentication, but you are trading safety for convenience. Two-factor authentication is still the best choice when it comes to collecting and storing lending data.

Finding the balance between “easy-to-use” and “optimal protection” should be the simple target you aim for in credit union lending cybersecurity.

Here’s a great article from Medium about cybersecurity in the mortgage process. It goes into more detail about how complexity is the “worst enemy of security.”

Automating Compliance Increases Lending Cybersecurity

Lending cybersecurity is not the only way to protect your credit union loan processes. In fact, much like the risks for cyberattacks have increased, lending compliance issues are also on the rise.

Because compliance is crucial to the efficacy of your credit union, maintaining that credibility should always be a top priority regardless of whether your credit union is growing, merging, or simply focused on optimizing current business operations.

There are several benefits to automating your compliance tasks. Automation is primarily used to ensure that there is no impact to normal operations and production. There is also no learning curve – compliance automation means machine learning drives for you – it is constantly improving and identifying potential violations of internal compliance policies by tracking sensitive data nd where it goes.

By automating your compliance processes with tools and software like IMS’s Polaris Sonar, you can quickly reduce sensitive data exposure without having to add to your current infrastructure or allot employee time towards completing these tasks.

Anomaly Detection – Recover Faster

Cyberattacks on financial institutions are inevitable – your credit union holds a wealth of assets and hackers are always looking for ways to exploit your security systems to take some of those assets for themselves.

And with ransomware on the rise, it’s important to implement the most effective strategy for recognizing ransomware attacks early and defending against them.

IMS has anomaly detection solutions with Polaris Radar to track your data changes over time, replace manual recoveries for minimal business disruption, and increase intelligence with machine learning.

Make sure your credit union lending and all financial data is never used against you for ransom. Learn more about partnering with IMS today by requesting a consultation.

Disaster Recovery Dos & Don’ts

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Credit unions have had their fair share of setbacks in the last year. However, the recent 4th quarter report from the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) shows that assets, shares, and deposits grew during the last months of 2021. To capitalize on that momentum, your credit union must continue to provide more on-demand and real-time products and services while you grow your member base.

But you can’t do that without a top-tier disaster recovery plan. But what does a good plan look like? Let’s go through some disaster recovery dos and don’ts.

Do: Set Plans & Goals for Your Disaster Recovery

Every disaster recovery system needs to be tested. And for you to measure how well your test and disaster recovery system work, you need to have something to measure against.

The best way to do that is to identify and set goals for KPIs (key performance indicators). The most common include recovery time objective (the amount of time that can pass before your business has been impacted by the disaster) and recovery point objective (the maximum amount of data that can be lost).

Best practice is to test your disaster recovery and business continuity plans at least once every year. This includes emergency evacuation drills, walkthroughs, and risk assessment reviews along with your recovery plans.

Don’t: Rely on Protecting Just the Basics

It’s important to protect the core components of your business in your disaster recovery plan, including the items that you need for compliance reasons. But that should just be a starting point. As you work on your disaster recovery strategy, it’s important to look at all aspects of your credit union’s operations.

Are there contingencies in place that will allow you to communicate with remote or offsite staff members? Are your software, app, or plugin vendors considered in your plans? Do you have a detailed description of who does what during the disaster?

Even if you don’t prioritize everything on a scale from most important to least, thinking through the intricacies of your credit union’s operations can help you mitigate damage and mobilize support when it’s necessary.

Your disaster recovery plan can consist of several smaller plans based on your credit union’s branches, departments, and even the emergency type.

For example, your IT department may need to have different priorities in different disasters. This can be based on the potential threat to the physical components of your security system versus the digital ones.

Do: Make Your People a Priority

You’d be surprised how many disaster recovery plans go into exquisite detail about the operations and technology considerations, but they leave out the human element.

Many disasters are natural or physical in nature – and that presents many opportunities for your staff to be harmed. Here are a few things to think about as you create your credit union disaster recovery plan:

  • Where are the shelters or gathering areas for things like a fire, flood, tornado, hurricane, or another natural disaster?
  • What is the survival plan for your employees if there is an active shooter?
  • If people are injured, how do you want your teams to help? Which staff members should be prioritized? These questions and plans may need to be augmented by a medical professional’s opinion.
  • Who will contact the authorities in the event of a disaster, accident, or other harmful situation?

You can’t ensure business continuity if you aren’t protecting the ones who are doing that work for you. And don’t forget to make sure that all your employees are able to get to your designated areas without trouble. This includes people with physical disabilities (from limited mobility to deafness or blindness)

Don’t: Forget to Define the Impact of the Disasters You’re Preparing For

You can increase or decrease the scope of your credit union disaster recovery plan to include a business impact analysis.

A business impact analysis can help you measure and prepare for how each different disaster will actually affect your operations. This includes everything from employee tasks that are interrupted or rendered unusable, impact on credit union members and member services, data loss, and more.

Here are some examples.

Let’s say the disaster you are preparing for is a ransomware threat. In the business impact analysis, you’d list the impact of that disaster: data loss, employees unable to access files which lead to lost productivity, corruption of technology and other digital assets.

However, if the disaster is a tornado, the impact is much different: loss or damage of equipment, buildings, etc., potential data loss, information systems going offline, human injury, loss of productivity, member services and experience will suffer.

These impact areas may be different based on the size and operations of your credit union. But a good business impact analysis will not only prepare you for what to do in an emergency, it will also show you what areas will suffer. This gives you insight into what and how you should implement preventative and other measures to create a successful disaster recovery plan.

Worry-Free Disaster Recovery Services

Server crashes, human error, malicious activity, natural disasters – your credit union could succumb to any one of these disasters at any time.

Disaster recovery is an integral part of your business continuity. As more and more people rely on real-time banking technology, any downtime and data loss are major hits to your credit union.

IMS offers worry-free disaster recovery. We help you keep your credit union operational by ensuring your critical servers, branches, and third-party vendor communications are all recovered quickly.

Benefits of Cryptocurrency for Credit Unions

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The emergence of cryptocurrency has created a lot of buzz in the banking and financial industries. Its very name evokes ideas of cryptic, mysterious doings. As the world becomes more familiar with the intricacies of these new types of digital currency, it’s important for your credit union to know what the buzz is about.

Cryptocurrency was born on the internet. And its virtually universal accessibility makes it attractive to younger and more digital-forward investors and other interested parties. Recently, new guidance was introduced to help credit unions forge a path in this new landscape. Let’s talk about the benefits of cryptocurrency for credit unions.

Cryptocurrencies for Credit Unions

The National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) has already begun sharing guidance on credit unions and cryptocurrencies. The goal is to create relationships between federally insured credit unions (FICUs) and third-party entities that buy, sell, and hold these digital assets.

A cryptocurrency is a form of digital money with no centralized authority. This means transactions are recorded on a digital ledger automatically. The increased interest in cryptocurrencies has led many banking experts to conclude that credit unions could generate some impressive growth by expanding into these new markets.

Cashless financial services have been the trend for several years now, even before COVID-19 came along. Demand for cryptocurrency access continues to grow as well.

The biggest problem with these new digital currencies is that they are not well regulated yet. When transactions take place, they’re logged into the blockchain – the database that monitors all cryptocurrency transactions. There’s no government regulating these transactions, and anyone who uses the blockchain can view it and the transactions therein.

Many people have been using credit cards to buy cryptocurrencies. But the speculative nature of these markets has caused some banks and credit card companies to deny these transactions.

Benefits and Risks of Offering Crypto Services

More and more businesses are embracing cryptocurrency. You can make Starbucks, Microsoft, Shopify, Home Depot, and Whole Foods purchases with crypto “coins.” The main benefit for those who deal in cryptocurrency is the ability to access and move their money without the use of a third party. They are digital files you can store in digital wallets and use anywhere online with participating merchants.

The regulations issues surrounding the crypto industry continue to be concerning for credit unions and other financial institutions that are more in tune with risk management best practices and compliance.

However, credit unions that wish to stay away from this trend may be missing a big market opportunity. In December 2020, a Cornerstone Advisors survey showed that almost 70% of cryptocurrency owners would use their primary banks for digital investments. However, very few financial institutions are interested in managing these transactions.

21 million adults already own some form of cryptocurrency, and this group offers a huge growth opportunity for credit unions willing to take the leap. This could be a big selling point for future member attraction and retention efforts.

Ways to Get Your CU Involved

There are several options for credit unions wishing to mitigate the risks that come with handling cryptocurrency.

First, you can work with a third-party business. Using mobile apps, you can create transaction opportunities for your credit union members, while running all of these assets (and the associated risk) through a third party.

You can also provide crypto custody services. This falls more onto the record-keeping side of things and includes services like safekeeping, analytics, asset servicing, lending, pricing and valuation, trading, payments and settlements, and collateral.

And positioning your credit union as an early partner for cryptocurrency lovers is a great way to banish the myth that credit unions are technologically challenged.

Offering crypto services is also a great way to reach specific members of the unbanked and underbanked audiences. These individuals love having the option to conduct business without having to create or maintain a bank account.

Cryptocurrency will soon be more regulated. Executives within government and financial compliance agencies, like the SEC, are announcing plans to use legislation and other methods to make cryptocurrency more regulated and mainstream.

Protect Your Members’ Assets from Cash to Crypto

Like many consumers, crypto holders are more likely to partner with financial institutions that offer crypto-specific services. Not sure about jumping into the cryptocurrency game? Credit unions can also offer custodial services, create crypto-forward debit and credit card rewards or interest enhancement, and more.

Credit unions are seen as trustworthy and member-forward. Being among the first institutions (and even beating fintechs to the punch) could be a great way to usher in a new generation of online investors.

As your credit union branches out into new digital territories, compliance becomes even more important. With IMS, you can create safeguards for even the most sensitive of data.

Polaris Sonar, our new SaaS application, applies machine learning to discover, classify, and report on sensitive data without impacting production. You will be able to:

  • automate with machine learning and policies
  • identify sensitive data exposure
  • accelerate compliance with privacy laws

Browse these and more offerings here on our website or contact us today!

How to Embrace the Future of Digital Banking

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When we talk about the future of banking, a lot of that future is rooted in the digital transformation that will take place in the next several years. Online loan applications, cryptocurrency – these services and more will be the differentiators for success as we move through 2022 and beyond. Here’s how your credit union can embrace the future of digital banking.

What Is Digital Banking?

Digital banking used to mean your members could log into an online account to see their balances and perform funds transfers from one financial account to another. But today, digital banking has expanded so much that your members rarely – if ever – have to visit one of your physical locations to perform any financial activity that will be run through your systems.

It’s not just about convenience, digital banking is about ultra-convenience for your members. Netflix, Amazon, and social media sites use data and other digital tools to make every user’s experience highly personalized – this is becoming a standard to which all B2C businesses are expected to reach in order to maintain member satisfaction.

Embracing Embedded Banking

You don’t have to leave your house to get groceries, prescriptions, Christmas presents, dog food, or to pay your mortgage or car payments anymore – and members like it this way. That one-stop-shop website model is becoming the expectation for your members. Embedded banking may seem like a complex phrase, but it just means that your members are doing their banking without having to visit a bank or credit union website, app, or physical location.

An example of embedded banking is the presence of mortgage applications and services being promoted on real estate sites where your members are browsing available homes in their desired area. Rather than creating financial services that must be accessed separately from the need they are born from, we’ll see more and more companies partnering to allow for end-to-end transactions. You can go to a car dealership and get a loan right then and there through partnerships between the dealership and their chosen financial institution, and savvy consumers will gravitate towards that all-inclusive model because it’s more convenient.

Facial Recognition

One of the fastest-growing authorization tools for financial accounts is biometric access. This includes fingerprints and, most recently, facial recognition. 15% to 20% of US financial institutions are already using facial recognition, coupled with other best practices when it comes to multi-factor authentication, to give members access to their financial information online.

Virtual Branches

The need to “speak to a representative” will never go away. People still like talking to and connecting with real people when they give a business their patronage. Since the start of the pandemic, virtual branches have become increasingly popular as a way to bridge the gap between in-person interaction and the convenience of digital banking solutions.

Virtual branches are digital platforms that simulate the conversation that occurs in a regular branch and rely on diverse communication tools like web, mobile chat, video, co-browsing, and document or screen sharing, according to American Banker.

Infrastructure-as-a-Service: Serve Members While We Cover Your Servers

Your data, servers, and digital banking operations shouldn’t need babysitting. That’s why IMS offers configured resources that meet your unique needs through Infrastructure-as-a-Service. We tailor our program to your specification to ensure our solutions are straightforward, flexible, and pay-as-you-go so you can take advantage of premier cloud services at affordable prices.

Browse these and other offerings here on our website or contact us today!

Why Credit Union Member Retention Will Be Huge Next Year

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We’ve all heard some variation of the phrase, “It’s 5 times more cost-effective to keep an existing customer than to create a new customer.” And while that sentiment is still true – credit unions spend more money converting a potential member than keeping an existing member satisfied, it’s a little more complex than that. Credit union member retention is only becoming more important as big banks and new fintech companies expand their reach in the financial and banking industry.

So, let’s talk about what credit union member retention is, how it works, and what the future may hold for your CU.

Credit Unions Are Already Ahead of the Game

The first thing to note about member retention is that credit unions are amazing at it. Because credit unions prioritize member services, reward loyalty, and are often active in their respective communities, it’s a lot easier for members to find it beneficial to give CUs their repeated business.

This does get more challenging with the push for digital transformation that we’ve seen in the last few years, though. A lot of credit unions rely on that face-to-face interaction time. It’s much easier to create a genuine relationship when you are interacting in person.

Leveraging Technology Is a Must

When it comes to technology and credit union member retention, this is where CUs are losing ground. Bigger banks and newer fintech companies and apps are gaining their members through the latest and greatest digital solutions. Leveraging technology trends is a skillful way to turn the tables on these newer and bigger businesses. While you’ll never compete with big brands (as is true in most industries, not just banking), you’ll spend less time and money on lead campaigns and generating new members because you can offer comparable digital solutions with that same CU personal touch.

Generational Habits are Vastly Different

If you are creating or assessing your credit union member retention plan for 2022 and beyond, it’s also important to think about the difference in generational habits. Your baby boomer customers are likely still going to place their trust in onsite solutions, face-to-face interactions, and manual financial services.

However, your Millennial and Gen Z members are going to want more digital options that still show a great deal of care and attention to the personal needs of each member. We’ve talked before about the role of personalization in the member experience, and that still holds true whether you are interacting with your customers through teller windows or apps.  

You’ve Got Member Satisfaction Handled, Let Us Handle the Digital Back End

Credit union member retention is your area of expertise – but the digital solutions that power your branches and keep you and your members connected are ours. That’s why IMS offers configured resources that meet your unique needs through Infrastructure-as-a-Service. We tailor our program to your specification to ensure our solutions are straightforward, flexible, and pay-as-you-go so you can take advantage of premier cloud services at affordable prices.

Browse these and other offerings here on our website or contact us today!

Tips for Increasing Member Engagement This Holiday Season

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Before the end of September, retailers were putting out Christmas decorations. As the debate about when it’s “appropriate” to start shopping and planning for the holiday season rages, it feels worse than normal this year, and there’s a reason for that. Tons of news outlets and retailers are echoing the same sentiment: shop early this year, as the last 18 months have caused supply shortages in many industries. Here are some ways to increase member engagement this holiday season, and you should start doing them right now.

Prepaid Cards

Gift cards and cash are at the top of many people’s lists this year. Financial hardships still abound as we try to combat the global effects of the coronavirus pandemic, from supply shortages to labor shortages and more.

Prepaid cards can also be used to help your members budget for their holiday spending. They can be used in-store and online, and they can mitigate risk for users because they aren’t tied to any specific bank accounts. With more and more online scammers building websites that trick and mislead customers, the holiday season will likely see its fair share of digital fraud and theft.

The convenience and cybersecurity benefits of prepaid cards are undeniable. It’s a great way help your member start their Christmas shopping off right.

Highlight Community Outreach

Giving is a big part of the holiday season, and your credit union should take advantage of that to showcase what your branches are doing to give back to your communities.

Use your social media platforms, onsite displays, and more to bring attention to the work your credit union does to take care of the families and friends in the area. You can do this by highlighting your 2021 efforts or creating new opportunities for community outreach before and during the holidays themselves. Take up specific causes, and make sure you are vocal about them online.

Promote Employee Holiday Cheer

Don’t forget about your staff! The best way to get your members in the holiday spirit is to show the cheer your employees have. 

Take a look at your usual events and ideas. Instead of allowing your staff to dress in their holiday best for one day, you can run a fun “contest” every Friday – invite your staff to get creative with holiday themes using their wardrobes, then post the top picks on social media and have your followers vote on the one with the best “holiday spirit.” That employee could win something small like a free lunch or gift card to a local business.

There are tons of ways to highlight the holidays for more than just a week or two!

Hold Giveaways

Another way to generate member engagement and community outreach is by holding giveaways before and during the different holidays. Bolster community ties by partnering with a different business every week or every holiday. Your members will discover new community gems they weren’t familiar with, and they’ll see that your business is committed to helping bring success to all area businesses. You could offer this to current business-facing credit union members first or create a Business Spotlight program that runs through the holiday season and brings attention to area businesses that do their banking with you.

Offer Holiday-Edition Financial Management Classes

86% of millennials overspend during the holidays – and that sets them back in the new year and beyond. You could help ease these burdens by offering some financial education opportunities that are specifically tailored to learning how to budget for the holidays, shopping tips, or even financial safety tips (how to tell if a retail website is “legit,” and other helpful topics). Member engagement can come from many places, and showing that you care about the financial health of your members – especially during this time of the year when money is flowing in unusual ways – can help them see that your brand is helpful and genuine in its efforts.

Have Yourself a Credit Union Christmas – Without Data Problems

IMS offers data backup and disaster recovery solutions – the holidays are the last time of the year when you want to have data problems. Our backup services are all-inclusive, to help you get back to taking care of your members during what is sure to be an interesting and uniquely challenging holiday season.

Contact IMS for more information.

The Role of Personalization in the Member Experience

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For more than a year, businesses and citizens have been wading through a world that has all but killed the casual conversation and public gatherings. We are more acutely aware of even the most fleeting of interactions and relationships. And that’s why personalization is becoming more important in everyday communications and transactions.

Credit unions have continued to position themselves as the local, community-first banking option in towns and cities all over the country. To keep that reputation, credit union leaders are conducting studies and implementing new policies to analyze and highlight the crucial role personalization plays in the member experience.

The Importance of Personalization

A recent episode of the CUNA News Podcast, a panel of credit union leaders got together to discuss the importance of personalization in the member experience.

Personalization is a marketing strategy that can help increase customer satisfaction and engagement in businesses of all sizes, but it’s even more important for credit unions. Credit unions are the friendly, community-oriented banking option in many cities and towns. This means the personal touch is even more essential.

By creating a personal atmosphere that is optimized to create feelings of community and trustworthiness, credit unions can increase membership numbers and showcase what a positive presence they bring to the area business landscape.

“Personalization takes a lot of different shapes and forms. It can be empathy, it can be needs-based selling, it can be people helping people…All of those contain a great deal of personalization,” says Paul Robert, CEO of FI Strategies.

How to Personalize Member Interactions

There are so many ways to personalize the experience of your members. This can be spurred by brainstorming activities or having team huddles about the conversations that members seem to be having with credit union employees, to start. And the central question here should be “What are we going to do for our members?”

Can you engage with your members at a higher level? What does that look and sound like? How do we train or guide our employees to start generating more meaningful and helpful conversations with customers?

Many places from restaurants to doctors’ offices even keep notes in their database systems to add a more personal touch – these notes can include anything from their financial questions to the number of children they have, and other small or everyday details that can help your member to be recognizable by your staff.

Personalization Promotes Loyalty

We know, based on a variety of marketing and industry studies, that adding personalization elements to marketing emails is very beneficial.

Email analytic metrics show things like 31-67% decrease in bounce-back rates, affinity and interest segments perform 28-62% better for credit unions.

Adding personalization elements to all interactions, both digital and face-to-face, increases performance and is also more memorable in the minds of your members. Remember to personalize more than just the name in your email subject line. Now more than ever, people want to be seen as individuals and treated as valued customers.

Employee Team Building Also Plays a Part

Creating a community-oriented, personalized atmosphere starts with your credit union team. Fostering collaboration and creativity in your team can open the door for some great brainstorming sessions that could lead to a business-wide approach for personalizing the member experience.

Leave the Backups to Us

Just like you want personalization to be at the forefront of your member experience, IMS wants to tailor its data and security services to better protect your credit union and its data assets.

IMS has virtual private cloud services and solutions like core hosting, virtual desktop, disaster recovery, and more for your credit union. Contact us today for more information.