News

PSCU, Javelin highlight fintech opportunities for CUs

October 6, 2017

By 2020, more than 50 billion connected devices will be employed worldwide — approximately 6.6 devices per person. This IoT explosion represents a massive opportunity for credit unions, according to a new report by Javelin Strategy & Research.

A new white paper, The Credit Union Guide to Opportunities in IoT, Biometrics and E-commerce, published in conjunction with PSCU, discusses how technologies are shaping the financial services industry.

The paper also provides a view to opportunities and attrition threats to financial institutions. It illustrates consumers' willingness to adopt new technologies, such as voice banking, and their use of existing technology, such as fingerprint authentication for mobile banking.

The guide also examines mobile wallet adoption and CU members' top reasons for not using mobile banking.

A pervasive theme is that customers of giant banks are more willing to adopt the latest technologies and tend to have higher ownership rates of smartphones, fitness bands and smartwatches.

In contrast, credit union members appear to lag or be at par with the general population in a number of categories.

The report suggests four strategies credit unions can implement to preserve the primary FI relationship:

• Encourage members to adopt a "set it and forget it" payment preference for connected devices and mobile wallets.
• Drive mobile wallet adoption with education on wallet use and incentives to upload payment cards.
• Develop a strategy to drive credit union cards as the preferred payment choice for Amazon, Walmart, Samsung, Apple, Google and Facebook.
• Use education to drive adoption of advanced banking technologies in combination with a face-to-face relationship.

Downloadthe report.