TAMPA—It's now simpler and easier for credit unions to become part of the Credit Union Data Exchange (CUDX), according to Trellance Cooperative Holdings, which also recently took steps to make participating in the new data sharing platform easier on CUs’ budgets.
As CUToday.info reported, CUDX is a new data sharing tool that helps credit unions better compete with big banks and grow market share. CUDX has been built by the Filene Research Institute and Trellance to help CUs break down walls and collaborate nationally on what is designed to be much more than a data warehouse and instead could someday even rival the resources of much larger providers.
“We want to help more credit unions get onto this platform by providing resources and capabilities to more easily get that data out of their systems and into CUDX,” said Doug Vanderpool, executive director of CUDX.
As CUToday.info reported, Trellance has become the first customer of CUDX. The move subsidizes the early adopters of CUDX—as they can use the platform at no cost for a limited time.
“This type of data is critical to the future of the industry, as credit unions compete with banks and their deep pockets, and their growing reliance on consumer data to target their offers,” Vanderpool explained. “CUDX gives credit unions access to a rich, diverse large data set based on millions of members across the country, rather than only being able to see their own members or third-party data they may have purchased.”
As CUToday.info reported, Trellance has restructured and is now operating as a holding company (Trellance Cooperative Holdings, Inc.), and has separated its business lines into three newly established and distinct business entities that add to the previously created CUDX line. The newly announced lines are: Rise Analytics, Optiri and ProBridge.
Nationwide Data Pool
The CUDX platform will provide participants with access to a shared data pool of credit union members nationwide. With this resource, credit unions can conduct predictive modeling, build targeted marketing strategies, benchmark against industry peers, analyze markets for expansion and target bank customers to grow membership, Vanderpool said.
“Credit unions participating in CUDX can begin to do some of the things that a larger bank can, with respect to knowing their members,” Vanderpool said. “With CUDX, credit unions can see that one member has a car loan with Bank of America and also a mortgage with Chase. They’ll see they offer better loan rates and go after those loans. CUDX simply allows credit unions to see things about their members that they can’t see today.”
Competition from the major national and regional banks is hurting credit unions, Vanderpool reminded.
“Effective marketing anymore is all about really understanding your customer and members…What they're doing. What they want. Where they're spending their money. How they want to be communicated to,” Vanderpool said. “It’s about reaching the right members at the right time with the right offers. Banks do this well because they have this massive data set, massive customer information repository.”
With CUDX, for example, a smaller credit union that has a data set of 100,000 members, through CUDX, can have access to a data set of millions of credit union members.
“And the CUDX database is growing,” Vanderpool said. “CUDX, in addition to having a large credit union member database, also accesses public data sets that are sometimes hard to access. But most important is the data we have that comes from credit unions themselves, in near real time. The data is timely and allows you to make your best decisions.”
CUDX has more than 30 credit unions involved today.
“We've got over 15 credit unions data on the platform and, as I said, that is rapidly expanding. Very soon we’ll have over four million members in the data set,” Vanderpool said. “We have some of the biggest credit unions across the nation that are part of CUDX today.”
Credit unions interested in securing one year of no cost access to the CUDX platform should visit the CUDX website or visit booth #339 at GAC. Credit unions that have already signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) with CUDX will be given priority for eligibility but must formally express interest, Trellance said.