WASHINGTON—Making it easy for credit unions to play in the mobile payments space and optimizing the performance of CU card portfolios will be the focus for CSCU this year.
Bob Hackney, CSCU president and CEO, spoke with CUToday.info during CUNA’s Governmental Affairs Conference and noted the company now offers portfolio consulting to drive card penetration, activation and usage.
“There is just so much going on now for credit unions—overall in their business—and the payments space is so dynamic that it is difficult for them to find the time to manage and promote their card offerings to get the most out of what is a top-performing asset,” said Hackney. “Many just don’t have the resources, especially the small and mid-size credit unions, to dedicate to their card portfolios.”
Get Active
Hackney cautioned that can be a mistake, especially as the big card players—such as BofA and Capital One—are always active in promoting their offers.
“That is the key, they are always doing something, and the credit union needs to find the time to do the same thing, but often they can’t,” said Hackney. “We don’t find that credit unions are mismanaging their card portfolios, many are just not managing them.”
CSCU is offering a 12-month turnkey solution that includes programs for account acquisition, credit line increase, usage campaigns, loyalty and more.
“Credit unions have to negotiate this program once, and then they have 12 months of support,” said Hackney. “They don’t have to approve every campaign, we have already done that for them—that’s one less thing they have to do. Just like anything in life, you get out of it what you put into it. And, again, the card portfolio is still one of the highest performing assets.”
Robert Hackney, CSCU
New Digital App
CSCU also is introducing a new digital card application that it said gives its members innovative mobile wallet capabilities, extending the services cardholders value most. CSCU said the solution will provide credit unions the opportunity to offer their members an issuer-branded app providing cardholders on-the-go access to features such as balance alerts, transaction alerts, and easy card management.
Tom Davis, chief technology officer with CSCU, said credit unions are approaching mobile payments in different ways. He said some are getting involved in all of the mobile payments offerings, such as Apple Pay Android Pay and Samsung Pay. Some are going with their own branded digital wallet, while others are sitting on the sidelines a little longer to watch how mobile payments shake out.
Davis said that CSCU’s new digital card application places the company in a position to “make sure that whatever the mobile payments strategy the credit union has that we have a product for them,” said Davis, reminding that CSCU said it can sign up credit unions for all of the current major mobile payments offerings.