By Ray Birch
MADISON, Wis.—Research shows the pandemic has exposed a number of weaknesses in credit unions’ digital capabilities, and the Filene Research Institute says its Centers of Excellence will soon be responding with insights to help CUs respond.
In a recent Filene webinar, Paul Dionne, research project manager at the Filene Research Institute, outlined what each Center of Excellence is charged with accomplishing and detailed how each will be seeking to help the credit union community respond in the coming year.
“The Center For Emerging Technology found that almost 80% of people they spoke with said COVID exposed problems in their digital capabilities,” explained Dionne during the webinar titled, “Behind the Scenes: Filene's 6 Centers of Excellence.” “This center will be working to help credit unions with their digital transformation, and therefore relevancy.”
Filene’s Center for Data Analytics & The Future Of Financial Services will share a report soon that is a credit union case study on building data analytics readiness, he said.
“A lot of credit unions are putting big investments into data analytics and yet they're not necessarily finding the payoff,” Dionne said. “Their investments are not actually turning into some real valuable insights. This case study is going to demonstrate and illustrate that it’s more than just about building up your technological capabilities. Credit unions really need to embed analytics into their culture—how does data analytics become part of the culture of your organization and get used all across the entire organization. That report will be coming out later this fall.”
Filene’s other Centers of Excellence include the Center For Community Social Impact, the Center For Innovation & Incubation, the Center For Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, and the Center For Consumer Lives In Financial Transition.
Center for Data Analytics
Dionne noted that in a soon-to-be-published report from the Center for Data Analytics, Filene will emphasize the critical importance of establishing a data analytics program inside a credit union today, if a program is not already underway.
“Data analytics is going to be table stakes in the very near future, if it isn't already,” said Dionne. “Our advice to credit unions is get started. And if you are already using data analytics, really think about ways to use analytics to create value for your organization.”
Center for Consumer Lives in Financial Transition
Filene’s Center For Consumer Lives In Financial Transition just released a report on banking lessons from payday lenders and check-cashers. Among many things, the report addresses how people falling into the payday lending trap are not always the low-income segment of the population.
“This project reveals how many folks that we would consider to be middle class actually struggle a lot with medical bills, and sometimes they have real income volatility, as well,” explained Dionne. “The report describes how credit unions can really be positioned to support them in terms of income smoothing products and helping with financing of unexpected expenses.”
Center for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
Meanwhile, the Center For Diversity, Equity & Inclusion this fall will share results from a survey conducted over the summer on DEI policies and practices at credit unions.
“This report looks for clear connections between which policies and practices credit unions have relating to DEI and shares the ones that actually correlate with performance,” explained Dionne. “This will be the first time that such a study has ever been conducted, and we don't have the results yet. We're still deep in the analysis. But I will give you a hint—bundle your policies and your practices instead of just doing one. I think we're finding that bundles are more likely to prove successful and useful.”
Dionne said a second report from Center for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, also to be released later this summer or possibly in the Autum, focuses on the LGBTQ+ community and financial services. He said the study addresses the importance of leveraging the insights of credit unions’ current LGBTQ+ staff in developing products and services for the community.
“This helps ensure your marketing and your products and services are actually authentic for this community,” Dionne said.
Center for Community Social Impact
The Center for Community Social Impact will share a report that outlines how community relations programs should be well coordinated, and the impact that brings.
“It’s about really setting a strategy for the credit union’s community social impact efforts rather than taking a haphazard approach and just sort of giving money to whoever shows up at your door,” Dionne explained. “Credit unions should get deeply involved with community stakeholders—really endeavor to co-create your strategy with those community stakeholders, and not just go in as your credit union and say, ‘We know best.’”
Two More Studies
The Center for Emerging Technology this year will release a study addressing digital currency and how that might impact credit unions and disrupt the payments space.
Finally, a study from the Center for Innovation & Incubation will address ways to create and cultivate innovation at the credit union—outlining processes that capitalize on opportunities at all levels of the organization.
“Sometimes we only look for innovation and insights from the C-suite,” said Dionne. “And there's a lot of innovation available to us all across the entire organization.”