MEMBERS Development bears financial brunt to bring customizable Yodlee-powered aggregation piece to market

MADISON, Wis. – Credit Union Times recently took a spin on MEMBERS Development Corporation’s new aggregation piece, “View My Accounts.” Sifting through the aggregation maze is getting tougher these days as a number of credit union groups have partnered with or struck marketing deals with aggregation providers. MEMBERS Development Corp. partnered as well (with Yodlee), but it also helped develop its product and bought one-time licensing rights so it can embed the solution within CUNA Mutual Group’s MEMBERS Financial Network Web solution, which about 1,000 CUs are using Anne Knopp, product manager for View My Accounts for CUNA Mutual Group, said the key to MDC’s aggregation solution is that it is a framed product. Since MDC built its framed version with Yodlee, licensed it and is delivering it through MFN, Knopp said CUs will enjoy unique features geared just for CUs as well as a higher level of customization than stand-alone Yodlee clients. “We built it; took on all the development. Through our MFN, we are able to redistribute it hundreds, thousands of time for the one-time license,” said Knopp. Credit unions will pay a two-year $50,000 licensing to Yodlee. Knopp says that’s much less than a stand-alone Yodlee contract -which could run a couple hundred thousand dollars depending on level of customization. MDC was able to do this by using the pooled R&D dollars of MDC members, she said. MDC is owned 51% by CUSOs and CUs, and 49% by CUNA Mutual Group. Credit unions can customize basically the top quarter of the aggregation pages with logos, messages, banners, or anything else they choose. MDC has also added to the user registration section by allowing CUs to ask up to 10 unique questions of its members. The CU can ask about age and gender of users, as well as income levels, financial preferences, etc. The idea being to give CUs as much information as possible about the member, said Knopp. MDC did a tremendous amount of privacy research, said Knopp, and members will see not only Yodlee’s and their CU’s privacy policies at time of registration, but also one from CUNA Mutual. “We worked with the lawyers on the terms and conditions of the product to make sure all of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley considerations were considered,” said Knopp. Members will have an opportunity to opt out of their CU sharing their data with third-parties. Members who have questions about the product will be provided a credit union contact, whether an e-mail address or telephone number. The CU is responsible for initial support (MDC provdies training.), but if questions go beyond their knowledge, MDC and Yodlee can be called on. View My Accounts also features a shared statement function. This allows a member to give their financial advisor access to their data. This function will be part of Yodlee’s latest Detroit platform, but MDC added a feature that allows a member to search through a list of possible advisors a CU may have. Coming in the next version will be a reporting function that shows CUs what their members are aggregating. Knopp said that function provides an opportunity for the CU to collaborate with the member. “That’s more of the analytical side of this, the financial planning,” said Knopp. MDC is still working on that feature with Yodlee. It’s an aspect of aggregation MDC thinks is vital, she said. There’s two primary reasons CUs are moving to aggregation, according to Knopp. One, they want to be the ones aggregating their members financial accounts, rather than having their account being aggregated by a Citibank or some other financial player. Second, they get to see what the member is doing outside of the CU, and can possibly match products to members more effectively. Credit unions don’t have to be existing MFN clients to get the product, said Knopp. Those CUs that want it, but are not on MFN, will be added to MFN. [email protected]