The CUNA Technology Council is offering a new white paper titled The Future of Electronic Account Access: Adapting to the Mobile Lifestyle.

Staff from four credit unions and five technology vendors contributed their thoughts and experience to the paper, which, the council said, “explores the mobile lifestyle that enables members to shift from one electronic device to another as they move from place to place and task to task.”

Credit unions that don't adapt stand to lose membership, the paper warns. It identifies account access options that credit unions need to have now or will soon, including online and mobile banking, respectively.

“You either have to engage them on their terms or they'll look elsewhere,” said John Flora, director of Mobile Solutions Product Management at Intuit Financial Services in Mountain View, Calif.

The latest trends also are explored, including the fast-growing use of tablets such as iPads.

“No one would have known three years ago that tablets would take the country by storm and smartphones would be everywhere. We had an inkling it was there, but the ferocity was scary,” said Nicholas Mathiowetz, information technology manager at the $68 million Northern Communities Credit Union in Duluth, Minn., and a CUNA Technology Council Communications Committee member.

The white paper is available free to CUNA Council members and $50 a copy to non-members.