One thing that might keep Northwest Federal Credit Union President/CEO Chris McDonald up at night is when a member uses Apple's Passbook digital wallet or PayPal to make purchases at restaurants, entertainment venues and gas stations on a daily basis and then once a month or so, cash is shifted from the member's Northwest shared draft account to Apple or Google.

What the $2.6 billion credit union in Herndon, Va., loses in that scenario, said McDonald, is just about everything. The transaction data is opaque to Northwest, interchange fees vanish, and the member relationship could potentially erode.

Read more in the Nov. 20 payments focus report:

• Go and Do, Not Wait and See: Filene Exclusive
• Evolution From Checks Takes Collaboration: Guest Opinion

That is why his credit union has joined with a couple dozen others to launch CU Wallet - designed to be a digital wallet for the 21st century consumer – but he stressed in an interview  that maybe CU Wallet will prevail, maybe it won't, but what is inevitable is that digital wallets will soon stampede across the marketplace and one thing McDonald is determined to avoid is becoming roadkill in what he believes is a coming consumer adoption of tools that let users  pay by smartphone.