CO-OP Financial Services and OpenIDEO have joined forces on a credit union engagement initiative supported by MasterCard.
The initiative, an online collaborative community focused on merging innovation, purpose and the future of financial services was unveiled during CUNA's Governmental Affairs Conference.
"This CO-OP program powered by MasterCard is dedicated to co-creating the future of human-centered financial services," Samantha Paxson, chief marketing officer, CO-OP said. "The online network will provide the process and tools to engage in human-centered design, and serve as a collaborative catalyst for innovation."
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The development of an engaging online community to share ideas and pool resources was the result of months of research.
"We are very excited to join CO-OP in this effort to establish a platform with OpenIDEO that delivers the tools and resources to help credit unions drive their business forward," John Ainsworth, EVP, MasterCard Worldwide said.
During a kick-off workshop held at CUNA GAC, OpenIDEO and the first group of "Credit Union Innovation Fellows" helped attendees explore human-centered design approaches through a hands-on session. Attendees learned tools and skills to help them creatively tackle challenges they face at work as a connected community of credit union change-makers.
Credit unions will be able to access the online platform, which will include millennial non-members who are already part of the Open IDEO community, in June.
According to Paxson, the initiative will help facilitate the hosting of local collaboration-focused events and include the design and release of new tools to help credit union employees lead the journey to innovative financial services.
"Our credit unions identified a need for tangible, clear resources to help them innovate as well as a need to bring them together as one community," Paxson said. "This new endeavor will address these needs by focusing on community building and peer-to-peer learning as pathways to innovation."
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