As Amazon's potential foray into banking continues to make headlines, it is obvious that competition in the financial services industry looks different than it did 10, or even five, years ago. Financial institutions are now finding themselves being compared to and evaluated against organizations outside the scope of their typical competitors, such as Venmo, Uber and Airbnb. These technology companies are dictating how the customer experience should look and feel, and consumers are expecting their financial institutions to keep up.

Despite this influx of new players in the space, many credit unions continue to benchmark their products and services only against other peer and competitor credit unions. Such a narrow view can limit the innovation and growth that credit unions embrace. As large national and regional banks, fintech companies and even partnerships between the two are leveraged to offer advanced features and experiences to consumers, credit unions must be able to implement competitive and innovative services to remain relevant.