Filene Unveils Three-Year Innovation & Incubation Project

The pandemic has exposed a growing need by members for better financial services innovations from their credit unions, according to Filene Research Institute.

The Madison, Wis.-based independent cooperative think tank announced this month new efforts to study innovation trends by credit unions with its new Center of Excellence for Innovation and Incubation. According to Filene, the goal of this three-year research project “aims to help credit unions build systems, cultures and processes so that they may remain adaptive to changing needs of members and communities long into the future” and will be led by Associate Professor and Academic Director of The Center for Urban Entrepreneurship & Economic Development at Rutgers Business School, Dr. Jeffrey Robinson.

“I am interested in supporting an industry I admire—I got my first car loan from a credit union and I am a member of a credit union now,” said Robinson. “As a researcher, I am interested in this work because I want to better understand and reveal deeper insights on how an industry like credit unions is reacting to social, technological and economic challenges, what kinds of business models are changing, how they are changing, who is changing them, and what kinds of innovations are coming out of these changes.”

According to a statement from Filene, the Center of Excellence for Innovation and Incubation will take an action-oriented applied research approach to studying products, services and operations that can improve the credit union system’s innovation capabilities and capacities. The impetus for the research project, according to Filene, comes from the acceleration of innovations demanded by members as the coronavirus pandemic took hold across the U.S.; and studies have shown that 1 in 5 credit union members would consider switching to a “more innovative financial institution.”

“Filene’s innovation and incubation initiatives support our broader mission to help credit unions and communities thrive,” said Filene’s Senior Director of Incubation, Josh Sledge. “We do this by seeking new ideas, running test pilots, and scaling promising concepts. The Center of Excellence for Innovation and Incubation will help fuel that mission.”

Robinson, who has spent more than 20 years researching innovation and entrepreneurship, said he is a firm believer in the credit union system. “Cooperative finance is not just a business model, it’s a movement—and I like to be involved in movements that matter,” he said.

Funding for the new Center of Excellence is being provided by BECU, headquartered in Tukwila, Wash., Christian Financial Credit Union in Sterling Heights, Mich., Coastal Credit Union in Raleigh, N.C. and Corporate Central Credit Union in Muskego, Wis.