Payments: The New Trust Factor
New Co-op Solutions research shows consumers trust fintechs over credit unions to meet digital payments needs.
A new definition of consumer trust is emerging in the financial services industry, and it could mean the difference between which credit unions will come out as winners and which as losers.
Here is an eye-opening and alarming takeaway from a new Co-op Solutions CU Growth Outlook White Paper: “Consumers don’t trust their credit union to meet their digital payments needs. Consumers trust fintechs more than they trust credit unions, based on an emerging new definition of what trust means for today’s financial consumers.”
While traditional loan and savings products are critically important, they are passive products that don’t open up opportunities for financial institutions to regularly engage with their members/customers and deepen relationships. However, 80% of consumers’ interactions with their financial institutions are through payments, and fintechs are winning in this space because their payment solutions facilitate frequent interactions with consumers that can deepen relationships.
Fintechs are growing faster than all other types of financial institutions and capturing primary financial relationships (PFRs) from credit unions. From 2021 to 2022, PayPal multiplied its relative PFR growth by five, Chime multiplied its growth by 18, and Robinhood and Mint quadrupled the number of respondents who identified them as their PFR, according to Co-op’s report.
What’s more, these fintechs were fast becoming major competitors for credit unions last year, surpassing traditional competitors (regional and national banks), Co-op’s research showed. And fintechs have doubled down on their takeover of the financial services market with an increased focus on placing payments at the center of everything they do.
The Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.-based Co-op partnered with global consulting firm EY to find out how financial consumer and member behaviors, preferences, challenges and activities have changed over the past year. In collaboration with Co-op, EY conducted a market research survey of 2,000 current credit union members and 1,000 prospects across all regions of the U.S. For an added layer of insights, Co-op also partnered with Filene Research Institute in Madison, Wis., to assess credit unions’ current challenges and opportunities for growth.
These were the major concerning findings:
- Sixty-six percent of consumers said they use some form of digital payments, yet only 16% report doing so directly with their credit union.
- Seventy-eight percent of respondents said they don’t expect their credit union to offer the digital payment options that are right for them.
Credit union primary payment relationships fell by 3% from 2021 to 2022, which is statistically significant, while primary payments relationships for fintechs, national and regional banks, wealth investment firms and online banks have either remained flat or showed growth.
Fintechs were the PFRs in every digital payment product including P2P, virtual wallet, contactless payments, social media payments, investing/trading accounts and cryptocurrency.
In what may also be an eye-opening concern for credit union CEOs, even more evidence showed the new trust factor is apparently bleeding into member satisfaction. The American Customer Satisfaction Index showed that when compared to banks, credit union consumer satisfaction has been declining since 2019. In 2021, the credit union consumer satisfaction score was 76, based on a 100 scale. For banks, the customer satisfaction score was 78. Additionally, Co-op’s research showed 41% of respondents would consider leaving a credit union because the products don’t meet their current needs.
While this research might lead one to conclude that credit unions are in trouble, Carrie Stapp, Co-op’s vice president of integration marketing and commercialization, said she sees it differently.
“I think if [credit unions] keep doing what they are doing – leaning in only on the lending side of the house and not seeing the importance of the payment strategy – then I think the answer is yes, they’re in trouble,” Stapp said. “However, I do think that there is a significant opportunity in front of them right now. I think [credit unions] need to evolve quickly. They need to see their place in consumers’ lives a little bit differently. And I think they need to quickly recognize that maybe [credit unions] don’t know our members as well as we think we do.”
For decades, credit unions have successfully delivered all types of competitively priced consumer loans and checking and savings products. And while those offerings are still essential, they don’t provide opportunities for credit unions to frequently interact with members and prospects.
“I don’t interact with my mortgage. I don’t interact with my auto loan, but I do interact with managing and spending my money coming into my account and money coming out of my account,” she explained. “We need to understand that we can’t ride on who we have always been. It’s got to be about, who do [consumers] need us to be now? And what they’re saying is, please bring us those [payment] tools to help us with our everyday lives. They need somebody to be a hub for them in their financial services lives.”
She pointed out that credit unions are always looking to help their members achieve financial wellness, but then asked, how can they be really solid financial wellness providers if they aren’t present in their members’ everyday payment transactions?
“I’m not balancing the proverbial checkbook anymore, and so when I’m trying to balance my income versus my spending and long term [financial] goals, now it’s about helping me manage my daily finances so that I can save for retirement, so that I can save for my kid’s college, so that I can afford to take that vacation, or whatever it is,” she said. “Because [consumers] need to work at this every day, and if we are not there in the payments world, we’re missing a huge opportunity to really be what consumers are asking us to be.”
Filene Chief Product Officer Christie Kimbell, who leads the organization’s research incubation communities and event teams, said that a payments strategy produces a valuable combination of a higher frequency of interactions and engagements with members, as well as a rich source of transactional data that can help credit unions determine what is most important in their members’ financial lives, opening up opportunities to deepen those relationships.
For the white paper, Filene interviewed credit union CEOs and other top executives.
A chief experience officer for a $1 billion credit union said their payments strategy will not necessarily be a source of revenue because other companies will offer payments for less or for free.
“Instead, we will monetize the transactional data. Maybe we don’t need interchange and we don’t need fees, because when someone joins, they bring enough with them that we understand what they need,” the executive explained.
Another vice president of a $3 billion-dollar credit union said, “I want more robust data. Then I can really segment the market to make sure we are getting penetration in all parts of the market and then ultimately personalization. That’s the end goal.”
Traditional banking presumes that the complexity of financial needs for each member will build over time, but this approach may not be as effective as it has been because less than 50% of young consumers own the products they need for a life event, according to Co-op’s white paper.
To address this challenge, credit unions may want to consider a multi-dimensional segmentation strategy that includes traditional, demographic-based market segmentation such as gender, age, wealth tiers, marital status and geography, coupled with a needs-based segmentation for life events, lifestyles and a mix of solutions.
According to the white paper, payment products like contactless payments, P2P and mobile wallets drive more engagement, and form the center of these active, transactional relationships.
“The key lies in activating a strategy of Lifestyle Enablement – creating active, daily engagement with your members aimed at serving their financial well-being,” the white paper read.
There were 18 top use cases that came out of the 2021 research.
According to Co-op, when credit unions offer the first eight basic features, it will get them to parity and loyalty with their members. The eight basic features are exclusive premium content to help manage financial plans, offering all financial products and financial health advice in one place, an annual checkup with a financial advisor, identity theft protection, access to a certified financial planner or in-person banker, fraud detection and protection, offering relevant products at the right time, and delivering relevant content, education and insights.
Moreover, based on Co-op’s research and analysis, 10 additional features can be tacked on to the basic ones listed above to help credit unions establish PFR-status members: Control over personal data, virtual access to a financial planner, up to $10,000 in instant funding, white glove loan service, relationship pricing discounts, digital identity removal services, advice on securing personal information, free products/services and promotional discount periods.
“When credit unions offer both the ‘table stakes’ basic features plus additional impactful features for little or no cost, they can achieve increases of 34% in member market share and 40% among prospects,” according to the white paper.