During her presentation Tuesday at the CUNA Payments Roundtable in New Orleans, Caroline Willard, executive vice president of CO-OP Financial Services, offered a statistic that put the transforming emergence of mobile payments in eye-opening context: Mobile payments increased at a 59% growth rate in 2014.

For that reason, mobile payments continue to be the single greatest threat and opportunity for credit unions, Willard said.

“If I were still working at a credit union and designing products I would ask, ‘Where do I invest my time?’ Because that’s where members are spending their time and that’s where their expectations are regarding the [immediacy] of each of these channels.”

Indeed, consumers do want the immediacy of self-service and the convenience it provides. “The perception of self-service being a lesser service is not holding up,” Willard said. More than ever, consumers want self-service. There is a growing segment that wants to do its transactions at 2 a.m. and not have to talk to anyone to do it.

continue reading »