Why credit unions should think local and global

Shop local. Buy local. Think local. No consumer has escaped the grassroots movement encouraging them to support their communities. Community financial institutions (FIs) align with this approach, offering consumers an option to “bank local” as well. In a world where global citizenship is becoming increasingly commonplace, however, taking a local-only approach to business may not be enough to satisfy consumers’ changing needs.

Today, the concepts of “local” and “global” are no longer mutually exclusive. Businesses, including FIs, do not have to choose which of these perspectives to focus their efforts on. Instead, the two perspectives form an “AND” conversation, meaning both can be applied simultaneously to strategic planning and development.

Taking a global approach to banking does not mean community FIs need to establish branches in foreign locations. Instead, it is a matter of leveraging the trust and relevancy they have in their local environments with the additional learning they can find outside it. Take U.S. Bank, for example. This institution recognized the difficulty U.S. cardholders faced when making purchases in countries that have migrated to EMV technology and became the first FI in the country to offer a dual-interface EMV chip card for international travelers.

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