We live in an increasingly interconnected world, where credit unions encounter diverse scenarios that highlight the need for global financial solutions.
Imagine the following happening within your community:
- An international student from Singapore has just arrived in the United States to start her first year at her university. She has a cashier’s check for thousands of dollars to pay for her tuition bill but isn’t sure where or how to deposit it.
- A London-based researcher who spends six to nine months each year working from the U.S. headquarters of her multinational company deposits her monthly salary into a U.S. bank account. She would rather use a credit union, but is unsure if she can access her account when she is back in the U.K.
- A Guatemalan immigrant-turned-citizen is employed at a local dairy farm and regularly wire-transfers money to Guatemala to support his aging parents. His American-born children insist that the transaction fee to send these remittances is too exorbitant. He’s a member of your credit union and is looking for a more affordable remittance alternative.
- A priest from France, assigned to oversee a parish in the U.S. for the next ten years, needs to purchase a car to get to work, and locals have recommended your credit union for financing because of your competitive interest rates. While he does not have a Social Security number, he does have an International Taxpayer ID Number (ITIN), which has been accepted before for other paperwork.
These are just four examples of the unique needs of consumers who are:
- From outside the U.S.
- Maintain residences in other countries
- Are engaging in financial transactions across international borders
While the scenarios above are seemingly rare, they are becoming more commonplace in a variety of urban, suburban and rural communities across the country.
According to the Migration Policy Institute, immigrants constituted 17 percent of the U.S. population, which was approximately 28.6 million people in 2022. The ubiquitous and accessible technologies of today make it easier for immigrants, multinational workers, and international students to maintain family ties, both socially and economically. Family group chats on WhatsApp, global remittance services (which are valued around $890 billion), and the option for many Americans to work abroad as digital nomads demonstrate how private and public infrastructures have embraced more globally-oriented lifestyles. It also signals how credit unions need to keep up to date with their own processes and products to support them.
Understanding and anticipating the needs of global consumers will continue to be important in the years to come if credit unions want to be relevant to younger and more diverse members. It requires understanding the diverse demographics within your field of membership, assessing your credit union’s readiness and capabilities, and training staff to anticipate and be ready to serve a broader base of members.
Understanding your diverse membership
It’s important for credit unions to know the segments of your community that have an international profile: immigrants, refugees, international students, and overseas contract workers, as mentioned above. In addition, there will be Americans who hold dual citizenship with another country who may need to make financial transactions across international borders.
If you are within a community with a high number of foreign workers, such as those in the technology, agriculture and food processing, and construction sectors, you will likely find that these workers and their families need to be able to send money back and forth internationally. University and small college towns should also be ready to sign on new members who need a trusted financial institution to make foreign currency exchanges and large deposits while they are a student in the area.
Credit union readiness assessment
In addition to getting to know your global members, reviewing your credit union's current capabilities is equally important. This can include an evaluation of:
- The various forms of acceptable ID beyond social security numbers
- A member’s ability to use their WhatsApp ID as their contact phone number
- Technology infrastructure (i.e., core processor) and security measures
- Remittance service or referral to a reasonably priced remittance provider
- Multilingual and 24-hour support staff
Best practices for serving a global membership
While it may seem daunting to revise your operations for your global members, it’s easier if your credit union has been hiring diverse, bilingual, and bicultural staff—especially if they’ve been hired to work as tellers or MSRs. These employees may have already called attention to what you already do well and what roadblocks may still exist. Provide more formal opportunities for these staff members to share their insights and suggest best practices to implement in the years to come.
Best practices for serving global members also include leveraging technology:
Are your digital platforms secure enough to be accessed from overseas? Try offering mobile banking with international features, especially if you’re located in an area with a large concentration of overseas contract workers, for example Silicon Valley in California or Research Triangle Park in North Carolina, or a community that shows high activity in remittance payments to countries overseas (the top three countries to receive remittances in 2024 were India, Mexico and the Philippines).
New York-based United Nations Federal Credit Union (UNFCU) has been the leading financial cooperative for the UN community, since 1947, serving more than 240,000 members across 200 nations currently. “We respond to how global citizens bank and move money internationally,” said Janice Ong, vice president of Payments Experience at UNFCU.
UNFCU built a custom cross-border payment platform that remits over $2.5 billion annually. “Our secure financial solutions make transferring money easier for our members and their families so that they can stay connected to their financial lives—whether UN staff is based in one country and has family in another, who will need to access funds, or they need to transfer funds back home to make rent, mortgage, or children’s school tuition payments,” she said. “We give our members financial peace of mind while they work to build a better world.”
Innovation and inclusion: Serving a world of members
To remain relevant and competitive, financial institutions must embrace innovative practices and anticipate the needs of consumers with different lifestyles. Provide a call to action for your entire organization to learn more about your field of membership, assess your readiness, and leverage the insights that your diverse members and staff have to offer. By addressing the unique needs of global members, credit unions can strengthen their position as trusted financial partners for all.
