Pandemic as prelude to payment revolution

The COVID-19 pandemic provided the impetus for a lot of members who had been reticent about digital channels and payments to try them out—and for their credit unions to start planning the next steps to streamline and improve the payment experience.

“Once you go digital, you don’t go back,” says Fran Duggan, CEO of CUES Supplier member Payrailz, Glastonbury, Connecticut. “Once people start paying for things with a digital method that ultimately is much simpler, easier and faster, there’s no need to go back.”

Going forward could lead credit unions toward new solutions that dovetail with members’ embrace of their smartphones, watches and other devices and digital assistants. Rather than encouraging members to enter their card numbers in Apple Pay and Samsung Pay, Duggan suggests that the movement could offer its own payment app, such as a product that Payrailz plans to introduce in 2021. The goal is to develop a payment option as part of its mobile app, so that members could press a button on the app and wave their phone or watch to pay at contactless point-of-sale terminals.

As more consumers embrace these new payment forms, some credit unions are looking to step up their digital delivery and launch P2P payments to win back business from members who’ve turned to Venmo, PayPal and Square Cash. “I believe people still prefer to use their credit union as their trusted financial institution and main source of transactions, but if we don’t offer P2P payments, they’re going to find another way,” he says.

 

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