White Paper reports on disruptive consumer trends impacting payments and the resulting need for innovation

DES MOINES, IA (May 21, 2014)– In a white paper issued by payments processor The Members Group (TMG), TMG Vice President of Product Ryan Anderson explores the disruptive consumer trends and technologies that are reshaping the way consumers expect to save, spend and make money.

Writing for an audience of financial institution (FI) leaders, Anderson opens the paper with a call for innovation on the part of credit unions and community banks. “While the onus for innovation is an enhanced consumer experience leading to long-term loyalty and growth, today there’s a winding path to get there. Not only that, your chosen path will be flanked with competitors, shifting attitudes and other risks.”

Anderson is a major proponent of innovation in the financial services industry. He most recently led a team of colleagues to a win at The Innovation Project’s 2014 ThinkAThon. Held on the campus of Harvard University, the event was organized to solve some of the biggest problems confronting the payments industry. Anderson’s team was named a winner in the “Revolutionizing Global Cross-Border Payments” category.

In the paper, the two areas of innovation Anderson details are mobile banking and m-commerce. According to Anderson, those technologies represent two of the biggest areas in the mobile landscape with the potential to improve the consumer banking experience. Value-added services and social tools, he writes, are key components to those technologies and the most successful with consumers to date.

“Working within new digital parameters, today’s most successful financial innovators are also snapping into the social aspect of banking and money management,” Anderson writes. “Consider SmartyPig, for example. The platform scratches the surface of an important consumer trend – the need for social engagement from anywhere, anytime. Personal information that was once considered private – even financial transactions and goals – can now form the basis of a Tweet, a Facebook post, or in the case of SmartyPig, a blast email to friends and family encouraging them to contribute their own funds to a user’s personal savings goal.”

Anderson calls out several other first-mover innovators in the financial space, including Movenbank, Mint and TMG’s strategic partner Dwolla, as he encourages FI leaders to think in new ways about serving tomorrow’s consumer.

“Individuals in high-value, influential groups like Gen Y, Hispanic and the underserved, are looking for innovative ways to interact with their finances succinctly and conveniently,” he writes. “By taking a proactive approach to emerging solutions for payments, your FI will be better positioned to satisfy these changing appetites, and in doing so capitalize on this new stream of value-added services revenue.”

To download the white paper “Unspooling the Payments Value Chain,” visit themembersgroup.com/paymentschain.

About TMG

The Members Group (TMG) is dedicated to creating customized, technology-driven card processing and payment solutions for credit unions and community-based financial institutions across North America. Innovations in fraud management, loyalty programs, alternative payment systems and analytic reporting, and the competitive advantages they create, have helped TMG forge a new standard in offering cutting-edge credit, debit, ATM, prepaid card products and a P2P payment solution. For more information, visit www.themembersgroup.com.

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