The scene: Mrs. Jacoby’s pastel blue carpeted living room
The event: Recital for Mrs. Beigel’s piano students
I was slated the go first and play none other than the iconic Olympic Fanfare by John Williams, which was debuted just a few months earlier at the Summer Games in Los Angeles. To this day, my palms get a little sweaty and I get a little nervous when I hear that song. This weekend, like so many other Americans, I got sucked into Olympic mania and watched a bit of the games. But these were not the games of my youth - in a good way. I have to give a shout-out to street skating for making its Olympic debut. Fun, exciting, and amazing to watch; the human body should not possibly be able to do what these athletes are doing. Even the announcers could not really figure it out. Not to spoil it, but Jagger Eaton won the bronze medal for the United States. A 20-year-old! He competed the entire time with his ear pods in, phone in his pocket, and playlist going. I don’t even like wearing ear pods on a normal day. But it worked for him. There were plenty other out-of-the-box events at the Tokyo Olympics this weekend, including 3-on-3 basketball and canoe/kayak slalom. The Olympics are always trying to innovate and to gain younger viewership. Sound familiar? How can credit unions do the same?
I have been doing a deep dive into your League's partnerships and offerings and a few have really struck me in the way they reach younger consumers and deliver information in a way that engages them.
This week, the League has been doing test runs internally using Eltropy’s text message solution for some of our communications. Through your League Service Corporation and CUNA Strategic Services, Eltropy is a partner for digital messaging and over half of state-chartered credit unions have adopted it for their texting and digital messaging needs. If you have not checked it out, you can find out more here.
Our partner Fiserv has a CardValet app that has seen some recent upgrades. Members can manage their finances while guarding against fraud including turning their credit cards on and off; establishing transaction controls for dollar amount limits, merchant categories, and geographic locations; receive alerts when their card is used out of their set parameters; and most importantly get real-time account balances. This last one is a fantastic answer for those policy makers who want to kill overdraft protection programs. The consumers CAN be in control.
Lastly, have you seen the CUNA Mutual TruStage portal? I love this one too. For any young consumer who may have never even contemplated life insurance or any other type of calamity protection, I found the portal to be extremely informative, engaging, and EASY.
A lot of credit unions are doing creative and innovative things. Here at your League we want to give you the opportunity to learn from each other in the Fintech space, help each other navigate various solutions, and talk about what is to come. Stay tuned for a FinTech Roundtable we will host this Fall!
Sincerely,
Carrie Hunt
President/CEO
P.S. How do you Credit Union? I would love to hear from you. Always feel free to shoot me a note or call.
Join us in Virginia Beach Nov. 10-12 at the new Marriott Oceanfront
for IGNITE 2021, the League Annual Meeting!
