2024 marks the 90th anniversary of the Federal Credit Union Act. Signed into law by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the summer of 1934, the Federal Credit Union Act authorized the formation of federally chartered credit unions in every state.

How are credit unions faring 90 years later? Today, total assets in federally insured credit unions sit at more than $2.3 trillion as of the first quarter of this year. That figure represents a year-over-year increase of 4.4%. Membership in federally insured credit unions has also picked up year-over-year, with membership topping the 140 million mark in Q1 of 2024.

But credit unions face significant challenges. Digital transformation is neither cheap nor easy. Competition with larger financial institutions–as well as Big Tech and Big Retail–has forced credit unions to seek new ways to better serve and engage their members.

FinovateFall 2024’s Credit Union Spotlight, presented by Curql, is designed to help credit unions overcome these challenges, offer new innovative solutions, and grow their membership ranks. The session, Wednesday afternoon, on September 11, will enable credit union executives to connect and speak intimately with a small, curated group of fintechs who are specifically focused on serving credit unions. The session will feature a series of rotating roundtables to give participants an ideal opportunity to interact, ask questions, and share best practices.

“It’s an exciting time to be a credit union looking at fintech,” said Greg Palmer, host of Finovate. “More and more innovators are creating solutions with credit unions in mind, and we’re delighted to be able to showcase some of those solutions to a room full of people who can start using them right away.”

Curious? Here are three reasons why you should attend our Credit Union Spotlight if you care about the future of credit unions in America.

Transformation

Digital transformation is reshaping businesses across industries. Credit unions are no exception. Moreover, many of the forces that are driving digital transformation in other industries are especially relevant to credit unions. Digital technology enables credit unions to offer more personalized services and better engage members. It also enhances processes to ensure that members’ data is secure, making the organization more efficient and capable of serving their current members more comprehensively.

And while every credit union is unique, there are commonalities when it comes to the digital transformation journey. Here, the lessons of those institutions that have already undergone this process can be invaluable for those institutions that have just begun–let alone those credit unions encountering challenges on their path to greater digitalization.

Competition

The opportunity to grow, accelerated by digital transformation, also means that credit unions are facing and will continue to face greater competition than ever before. Personalization makes it easy for larger financial institutions to customize their offerings and compete with credit unions when it comes to deeply engaging with individual needs and preferences. Larger financial institutions also often have resources to take advantage of technologies faster and more thoroughly than most credit unions. This can make it easier for these bigger rivals to offer innovations to their customers before credit unions can provide similar solutions for their members.

This is to say nothing of the non-financial entities in Big Tech and Big Retail, for example, who, through innovations such as embedded finance, have begun to offer a variety of financial and banking services to their customers.

Learning more about ever-evolving member preferences is an important initial step. But following up with new initiatives, new services, and new solutions can be a key hurdle early in the process. To this end, credit union professionals owe it to themselves to learn and share strategies that have helped credit unions of all sizes better understand their members, deploy new products that are eagerly adopted, and boost engagement.

Collaboration

One of the ways that credit unions are dealing with the challenge of competition–with Big Banks, Big Tech, Big Retail–is by embracing opportunities to collaborate with innovative fintechs, many of whom specialize in serving the credit union industry. This is important. For credit unions looking for partners to help them improve back-office operations, offer a new rewards program, or fortify their defenses against fraud, teaming up with fintechs that have demonstrated interest and experience in partnerships with credit unions can make the difference between achieving digital transformation goals that may have seemed unreachable–and falling short.

To facilitate these kinds of partnerships, credit union professionals need a forum that focuses exclusively on credit unions and the fintechs that serve them. Our Credit Union Spotlight, taking place next month at FinovateFall in New York, is that forum. To learn more about joining us and participating in the session, email our registration coordinator at ella.burton@informa.com.

Photo by Jonathan Cooper on Unsplash