Delegates from credit unions from all over the world met in Australia last month to discuss the challenges and opportunities faced by the sector.
Over 1,800 participants from 48 countries attended the World Credit Union Conference, where they shared best practices in terms of technology, leadership, membership and advocacy.
Credit unions have witnessed an increase in membership in recent years. Speaking at the conference, technology expert and adviser, Lee Wetherington, told delegates that membership can be a powerful resource for credit unions, which could take advantage of having access to their 200m members’ data.
Mr Wetherington, who is director of strategic insights at ProfitStars in the United States, said: "The future is more about data than it is about payments. Using credit unions' data, we will be able to help our members decide whether, when and where it makes sense to buy the stuff they want in real time, with integrity. None of the other market disruptors are in a position to do that."
Brian Branch, president and chief executive of the World Council of Credit Union (WOCCU) thinks credit unions should offer financial services designed for young adults’ life transitions. Speaking at the conference, he explained how young adults were more likely to take loans.
"For online and mobile channels to be successful, they must be easy, take only a few minutes and fall within regulatory requirements. If young consumers have to go to a branch in order to complete the process in person, we lose them," he said.
The conference also aimed to bring together credit unions and representatives from non-traditional market entrants. One of them was Alex Sion, president of Moven, a mobile banking service in the United States.
Speaking at the conference, Mr Sion said credit unions were better positioned than banks to gain members’ trust because trust was built into the model.
"Credit unions must ask themselves what...family and community mean in this digital era. The future of the model is to maintain the community aspect, but disrupt the physical distribution model," he added.
As well as discussing about the importance of membership, credit unions leaders also focused on leadership, with a special Forum centred on women leadership within credit unions. More than 125 women from 24 countries at the 2014 Global Women’s Leadership Network Forum in Australia where they looked at ways in which advance credit union women in leadership positions. Every year the Global Women’s Leadership Network meets in conjunction with the World Credit Union Conference.
Sue Mitchell, Network chair, said: "Our main objective is to leverage the momentum gained by the Network to increase its impact and advance co-operative values. The way we grow momentum is by growing the brand. We want to grow membership to 1,000 members by 2017."
Photo: Lee Wetherington speaking at the World Credit Union Conference in Gold Coast, Australia (c) WOCCU
