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Payments Strategies
This week, CreditUnions.com sets its sights on payments. From an update on credit unions using Zelle to delays in the ACH window, readers will find payments strategies and case studies, and definitely no April Fool-ery.
Here are five can’t-miss data points:
5 Minutes
Only five minutes had passed when the first member of the University of Wisconsin Credit Union used the cooperative’s new Zelle person-to-person payments offering. That was on Jan. 24 this year, and by the end of March, more than 13,000 members had used Zelle through the UWCU app or website, moving nearly $4 million through approximately 15,000 transactions, says the credit union. How have things changed since then?
Read: A Zest For Zelle Drives Early Adoption At 2 Credit Unions
3%
Consumers Credit Union was the first financial cooperative in Michigan to offer Apple Pay and has continued to blaze that trail, adding Samsung and Google wallets, too, as they became available. That’s because the west Michigan institution intends to be there for members as they reach for their digital wallets to pay online and in store as more point-of-sale merchants make contactless payments available. Where checking accounts and mortgages have long been a sure sign of stickiness, the future standard for creating loyalty might well be digital payment options, something Consumers is already seeing. Whereas approximately 1% to 3% of Consumers’ debit and credit transactions go through mobile wallets, the people who do use them use them religiously, Warren says.
Read: The New Way To Pay: Mobile Wallets And The Path To Credit Union Adoption
6 Months
The Federal Reserve has delayed by six months the drive to open more windows for same-day payments through the ACH Network, but the impact of that delay appears at best uncertain. Despite the fact the ACH payments rail accouns for more than $40 trillion in transactions every year, it’s just one of the options available for credit unions and other financial institutions. Plus, there already are two new windows in place, and NACHA says network volume is growing. NACHA, the administrator of the ACH Network, began adding new origination and settlement windows in 2016, in a staged rollout that’s now scheduled to be completed in March 2021 instead of later this year.
Read: The Payment Rail Rolls On Despite Delays In ACH Window
2015
Mark Fox joined Spokane Railway Credit Union as a teller in 1996. In 2015, he became the first vice president of payments for what’s now Numerica Credit Union. More than just the credit union’s name has changed over the years. In fact, change has become a constant for Numerica and for Fox, who left the credit union in 2002 and returned in 2012 as assistant vice president of e-services. Fox talks to CreditUnions.com about evolving channels, growing expectations for payments delivery, early adoption, security, and more.
Read: Alexa, How Does Numerica Do Payments?
1 Trillion
The human body is capable of amazing things: Our eyes can distinguish 10 million colors, our nose can distinguish 1 trillion smells, our body itself can grow nearly nine feet tall, and, today, thanks to the pioneering work of one California credit union, it can now act as a form of payment at most major merchants. Wait, what? Corpus Hominis Federal Credit Union ($130.6M, Oakville, CA) is working to make physical payments (in a manner of speaking) a thing of the past with its Full-Bodied Authentication (FBA) program.
Read: Next-Level Wearables Is A Full-Body Experience
Happy Reading!