Big data may be the phrase of the moment in marketing but, forsome credit unions, it is already plumping up the bottom line.

Right now, marketers and institutions have access to hugeamounts of data that pour in both what some call structured form,which includes completed Web forms, and unstructured form throughTwitter Tweets and Facebook postings. All of these types of datafall under the scope of big data.

As good, cheap analytical tools have emerged to sort and analyzethe data, this has put big data to more use, experts havenoticed.

The $248 million Southwest Airlines Federal Credit Union inDallas, is among the financial institutions discovering thebenefits.

• RELATED: Cloud Computing Meets Credit Union Skeptics
• RELATED: American Eagle FCU's Platform Boosts OnlineBanking
• RELATED: Guest Opinion: Thwarting Cyber Attacks
• RELATED: Aite Group Says Core Replacements on Uptick: SlideShow

“We are using a lot of data now. We are tapping into data thathad been hidden to us and we are using this information to makebetter strategic plans and to fine-tune our product build,” saidBen Cortez, executive vice president for Southwest Airlines FCU,which serves more than 35,000 members.

AmyEcker, a vice president of marketing at Southwest Airlines FCU,shared how using big data has produced fruit. For some time, thecredit union offered members a savings account that paid 4% up to$25,000 and 1% on additional funds. There were questions aboutwhether the offer was actually a viable deal for the financialinstitution, Ecker said.

Southwest FCU ran the tallies and discovered that the vastmajority of investors in that product had multiple, productiverelationships with the institution including share draft accounts,credit cards and car loans. Ecker said the product was doingexactly what it was designed to do, which was to reward goodmembers and also bring in a flow of strong business. The data alsoshowed that few members exceeded the $25,000 cap.

“We decided to lower the rate beyond $25,000 from 1% to0.5%.  There was almost no member protest,” Cortezsaid.

In years past, an institution might have made all the samedecisions. Now, Southwest Airlines FCU lets the data guide it tothe next step. The credit union is also digging deep into data asit mulls where and when to possibly open a new branch to bettersync with the expanding route map of the airline that serves as theprimary field of membership.

“We are still gathering data before we pull this trigger,” saidCortez, but his implication is that when the credit union decideson a location, it will have a high degree of confidence about itschoice.

To help make more informed decisions, the credit union ispulling in data from many sources including the airline, federaland state governments and economic forecasts, Cortez noted.Southwest Airways FCU is not alone. Many banks and credit unionsare currently wrestling with how to make better use of the datathey have.

“If you aren't efficient you won't be able to stay in business,”said Ted Luchsinger, financial services industry principal at SAP,an IT company in Waldorf, Germany. “The future is around the flowof data and using it to drive operational responses.”

Luchsinger conceded that financial institutions, includingcredit unions, oftentimes struggle to mine their own data becauseof inflexibilities engineered into aging core systems.

“Siloed systems make it very difficult to get a single view ofthe customer,” Luchsinger said. His point is that transaction-basedcores excel at recording every transaction, but they were neverdesigned to present information in the relational ways today'smarketers crave.

Some institutions are stumbling because of that notion as theychase big data. The ones that are steaming forward will be the onesprimed to succeed as big data and its analysis lends itself tosmarter institutional transformation, Luchsinger said. Still, somebanks and credit unions are being quiet with their big dataplans.

“Financial services are very competitive. If you are doing coolthings, you are not going to broadcast it,” said Joe Nicholson,vice president of marketing and business development at Datameer,an analytics tool developer in San Mateo, Calif. “They aresecretive about what they are doing.”

Meanwhile, some financial players are becoming more aggressiveabout mining data as they hunt for information they consider to bemeaningful.

Ankor Rai, global head of analytics at EXL, an IT firm in NewYork, talked about how financial institutions are attempting tozero in on what he calls life events. They then connect the dotsbetween, for instance, the birth of a child, an auto accident, or abig promotion at work and the financial events that follow, such asthe purchase of a bigger home, a new car loan, and largerretirement investments.

“The data leads to new insights,” said Rai, who added that thetrick here is learning to blend unstructured data, includingFacebook posts about a promotion, for example, with amember-centric viewpoint that lets the institution deliver moretargeted offerings.

Experts acknowledge much more may be at stake.

“Deeper analytics into information will help FIs betterunderstand who the customer is and what he wants and what hedoesn't care about,” said Todd Morrissey from LLR Partners, aPhiladelphia-based private equity firm that follows the big dataspace.

While big data can present a big challenge to financialinstitutions, it might be in the center of the bulls eye forproviding better service.

“If you don't do this, your competitors will,” said CharleyRich, a vice president with Nastel Technologies, an IT firm inMelville, N.Y. “You have to master big data or be buried byit.”