The report from Javelin Strategy + Research could not be moreominous. Financial institutions, credit unions included, havedropped the ball with a huge market segment that simply overlooksthem when it comes to digital bill pay.

Noted the Javelin report titled “2013 Online Banking and Bill PaymentForecast:” (Bill pay) adoption will remain unacceptably at through2018 unless nancial institutions take action to upgrade services,counter misperceptions about paying bills at FIs, and specicallytarget 29 million Americans who are only one step away from payingbills at their bank or credit union.

“The priority list of holdouts is topped by a newly identifiedsegment of nearly 11 million Digital Drifters, dened as consumerswho bank online and use mobile banking but do not pay bills attheir primary FI,” the report said.

Mark Schwanhausser, director, Omnichannel Financial Services, atJavelin, said in an interview, however, that there are reasons foroptimism. “If financial institutions do this right, they could add29 million people as customers using bill pay.”

(Click on image above to see enlarged version.)

What is intriguing about the 11 million Digital Drifters inparticular is that while they do not pay bills using theirfinancial institution's digital tools, they do however pay bills atbiller websites. At least 70% of them do, according to Javelin.

Javelin's analysis of that behavior poses both an opportunityand a challenge to credit unions. The report noted: “Javelin'sanalysis concludes these are generally younger, impressionabledigital-minded consumers who could 'drift' into paying bills attheir primary bank or credit union if offered a more compellingalternative.”

That, suggested Schwanhausser, is the big if. Is the alternative “morecompelling?”

“It's not about marketing better. It's about improving yourproducts,” said Schwanhausser.

Right now, these digital drifters say “financial institutionbill pay is inferior,” said Schwanhausser.

As for the cure, Schwanhausser asked, “You need to offer toolsthat will satisfy them, especially mobile tools. They all havesmartphones. This clock is ticking.”

“Your challenge,” said Schwanhausser, “is moving fastenough.”