It may be too early to call it a trend but at a growing—albeitsmall—number of credit unions are using internal IT staff todevelop mobile apps, rather than buying them off the shelf.

“We did not see what we wanted off the shelf. We came to theconclusion that we needed to build our apps ourselves,” said RayBlack, vice president of marketing and remote delivery at the $1.5billion Genisys Credit Union in Auburn Hills, Mich.

At $5.6 billion Randolph-Brooks Federal Credit Union in LiveOak, Texas, Senior Vice President Mary O'Rourke elaborated thatRBFCU created its own apps because “we want to differentiateourselves in the marketplace. So we are always looking for ways toinnovate, to keep our apps fresh.”

Using the very same app in use at hundreds of other creditunions, suggested O'Rourke, is no way to achievedifferentiation.

A proof of the commitment to home brewed innovation at RBFCU isthat it recently introduced a continually updated balance widgetthat, at the member's option, displays account balances on asmartphone with no need to log in.

“We had over two thousand downloads on the first day,” O'Rourkesaid, adding that member feedback continues to be strong andapproving.

Back at Genisys,Michelle Mattson, electronic services manager, said that a guidinggoal in the credit union's mobile app development is that they wanttheir apps to be utterly standalone.

“There is no need for a mobile member to have ever even visitedour website,” Mattson said. Genisys, she suggested, feels it canget there better creating its own tools.

Genisys is also especially proud of its mobile remote deposittools, which it built out on its own, using the processing backendprovided by Vertifi, the Burlington, Mass.-based technology subsidiary ofEastern Corporate Credit Union.

“We have seen substantial member usage of deposit capture, it'sproven very popular,” Mattson said.

Next Page: In-House at NavyFederal

Another home brewer is Navy Federal, the $55 billion Vienna,Va.-based credit union, which develops all its apps in house, “withhelp as needed from consultants,” said MeghanGound, assistant vice president of eChannels. On the drawingboards at Navy Fed is development of a credit card application toolthat, Gound said, will feature a wizard that lets a member quicklysort through many credit card options to find one that best suitshis or her needs.

The aim is to let a member apply in three steps and get animmediate decision, said Gound, who said the app will launch thiswinter.

She indicated that Navy Fed also is exploring what it mightrelease as an app for Kindle Fire, a popular, low-cost Androidtablet from Amazon.

“We have a laundry list of items we want to develop,” Goundsaid, who suggested Navy Fed members can expect to see a number ofhome brewed apps released over the next year.

At Fairwinds Credit Union, a $1.6 billion Orlando, Fla.,institution, executive vice president Charlie Lai related that hisshop is especially pleased with a home brewed new account openingapp for iPad, created when Fairwinds won the right to pursuestudent business on the giant University of Central Floridacampus.

“With this app we can open a new account in three to fourminutes,” said Lai. He added that a unique requirement was that thestudent ID card had to play a central role in the app, because oncampus, it is commonly used as a payment tool.

Before, using past generation tools, account opening took maybe20 minutes, he said. Lai knew that would not cut it in the UCFenvironment.

So far, Fairwinds has opened around 2,000 new memberships, Laisaid, The primary use is by credit union employees who make contactwith students during orientations for new enrollees. The studentsare deluged with information during these days, he said, soFairwinds wanted a fast, and engaging, way to get them enrolled ascredit union members.

Development of the app took around three weeks, Lai said, whoacknowledged it is built on top of a PC-based account opening toolthat was also home brewed by Fairwinds.

He indicated that the present plan now is to bring the iPad appback to the branches, to take over account opening, because this“will get staff away from the counter and out circulating withmembers. The iPad form factor offers us unique opportunities.”

Dreams get bigger still, at many other credit unions. Case inpoint: At RBFCU, the credit union has kicked home brewing up anotch, by taking a page from Google and Facebook, both of which areknown for setting aside development days where programmers—workingwith tight time constraints—focus on creating something useful.

“We want to empower our people to execute their own ideas,” saidO'Rourke, who indicated the plan is to challenge his mobile team toproduce more apps that are unique to RFBCU.