Nowhere in credit unions is change coming more fiercely,furiously and fast than in mobile banking, something that just fiveyears ago seemed futuristic, the stuff of sci fi but which todayhas emerged as a must have and perhaps also as a way forsmall-footprint credit unions to compete with the biggestbanks.

A regional credit union cannot have hundreds of branches – butwith smartphone-carrying members there is a branch in every pocket,and that is the game-changing magic of the technology.

Mobile banking continues to evolve. Here, experts pinpoint fiveways mobile banking in 2014 is likely to be very different fromwhat you had known.

Read more: The biggest channel …

5. The biggest channel

Doug Brown, a senior vice president at FIS, makes a boldprediction that soon mobile will eclipse online in terms of users.Said Brown: “Mobile users will exceed those of online users asmobile takes center stage as the primary interaction channel forbanks and credit unions – making mobile the new battlefront forrelevance to customers and driving a market share shift based onmobile.”

Brown flatly predicted: “In the next 12 months, mobile willovertake online in terms of number of users. It already has moretransactions.”

He added that this is upping the ante for credit unions in termsof the quality, and functionality, of their mobile banking apps.“Consumers will have very little patience with apps that don'tperform,” he said.

Early adopters cut apps slack, the newcomers to the mobilechannel are there for the performance, period.

Other experts may see mobile domination not coming until 2015but know this: just about every expert sees this happening muchsooner than had been thought a few years ago, as well-pricedsmartphones become the norm and the cellular carriers puthigh-speed 4G in ever more neighborhoods. The infrastructure isthere and so the use of banking services will only multiply.

A related trend: more members are asking for mobile only access,that is, they do not intend also to use online banking. Thatcreates a complication in that many mobile banking packages areparasitic on online (for instance, new payees may have to be addedvia online) but, said experts, tweaking mobile tools to decouplethem from online will not be a challenge for most institutions andthat just may be tested in 2014.

Read more: The camera has it …

4. Say Cheese: The Camera Has It

The smartphone camera has been a key to mobile banking's rapidadoption, said Robb Gaynor, chief technology officer at Malauzai,an Austin, Texas, developer of mobile apps which has rolled outmobile remote deposit capture – perhaps the quintessential mobilebanking activity – as well as Picture Pay, where consumers can paya bill by snapping a picture of it.

Noted FIS' Brown: “MRDC is what really differentiates mobilebanking from online.”

Theoretically, an online banking user could scan a check anddeposit it – and at least some did – but it never caught on outsideof business users. Suddenly, MRDC is emerging as the definingpopular mobile banking activity, said Gaynor, and a key has been the progressively better and sharpercameras on smartphones.

The first iPhone, in 2007, shipped with a two-megapixel camera.The current iPhone 5S ships with an eight-megapixel camera and thatmeans sharper, clearer images and more successful deposits, justbecause the built-in camera has gotten so much better.

Now that camera is getting enlisted to help consumers pay theirbills with a mobile phone and, said Gaynor, the financialinstitutions that are early adopters of Picture Pay are seeingusage that eclipses initial projections. Consumers apparently likethe convenience of snap a picture, pay, done.

Experts envision yet more use of cameras in banking because thismay be the fastest and surest way to input data on a small formfactor device. Typing on glass on a tiny keyboard is not easy andnever is fast. Snapping a photo – of a driver's license, forinstance, or a pay stub – is as easy as a click and if the expertsare right, we will be doing more of that in 2014 as more apps buildin roles for the camera in processes such as account onboarding,predicted Gaynor.

Read more: What's in your digitalwallet?

3. What's In Your Digital Wallet?

This just may be the year when your credit union needs to decideits digital wallet strategy. That is the prediction from PaulFiore, founder of CU Wallet, who said, “2014 will be the year of the digitalwallet for financial institutions. For consumers, it will be2015.”

Assembling a viable digital wallet payments tool has proven muchmore complicated than many once thought. Consumers, financialinstitutions, merchants, smartphone makers and still others have tobe brought on board and, so far, they have not been rushing toembrace this new payments tool where the phone replaces the plasticcard.

But experts insist that adoption of digital wallets is simply amatter of time.

“We will see much more aggressive piloting of digital wallets in2014,” said FIS' Brown.

Integral to wallet adoption will be inclusion of rewards anddiscounts, said Fiore. The phone becomes the delivery tool and, inthat way, a digital wallet will be substantially smarter and morepersonalized than a plastic card in a leather wallet. As thathappens, consumers will naturally begin using mobile wallets andthat is why credit unions need to begin to take steps to be ready,said Fiore, who said 33 credit unions had already signed up for CUWallet.

Read more: Biometrics Matter

2. Biometrics Matter

Will 2014 finally be the year when biometrics as a tool forpositively identifying a member catches on? More experts are sayingthat is exactly what will happen, and they point to Apple's TouchID fingerprint reader as a tipping point. Because it is Apple,“People think it is cool, not an annoyance,” said Jay McLaughlin, chief security officer at Q2, the Austin, Texas,financial technology firm.

McLaughlin added, “Biometrics will be the future for financialinstitutions. Something I am will become part of the login.” Thatwill be another factor along with something I have and something Iknow, said McLaughlin.

Various biometric modalities are competing for the pole position– there are fingerprints, eye scans, also voice prints.

Lately – and despite Apple's deployment of fingerprints – someare looking to voice, mainly because it's a natural complement ofsmartphones. “Voice is a natural part of using the phone,” saidJohn Petersen, a founder of ValidSoft, a voice biometrics company.He added that ValidSoft tools are in tests with several financialinstitutions right now.

Makers of other biometrics of course plump for their tools butknow this: the more doubts that are raised about the security ofthe username-password login, the more the quest for alternativeswill intensify and, right now, biometrics seem primed for broaderadoption in the coming year.

Read more: Non-banks rising

1. Non-Banks Rising

Amid the good news driven by mobile banking, there is a worry onthe horizon: The rise of the digital only and non-bank. FromGoBank to Bluebird new banking competitors are emerging and, said FIS'Brown, their future looks rosy. “Digital only banks will growfaster than traditional financial institutions. They clearly have avalue proposition that resonates with a profitable customer base,with multiple customer relationships.”

Note: Nobody is outright predicting the disappearance of thetraditional branch-based institution but futurists, increasingly,envision a world where a growing number of digitally savvy consumers getthe financial services they need from institutions with a small, orno, physical presence.

And that means the stage is set for yet more reinvention, yetmore innovation because the mobile banking revolution is only inits first phases. There is much more ahead and it will likely comefaster than anyone has thought.