As could be expected, some members will grasp fringe technology offerings more quickly than others. Thompson views Generation Y as logical bandwagon advocates of "the latest and greatest" in online banking tools, since these are the consumers most acclimated to infusing technology into their everyday lives.

Still, it's infrastructure–the back shop–where members might see the greatest initial impact from fringe technology, Thompson said. She cited Scott Burwell, senior solutions manager of the strategic initiatives group for Jack Henry & Associates, and Carl Barlow, director of software architecture at Symitar–two experts who have highlighted credit union's need to expand existing IT architecture as the single most glaring expenditure for credit unions in keeping pace with technology.

The senior technologists at these two core processing operations noted that with more fringe technological offerings comes an inevitable increase in the volume of online bank transactions. On its most basic level, bigger and faster networks will be needed to keep pace with this rise in transaction volume. Moreover, these same networks will be required to seamlessly sync with an array of third-party, fringe technology banking software applications.

In selecting these applications and the networks to support it, Burwell urged fiscal caution and some historical perspective.

"Five years ago, account aggregation looked to be the next hot thing but never got traction, and has dropped off considerably in popularity," the Jack Henry software architecture specialist told Thompson.

Meanwhile, mobile banking, which briefly flared some six years ago and then died out, has now emerged as one of the hottest products in credit union land.

One fringe technology with a bright future is biometrics. The CUNA white paper predicts "biometrics will dominate most security systems by 2010, resolving today's issues of viruses, hackers, spam, and identity theft."

With the price of biometric fingerprint scanners dipping below $100, Thompson said she expected this fringe technology to supplement or potentially replace conventional passwords. Digital signature pads–at a cost of $50 to $75 apiece–are another means of improving security at minimal upgrade cost.

Several fringe technologies are already seeing strong productivity and financial gains. The UPost honor deposit system replaces standard ATM deposits with a five-item upload process. The physical check is subsequently mailed for data backup purposes. The $2.9 billion Pennsylvania State Employees Credit Union estimates that its member UPost deposits have accounted for more than $650 million so far.

Utah's Mountain America Federal Credit Union adopted a similar system intended for business bankers. With some of $2.3 billion Mountain America's branches out of state or stand-alone, an alternate method of deposit became a growing need for its business members, the CUNA white paper noted.

Meanwhile, mobile banking is quickly becoming an essential component of credit union offerings. Instead of simply offering functionality, $413 million Amplify FCU in Austin, Texas, took the plunge toward a comprehensive mobile banking solution. Via its partnership with MShift, Amplify provides members with transaction history, balances, transfers, as well as the ability to open additional accounts, view a cleared check, pay bills thru bill pay, and even to transfer funds to another Amplify member's account number.

Amplify is augmenting MShift with an online financial management and budgeting tool from software maker Jwaala that aims at simultaneously identifying spending patterns and curtailing potential fraud.

Still–as with any technology purchase–CUNA's Thompson advised proactive spending that's in line with individual needs versus industry trends. She said these purchases should match the habits of a credit union's particular member base while simplifying these offerings to meet such needs.

"A difficult decision for credit unions is not whether to invest but when to invest in order to keep pace with the competition's offerings," Thompson wrote. "Much thought must be taken beforehand about how to reach the largest possible audience by making things easy for the member in terms of flexibility of access device, service carrier, and staying away from special downloads."

To view Thompson's complete report, go to www.cunatechnologycouncil.org, where it can be found under the "White Papers" link from the "Tools & Resources" drop-down menu.

–[email protected]