Tack a good mobile app onto your digital banking platform and you have all your millennial bases covered, right? If only it were that easy. Yes, millennials are highly mobile and have grown up running their lives from their smartphones. To really resonate with the millennial crowd, however, your credit union needs to understand how they think – not just about life in general, but banking in particular.

Scratch, a division of Viacom Media Networks, completed a three-year study of actual and potential industry disruption caused by millennials. While the Millennial Disruption Index spanned 15 industries, the results were most telling and most startling for banking.

The results do point to some opportunity for credit unions. For example, all four of the top U.S. banks were among the 10 brands most disliked by millennials. Also, a third of millennials were open to the idea of switching financial institutions in the next 90 days.

On the other hand, more than half said they don't believe their financial institution offers anything different than any other financial institution. Nearly 70 percent said that in five years, they expect the way they access their money will be totally different. About the same portion said the way they pay for things will be totally different, too.

Based on all of this, one could reasonably conclude that to entice millennials to make that switch mentioned earlier, your credit union needs to provide a new and unique member experience. That in turn requires a long-term commitment to new, potentially disruptive technology.

Consider the lucrative payments business. Apple Pay is the latest and greatest. Yet it still relies on the credit card paradigm to function. Credit card information is stored on your iPhone. You select your payment option by tapping a picture of the desired credit card, and the transaction itself runs over the credit card rail.

Visa and MasterCard like Apple Pay because it brings a little new life to their fading card-based model. However, all around us, technology companies are developing new payment models that sidestep credit cards entirely. PayPal and its penetration into retailers like Home Depot are probably the highest profile example of this. It's worth noting here that about three-quarters of millennials surveyed said they would be more excited about a new financial services offering from Google, Amazon, Apple, PayPal or Square than from their own bank.

In the months ahead, your credit union will have more and more options for mobile payments and other millennial-centric services. While it's essential for credit unions to take a global view of technology, it's also important to remember that most credit unions are community financial institutions. In other words, credit unions need to balance how they play in the world economy with what they do to foster and support the local economy.

All technology is interim technology – a steppingstone to the next seemingly big thing. That's the nature of innovation. The key is knowing precisely when to let go of the old technology and embrace the new technology. If the current trends among millennials are any indication – and there's no reason to believe they're not – it's probably time to start loosening your grip on some of that older technology.

Instant Insights /

Attracting Millennials Takes More Than a Mobile App

Related Stories

Recommended For You