WASHINGTON - CUNA Mutual Group will contribute $1 million to fund Filene’s Center of Excellence for Consumer Decision Making, Filene Research Institute announced Monday during CUNA's Governmental Affairs Conference.

The center is the first of five Centers of Excellence that will be launched by Filene through 2017. The first center will be led by Hope Schau, associate dean of Eller MBA programs and marketing professor for the University of Arizona.

The center’s research will focus on consumer money decisions, emerging societal trends and their relationship with financial decisions.

The five Centers of Excellence will be designed to address the changing needs of credit unions and their members, and issues surrounding the future of consumer financial trends in an effort to encourage credit unions to think differently.

“The rapidly changing market means the credit union system of the future will not look the same,” Mark Meyer, CEO of Filene, said. “And those credit unions need the kind of research, analysis and insight that come from Filene’s Centers of Excellence.”

The Center for Consumer Decision Making will focus on three issues. First, its research will center on money behaviors in an effort to help credit unions appeal to potential new markets. Second, it will zero in on consumer preferences and behaviors to help credit unions design new products. Finally, it will look into emerging trends and their implications for retail banking.

Other Centers of Excellence will focus on organizational innovation and entrepreneurship; emerging technology, performance and operational excellence; and the war for talent.

Filene is a consumer finance research institute that investigates how issues affect the future of credit unions, retail banking and cooperative finance.