ACH as a Strong Source of Local Insight

One of the richest sources of first-party data is a credit union's ACH file. Credit unions can identify meaningful patterns by sorting ACH deposits and debits. Here are a handful of ideas:

Identify current and historic child tax credit recipients and other stimulus payments from the past year. Once identified, sort by balance and frequency. Which of your members are using this money immediately as it comes in? Might they need financial coaching to prepare for the end of economic stimulus? What about those who are saving the money? Would they be better off rolling the funds into an interest-bearing account, such as a 529 college savings plan or traditional CD?
Segment credit card payments by round or exact payments. A member who is making round payments like $50 or $100 to a credit card company is likely paying down debt and carrying a balance month-to-month. These members could have a need for a lower-interest balance transfer or debt consolidation loan. Conversely, a member who is making a payment like $685.62 is potentially charging daily purchases to a credit card and paying it off in full each month. These members may be looking for rewards and could be incentivized to change cards with innovative loyalty offers and/or better digital options, like online payment.
Investigate home improvement investments. Are Lowes, Home Depot, Ace Hardware and True Value credit card payments popping up in the ACH file? If those payments are round, might the member be carrying a high-interest balance on one of these home improvement credit cards? What could your home equity lending team do with a list of members who are fixing up mortgaged real estate in your area?
Look into peer-to-peer (P2P) app usage. Are your members more frequently relying on Apple Pay, Google Pay, Venmo, Zelle, Cash App and other P2P apps to move money? What are the shared characteristics among members who love these tools? This kind of insight can kickstart strategic conversations around attracting new high-contributing members and keeping them engaged with your products and digital services.
Search for airline purchases and other travel transactions. Are national expectations for pent-up travel demand coming true within your field of membership? If so, how can the credit union help? Could you revamp rewards to incentivize travel purchases on credit union cards? Or could you add or promote digital travel alerts within a mobile app?

Taking Action on Local Insight Into Real Member Behaviors

If there's one thing the pandemic taught us, it's that local matters. From political climates to daily positivity rates, the severity of COVID-19's impact varied wildly from state to state and often county to county. This disparity is likely to continue, affecting the behaviors and expectations of local populations uniquely going forward. By keeping a finger on the pulse of member preferences with data analytics, credit union decision-makers can more confidently take action – not on global news of the day, but on the actual stories local data is telling.

Instant Insights /

Predict Post-Pandemic Banking Behaviors With CU Transaction Data

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