What’s the Credit Union Response?

by Robert McGarvey

New research out of Juniper smacks most credit union leaders in the face. That’s because 50% of us now say we would consider switching to a digital-only bank. Indeed, many households already are actively contemplating a move to a digital-only bank.

Face this reality: Very soon it will be one whole year in which many of us have not set foot in a branch. And you know what? We have satisfactorily done our banking despite that abstinence.

Many, the Juniper survey says, now believe there are no compelling reasons to want to go back to in-branch banking when the pandemic threat passes—which, by the way, won’t be until year-end 2021 (and maybe, if the variants prove hardy, longer than that). Some have deluded themselves in thinking that a day is coming, and soon, when, click, a switch is thrown and suddenly, as in a Twilight Zone-style slice of life, we are thrust back into our 2019 lifestyle… which for many credit union executives means in-branch. It ain’t happening that way.