By this stuff, I mean this new stuff. Web 2.0. User-generated content. Social media. Whatever you want to call it.

All this stuff you live and breathe. All this stuff that continues to come in waves. All this stuff that you know is perfect for your credit union. All this stuff that you can’t explain to anyone who is not involved. All this stuff your members are doing online. All this stuff that you know is passing your credit union by.

How about the brand and name experts? No, they’re too busy helping credit unions merge to waste their time on this stuff. They’re telling credit unions, “Skip this stuff. It will pass.”

How about the ad agency? Not likely. They make their money in 30 second increments. If they can’t monetize it, forget it. They, too, are telling credit unions, “Skip this stuff. It will pass.”

How about the PR consultants? Nope. User-generated content with no editorial review is too scary for them. “We need to control this stuff.”

How about the IT department? Yeah right. They’re too busy with bank system security and making sure your in-box isn’t filled with spam. Just try to convince the techies that embedded code from a third-party website is a good thing to do. “Nope, that stuff is not touching my stuff. My job is to block stuff, not touch stuff.”

How about the young person in the organization with a knack for computers? Maybe, but this person will never have the influence or the resources to really implement this stuff. “OK old dudes, this stuff is so cool. Trust me, we really need this stuff.”

How about your marketing and communications department? They would be the natural fit, but with a steady flow of branch requests and with the production of your ingrained annual sales promotions, time and resources are spread too thin. “We’d love to help, but we just don’t have time to do this stuff.”

How about the digital agency or the web consultancy? Possibly. They are definitely capable of doing whatever your credit union wants to do. But they can’t go it alone. “OK, before we do anything, we want to make sure you guys understand this stuff and are comfortable with us doing all of this stuff.”

How about hiring an expert on staff? Good idea. But you better be prepared to listen and give him or her the freedom to experiment or he or she will get frustrated and leave. “I have been telling you about this stuff for months now, but you all still don’t get this stuff. I’m packing my stuff and leaving.”

So, who’s left? Your senior management and, especially, your CEO. Until credit union CEOs and the senior executive team are actually involved in this stuff, it’s not going as far as I know it can go to propel the credit union movement forward.

CEOs and the senior executive team need to feel the anxiety of not being able to see what their Twitter crew is up to while on a flight. CEOs and the senior executive team need to feel the exhilaration of receiving a slew of comments on a controversial blog post that they just posted. CEOs and the senior executive team need to understand the power of this new form of community firsthand. It cannot be explained. It must be experienced.

And CEOs and the senior executive team need to be seen participating in social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn by staff and members. CEOs and the senior executive team need to give permission to experiment and innovate.

As it stands, credit union CEOs and the senior executive team are out of the loop. They see all of this stuff as a waste of time and energy. But guess what, this stuff is real, this stuff is happening right under their nose and this stuff is not going away any time soon, if ever.

Signing off on a message from the president that you didn’t write for your credit union’s quarterly newsletter is not a two-way conversation. Not even close.

Two questions for you:

1. Who owns this stuff at your credit union?
2. What can we all do to prove this stuff is worth doing?

Tim McAlpine is the President & Chief Strategist of Currency Marketing. You can read Tim’s ‘stuff’ on the Currency Marketing blog at www.currencymarketing.ca/blog.

One of the saving graces of the leftover-filled dead week between Christmas and New Year’s Day are the year-end wrap-ups. No wrap-up story ever won a Pulitzer, but they’re interesting to read. So, to the pot-luck of lists and reprisals, I’m going to add my own.

This being a blog, and therefore collaborative, I’m eager to hear everyone else’s contributions to and opinions on the OpenSourceCU.com Top Credit Union Stories of 2007 (Now With Resolutions!). During this week of warmed-over dressing, think of this list as a sizzling sirloin steak, hot from the fire, ready for you to tuck into (for you vegetarians, think of it as whatever it is you tuck into that’s really satisfying…salad maybe? potatoes? tofu?)

My seven top credit union stories of 2007…bon appetit!

No. 7: The iPhone

It has its flaws. It’s wildly expensive. It’s great-grandfather was the Newton. But this zeitgeist-expanding gadget moves the bar for mobile computing and, ultimately, mobile banking services. It also allows for easy use of social media and opens the number of communication channels. Think about the annoyed member posting to a blog while in line to wait on a member service representative to fix a mistake another MSR made. If someone using a iPhone actually stands in lines waiting for MSR’s.

Resolution: It’s an antiquated attitude that technology and social media are just toys. I would love credit union staffers to open their minds to new technology and look at it from a perspective of early adopters and ask some simple questions: How is this used? How does this impact me? How could this impact my credit union?

Sub-Resolution: Personally, I need to avoid being a curmudgeon myself and open my own mind and ask similar questions. Keeping up with technology is hard, but invaluable.

No. 6: Gigi Hyland’s calling for a more consumer-centric approach to products.

Said Ms. Hyland in January: “The main themes of my remarks were to urge credit unions to continue to be consumer-centric in product and service delivery and to provide insight into the regulatory perspective on current issues, such as BSA and membership growth.”

Okay, this isn’t earth-shattering, and there are discussions like this all the time, but it’s validation from the top that CU’s need to approach their products and pricing the same way other companies do – with a focus on what the market demands.

Resolution: Credit Unions need to leverage that tax-exempt status to continue (or in some CU’s cases start to) offer cost-competitive pricing, provide dividends and serve immigrants and under-served communities. I’d also like to see credit unions trim their product offerings to better serve their membership and community. If you cannot profitably provide dozens of products and services, then take a good, hard look at your product mix and eliminate those that are underperforming or aren’t profitable. Don’t keep up with the Jones’s. Keep up with your field of membership.

On the surface, this is an oxymoronic request, but really, it’s about finding a niche and drilling down and serving it. Some CU’s can profitably operate wide. Most cannot and need to focus on their core membership, find what that it needs and really serving it in ways banks and other CU’s can’t.

No. 5: Hackers steal 45.7 million credit card numbers from TXJ Companies

The breach of security is the largest in history and reflects the importance of CU ID theft prevention policies. Given that credit unions have a 3.8 percent market share in revolving credit, the breach affected over 1.7 million credit union members. And that’s just credit cards. Debit cards, with fewer consumer protections, were likely part of that mix and even a small percentage would be thousands if not millions of debit card numbers.

Resolution: Credit Unions should treat debit card fraud the same way they treat credit card fraud. See top story No. 4 for support of this resolution. Members need to know all their transactions are secure, credit or debit. From my experience in credit union operations, I know this is expensive, but a credit union should act in the best interest of its members.

No. 4: CURIA momentum

At latest count, 141 members of the House of Representatives are signed on as co-sponsors of H.R. 1537. By raising the percentage of assets from 12-ish to 20 percent, this will allow CU’s to better serve under-served areas and small businesses, which in turn creates wealth in a community.

Resolution: Credit Unions need to mobilize staff and, in turn, membership to ensure members of Congress support H.R. 1537 and understand the difference and mission of credit unions. An adage of advertising says that when the marketing director of a company is tired of hearing his/her advertising message, it’s at that point that its impacting the consumer. Talk about it until you’re sick of it.

No. 3: Wings/Continental credit union flap

Nasty, nasty stuff.

Resolution: Stop doing this.

No. 2: Zopa

Peer-to-peer lending could be a threat to credit unions, given credit unions’ philosophical mission. Instead, Zopa is partnering with credit unions, each improving each other’s credibility and reach. I’m excited about this partnership.

Resolution: Like the No. 7 resolution, credit union staff needs to be more plugged into technology and how it affects their products, services as well as how members use it. It’s a competitive advantage to embrace it and folly to ignore it.

No. 1: The housing bust

Although credit unions didn’t seriously contribute to the questionable practices that puts the country on the precipice of recession, every credit union every member will be affected. As much as credit unions need to compete, they also must council and advice as part of their financial services product mix.

Resolution: With a tax-exempt status, strong capitalization (in general) and sound, conservative policies and procedures, credit unions are primed to be part of the solution, right?

There you have it, my year-end list complete with a side of resolutions, served hot and fresh. Enjoy!

Gene rocks the Macs at Mt. Lehman. In today’s CUES Tech Port, Lisa writes:

While plenty of individuals go for Macs, we were interested to learn … that $40 million (U.S.) Mount Lehman Credit Union, Mount Lehman, British Columbia, is an all-Mac credit union.

“We have a few PCs out of necessity, not want,” wrote Gene Blishen, manager of the CU and chief blogger for Tinfoiling. “Every IT person working for us started as a PC guy and has ended up a Mac/Unix type.”

Blishen says when he joined the CU in 1992 that it was in need of some new computers. He already liked Macs and the Appletalk network allowed the credit union to do file sharing quite easily, without a server. Blishen says he worried a bit about staying on Macs until Apple incorporated Unix into its operating system, which made it really solid and usable. Now, with Vista and all of its reported problems on the horizon, Blishen is especially glad the CU uses Macs.

“We have a check printing program here and we bought a Vista machine to support it,” Blishen reports. But the staff had so many problems with Vista that “after a day and a half, we gave up and installed an earlier operating system on the machine.”

Gene isn’t stopping there. On his Twitter page last week, he announced:

Just ready to sign off on Mobile Banking Project with CUCBC. SMS only and iPhone prototype. How do you spell ‘excited’?

BTW, tomorrow is International Credit Union Day. Gene is spreading the word and would love to see other CUs doing the same.

Update 10/18: Mt. Lehman CU has started blogging at www.mlcublog.com.

The next couple of days are going to be fairly busy for the Open Source CU (and Trabian) crew. Trey and Brent are leaving for Washington (the state) tomorrow to conduct a session on social media at the Washington Credit Union League Convention and I’m in Indiana to blog the TAPS Lending Symposium.

Doug True has become a good friend of ours over the past year (and a board member of Trabian—I think I forgot to make that announcement post. Sorry Doug!) and was kind enough to invite me to the symposium. FORUM CU has been phenomenally successful in their lending initiatives and it will be interesting to learn more about their approach.

As an added bonus I’ll finally get an opportunity to meet Wade Lagrone of Zopa.

The Credit Union Journal reported Friday that Beehive Credit Union joined the select number of CUs offering online-only accounts. Their product is a MMA with a minimum of $100 to open and $1,000 to earn interest – a whopping 4.80%!

At first glance I didn’t care for the minimum balance requirement – that is until I saw the rates and minimum balances on their traditional MMA that pays 1.85% on anything up to $10k. For their high-yield MMA the minimum to open the lowest-tier account is $30k and it pays 3.75%.

I’m excited to see this account offering from Beehive CU. Maybe it’s a sign that CUs are taking serious the inevitable movement of transactions further away from paper. It’s an area in which banks have a huge head start, but it’s not insurmountable. By the way, I’m still itching for the summer launch of ING Direct’s Electric Orange paperless checking account.

As Rob Rutkowski put it in a recent comment on Doug’s blog,

“It’s not just the NSF that will go extinct but the entire check processing system. Soon, people who write checks will be treated the same way as people who use rotary telephones.”

We stumbled upon the new website for a Canadian credit union yesterday. It’s for Coast Capital Savings, and it’s hands down in the top 1% of credit union sites (and CU marketing in general, for that matter).

Here’s the conversation we had internally yesterday about the site. (Brent didn’t type his thoughts out, but he was quite impressed. I’m sure he’ll leave something in the comments.)

Matt’s opinion:

The more I look at this, the more impressed I am. Take a look at the Online Banking page.

The code is clean, the content is funny:

Lines of credit: Be a loan shark to yourself. With a CoastLine personal line of credit attached to your chequing account, you can write yourself a loan anywhere, anytime. Just remember to pay yourself back, because you know where you live.

They even used sifr (font) on their article headlines.

Raises the bar for us a bit, I think.

Mark’s opinion:

Sure … I’ll bite …

Homepage – Excellent! A https homepage allows direct login to online banking. Very clean seperate areas of focus. Julie kind of freaks me out … her loop is very evident and she blinks alot … if you stay on the homepage long enough. I understand the message they are going for … and at least she’s not wearing a headset :)

Navigation – Awesome! Top level 1 and 2 with the sidebar coming in if it goes deeper. I like the addition of the sidebar nav on deeper page … you don’t need ads there on level 3 … people are already seeing what they came for … no need to divert them. Also I like the use of content banners on the main links, and then their removal on deeper pages.

Overall I think the site is good … just a little on the casual side in most aspects … colors, fonts, content, ads. It’s always a hard balance between being personal and professional … so that sparks some questions in my mind.

Which side is it better to err on a credit union site?

Will being too casual or businessy ever turn people away? Will it ever draw people in?

My opinion:

It’s easy on the eyes, intuitive, and the brand is carried out on every page in both the design and content. By far it’s the best CU site I’ve seen.

Great use of cookies for returning visitors with the surprisingly non-annoying Flash girl saying “Welcome back. Was there something else I could help you with?” – right before she broke into the robot and knitted the Coast Capital logo. It feels weird to say it, but they pulled it off without being cheesy.

And yes, I typed a-dollarsign-dollarsign in the Other Products search box to see what she’d say. She told me she’d trace my IP address and call my mother. :)

This morning CUNA News Now ran the following article: PCUA warns about sharing disks, USB thumb drives. I’m not usually one to criticize the length of the news cycle in the CU industry (at least not in public), but the article this press release was based on first appeared on June 7 and we wrote about it on the 8th.

For normal news, this isn’t that big of a deal. However, information thieves thrive on the gap between when they discover a cracking technique and when the industry learns to protect itself from it.

Credit unions have a tremendous opportunity to leverage their cooperative structure (and not just cooperative in the “member-owned” sense) to rapidly share ideas, best practices, and the occasional “hey tell your employees not to use a USB thumb drive unless they are certain of its contents.” Hopefully the rise of blogs in the CU industry will help that.

If you work for a credit union, this article about how easy it is for someone to compromise your network should strike fear in your heart. Our friend Brad Garland of The Garland Group sent it our way this morning.

As a test, a company scattered 20 flash drives around the parking lot and smoking areas of a credit union early one morning. Of those 20, 15 were picked up by employees and inserted into USB drives on credit union computers, unleashing a “Trojan that, when run, would collect passwords, logins and machine-specific information from the user’s computer, and then email the findings back to us.”

Plus, the employees knew a test was coming.

Educate every member of your staff about this before you learn it the hard way. Once that data’s out there, you can’t get it back. This story’s flying around the Internet, by the way, so expect every data thief from here to Moscow to catch on quickly.

^{Update: If you’d like proof of the popularity of this story, check out any of the 100-plus comments on its Digg page. Comments like this, for example.}

I was thrilled to see CUNA News Now covering peer-to-peer (p2p) lending today. They offered an overview of Prosper, and this is the first time many credit union leaders will have heard of the concept of social lending.

Loved the language in the piece:

Some experts say such lending sites could topple the credit industry, bringing transparency and fairness to the market. The premise is that borrowers shut out of the traditional loan market can find money at reasonable rates. Lenders can get a better rate of return than they would on some other investments.

Transparency is what consumers are now expecting in the relationships with their financial service providers.

Read what we’ve said about the peer-to-peer lending concept:

• Revisit: social (p2p) lending
• Social lending arrives in US
• Zopa in US in ‘06?
• Online money exchange Zopa making headlines

Here at Open Source CU (“here”...like you could find Open Source CU on Google Maps or something…), we do our best to bring together information from all over the “blogosphere” (another imaginary place) and try to understand how it affects the Credit Union industry.

We always provide links to our sources both as a service to our readers who want to dig deeper and as a courtesy to those cited. Sometimes we link to common blogs or newsposts, but other times, our sources can be quite technical in nature. (This is especially true when talking about things like web security and web standards.)

In an attempt to help you distinguish between the technical and the non-technical links, we have developed the Nerd Reading Level.

The Nerd Reading Level will help indicate how technical or “nerdy” a website is. When you hover over a link like this, you will notice any given number of “nerds” to help clue you in about the site you are about to visit.

The Nerd Reading Levels are as follows:

* Updated 5/9/06

• (No nerd – blank) Common Sites. Anyone with a monitor should be able to get the general idea. Example: Google Homepage
• Intermediate Sites. People with a good deal web savvy should be able to follow. Example: Signal vs. Noise
• Advanced Sites. Geared more towards web developers or internet enthusaists. Example: IEBlog
• Very Super Technical Sites. Only super nerds with plenty of free time should even attempt this. Example: TSL Protocol Specification Internet Draft

Please let us know how we can improve this system to serve you better. Thanks!

I just got an email from Mark, a fellow Trabianian*, pointing me to a Pew Study about the internet’s role in key life decisions – PDF File.

Highlights include (based on the May 2005 survey):

• Over the last three years the number of internet users who used the internet to help make investment or financial decisions increased by 45%
• Within the past two years 41% of internet users have “Made a major investment or financial decision”
• Only 5% of people who said the internet played an important or crucial role in their decision said they got bad advice or information online

That last stat got me to thinking about the most frequent bit of misinformation I’ve found on credit union websites: I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen incorrect IRA contribution limits listed (presumably because contribution limits have changed so much over the past few years). And now that the deposit insurance for IRAs has increased to $250,000, I’m betting a lot of sites still don’t reflect that change either.

—

On a completely unrelated topic, one of my favorite blogs, Ask Uncle Bill, included a quote today that would make Yogi Berra smile. I dub it The Open Source CU Quote of the Day:

Overnight success usually takes a long time.

Read Uncle Bill’s Advice From A One-Earred Man post to give the quote some context.

*Personal to-do list: Make up new word today … check.

As a follow-up to Trey’s post on improving your website, one of today’s most popular stories in the blogosphere is the Nature article Web users judge sites in the blink of an eye. Specifically, a user gets his/her impression of the quality of your site in the first 50 milliseconds of viewing:

Lindgaard and her team presented volunteers with the briefest glimpses of web pages previously rated as being either easy on the eye or particularly jarring, and asked them to rate the websites on a sliding scale of visual appeal. Even though the images flashed up for just 50 milliseconds, roughly the duration of a single frame of standard television footage, their verdicts tallied well with judgements made after a longer period of scrutiny.

In the crowded and competitive world of the web, companies hoping to make millions from e-commerce should take notice, the researchers say. “Unless the first impression is favourable, visitors will be out of your site before they even know that you might be offering more than your competitors,” Lindgaard warns.

The article also describes what research shows to be the ingredients of a good-looking website.

Attention All Credit Unions:

You’ve got to improve your web presence in 2006. No excuses.

Personally, I didn’t set foot in any of my credit union’s branches this year. In fact, if they built a branch at every intersection in Texas, I still wouldn’t be dropping in. I do, however, visit their website often, so all interaction with my CU occurs online.

If you want to reach me, you’ve got to do it online. Your outdated site has got to go. It screams unprofessional. Imagine me showing up in your lobby having not bathed or groomed myself in five years.

Don’t wait for a survey to come out to tell you the website needs your immediate attention or for a marketing conference later this year to point it out. Take my word for it.

Begin with this 10-step list. It’s not a total redesign, but hey, it’s a start.

1. Step into your user’s shoes and make sure the website works for them.

• Test your site on several browsers – including Firefox, Safari, and Opera – to make sure it works across the board for all users. Go through the site page by page with Firefox, in particular, as more than 10% of Internet users are browsing with it.
• Change the resolution of your computer monitor to the highest setting allowed (right-click on your desktop and select Properties and then the Settings tab if you’re using Windows). Many of your site’s visitors have already moved away from 800×600 screen resolutions.
• Take fifteen minutes to invent scenarios that would bring a member to your site. After inventing, find the least technology-savvy person you know to perform those tests starting at the homepage. Watch them closely as they browse. Take notes on what confuses them. Examples include:
  • “I’m looking for your savings rates. After I find them, I’d like to apply for an account.”
  • “I’m trying to get set up on the online banking tools, but have never done so before. Oh yeah, it’s during off-hours so I can’t call your help desk for advice.”

2. Compare your print marketing pieces (including Annual Reports, credit card designs, billboards, etc.) to the look and feel of your website. If the styles don’t match, they should. Sending a consistent brand message is crucial.

3. If anything on your website (1) blinks off and on or (2) is animated to scroll across the screen from right to left, remove the animation. That’s fine for your in-branch LED displays but it’s one of the worst things you can do to your website. Why? It distracts from your message, clutters up your site, and is a dated design technique (see example below in 3a). Plus it’s just plain annoying; it would be like a teller going “Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!” inside of a branch.

3a. The waving American Flag animated GIF circa 1996 (see below) must go bye-bye. Using a still image of an American Flag in your marketing materials is fine; it’s the animated GIF that isn’t.

4. Cut the fluff. Keep your content as short and sweet as possible.

5. Don’t underline anything that’s not a link.

6. Teenage members should never be called “kids.”

7. If you have a splash page, nix it. There are no exceptions to this rule. Splash pages do much more harm than requiring an extra click to get to your real content; they also hurt your search engine rankings.

8. If your domain is www.samplecu.org, make sure “samplecu.org” points to your site as well. Ask your tech department to make it so.

9. Never link your users to a PDF File without indicating it’s a PDF File. Also, don’t make any part of your menu link to a PDF File.

10. Check your site map to see if it matches the actual contents of your site. Broken links must be fixed immediately.

10a. Make sure your search tool accurately searches your site. Try different terms like rates, apply, and join. If you’re disappointed with the results, just think of the frustration your members feel when searching for those same terms.

Productivity website Lifehacker just linked to an MSN Money article citing The top 10 online banks, which cites features consumers should expect from their financial institutions when shopping for online banking.

Internet-only banks are giving the big bank sites a run for their money and adding customers quickly. Because of low overhead, they often pay better rates on savings accounts. For example, a Citibank money-market account with $15,000 recently paid 1.5%. A similar account at First Internet Bank of Indiana paid 3.04%.

By the way, Sunmark FCU’s RateEdge savings account (see yesterday’s post) is currently at 4.50% APY - with no minimum requirement to earn interest, the ability to open an account online with $5, and no monthly service fees, hidden charges or term requirements. Talk about innovative!

Doug (and other readers),

If you can get your hands on a December 2005 copy of CUNA’s Credit Union Magazine, you definitely should! Flip to page 44 and you’ll find a great article called “IT Evolution.”

This article may be extremely close to what was mentioned in the last post here.

The IT Evolution article reads in part, “The CUNA Technology Council … identified six strategic trends business strategists and IT staff must ponder to leverage technology to achieve business strategies.”

The steps are well-detailed, and they include (most of this is verbatim):

1. Play well with others: Business Strategy/IT alignment. – “IT staff must have a basic understanding of the CU in addition to technical skills and knowledge; technology will miss the mark unless it aligns with business strategy; manage compliance in a continuously evolving technology environment supporting the CU’s strategic plan”
2. Keep your head above water: Risk management. – “When it comes to business continuity and technology, much of what’s usually discussed has to do with recovering members’ data. But there’s much more to it than that, as hurricane-stricken credit unions know well…. Network infrastructure, communications, and branch processes and procedures are additional considerations.”
3. Safeguard members’ trust: Security and privacy. – The article discusses member and staff education about ID theft and phishing. It also discusses new two-factor authentification regulations issued by the FFIEC and new anti-phishing take-down services like MarkMonitor.
4. Be there for them: Electronic delivery channels. – Such as instant messaging, cell phone account access, communicating through BLOGS, video communication transforming call centers into multimode contact centers.
5. Speak the same language: Openness and integrated technology – “Ensuring openness and ease of integration among technologies comes down to vendor selection. Credit unions must know what architecture their vendors use. This ensures credit unions don’t end up with disparate systems requiring the expensive interfaces of yesterday …. (Also) Credit unions must document all changes in their systems and have written fallback plans in case changes fail.”
6. Consider how we pay: Payment infrastructure – The article mentions Mark Sievewright, SVP of Fiserv, as highlighting the following key U.S. payment trends at the CUNA 2005 Future Forum:
• “Check use is declining faster than expected.”
• “Debit card growth continues to accelerate.”
• ACH “use for check payments and online bill payment is increasing.”
• “The credit card marketplace continues to consolidate”
• “Payment subsegments are emerging where, for example, medical payments and health savings accounts require focused payment-related strategies and resources.”

Hope this helps! The article is by Tom Kroen and Jim Morrell, both board members of the CUNA Technology Council.