We regularly ask our members what we can do to better meet their financial needs. The short answer is that they want banking to be a simple, seamless, and responsive experience whether they’re in an advice centre, connecting with us by phone or interacting with us online.
This makes a lot of sense to me. Outside of banking, our members’ lives have been transformed by digital solutions that make almost everything easier - and possible - online from any device, whether it’s streaming video, purchasing something or making a payment. Our members understandably expect the same always-available, immediate access to banking as they do for these other digital experiences in their lives.
I think a lot about how we can provide our members with this seamless experience. Living up to our promise to simplify the financial lives of Canadians actually requires that we find a way to do this. The challenge isn’t in the desire to make it happen, however. The challenge lies in the limitations of operating inside a 75-year-old business model and legacy technology that powers our current systems. This system is changing, but it’s not going to happen overnight, so what is the solution? In my opinion, in addition to transforming into a digital credit union, a key part of this solution is partnerships with fintech companies that align with our purpose.
For those who don’t already know this, ‘fintech’ is short for ‘financial technology’, but the term is commonly understood to mean technology-based startup firms that provide financial services to people and businesses. Their technology can improve and help us provide our members with the seamless and responsive banking experience they expect and deserve. Identifying and creating partnerships with like-minded fintechs could allow us to bring the value that our members are looking for on a faster timeline than our current business model will allow.
We can also use these collaborations as an opportunity to learn and grow, making us more agile, adaptive and innovative in how we meet the changing needs of our membership. It’s a shift away from feeling that we need to own and build products in the traditional model to a solution that allows us to curate products and services that our members can leverage to simplify their financial lives.
The way I see it, this supports the needs and expectations of our members today while at the same time anticipating the needs of our members of tomorrow. This internal cultural shift allows us to expand our offerings quickly. Putting members at the centre of our decisions - as we always do - to choose fintech partners that will help us to offer an elevated banking experience to meet expectations, reduce friction and ultimately improve the member experience.