If you had to pick one thing that jumps out from the pages of the World Council of Credit Unions’ expanded 2021 Statistical Report, it would be that digital products and services are an overwhelming priority for Co-operatives around the world.
World Council asked national co-operative societies associations to identify the top priorities for their members moving forward. Out of eight possible options, 81% of the more than 40 associations who responded to that portion of the survey ranked digitalization among their top three priorities. That was 15% higher than the second-highest priority of increasing membership and asset growth.
And the prioritization of digital growth was widespread among co-operatives across six regions, including.
- Africa 100%.
- Oceania 100%
- Latin America 89%.
- Asia 86%.
- Caribbean 80%.
- Europe 75%.
Only North American (United States and Canada) co-operatives, where digital products and services are far more prevalent among credit unions, did not list digitalization as a top priority.
For Savings and Credit Co-operative Societies (Saccos) in other areas of the world, the growth of digital products and services is the key to growing membership, savings, loans and assets.
“The challenge of the co-operative movement to improve the quality of life of its members requires bringing affordable and accessible products and services to their communities,” said a co-operative representative.
Technology brings risk
While the desire to add more digital products and services is strong, many of the same Co-operative Societies that identify digitalization as a top priority also identified technology as a top risk concern.
“These risks are determined taking into account the influence of environmental factors on the development of credit unions and the rapid development of technological processes and their high cost,” said another co-operative representative.
Along with high costs associated with ever-evolving software, there is a security risk concern the credit union also identified.
“These credit unions now look for IT solutions to serve better their members who are spread out in the country and far from their credit union. This software is not free of cybercrimes and attacks,” wrote a representative for CAMCCUL, World Council’s direct member credit union association in Cameroon.
Finding the right balance between priority and risk will be crucial if the global credit union movement expects to move forward successfully with digital growth by 2025 and beyond.
In 2014, the World Council of Credit Unions set a goal of reaching 260 million credit union (locally co-operative societies) members worldwide by 2020.
Through a concentrated worldwide effort, credit unions were able to reach our “Vision 2020” goal by 2017. But that growth was not even across all countries or among all credit unions. The credit unions that grew were those that offered core services via online and mobile channels. The focus now is increasing membership in the future—through the digitization of the global credit union system by 2025.
World Council will measure the digitization of credit unions in four key areas and report annually on the progress being made toward Challenge 2025, that is:
Digital Channels
Offering members core digital transaction services such as online and mobile banking, online payments, and online loan processing.
Shared Platforms
Connecting your credit union to a shared payments system that allows for mobile payments and is integrated with a national payments system.
Risk Management
Implementation of a cybersecurity system that complies with national regulations to protect members’ identity and consumer data from digital attacks and intrusions.
Data Analytics
Employing data analytics to determine additional service offerings to members and helping to identify those that need financial literacy or counseling services.
