Greet Gen Y with Account Access on Facebook

Posted by Lisa Hochgraf

If you want to reach Gen Y, why not be where they are? The more than 68 million Facebook users (many of them young people) spend an average of 20 minutes a day on the site. And about 250,000 new users sign on every day. Some CUs are already there, waiting to greet them.

For example, KeyPoint Credit Union late last year pioneered account access through Facebook by offering its own application that users can embed in their page. Cool! ("Have You Registered a Company Facebook Page for Your CU?" includes links to information about KeyPoint CU's effort.)

Also cool: More than 50 credit unions have signed up to be part of the new MyMoney Facebook application developed by CUES Supplier member Fiserv, Brookfield, Wis. Fourteen of the 50, including $200 million Christian Financial CU, Roseville, Mich., are already live. (According to figures cited mid-month by Jim Bruene on his NetBanker blog, MyMoney has 17 daily users, ranking fourth among Facebook banking and financial applications, after Pay Pal, Bill Monk (Obopay) and Lending Club.)

The MyMoney application allows Facebook users who are members of a participating credit union to access their CU checking and savings balances, view transaction histories, and transfer money between accounts. It also offers non-members information about membership and, if they qualify, helps them join. (If you click on the image, it'll get bigger and you'll be able to see the accounts list for a demo credit union.)

"We've started using MyMoney to help increase our membership," says Lauren Vance, marketing manager for Christian Financial CU. "The convenience factor this extends to Facebook users is a unique incentive to join our credit union, and illustrates our commitment to this new generation of members."

If a Facebook user wants to access his credit union's home banking and bill-pay, MyMoney offers one-click access.

Is it secure? A Facebook member has to log in with his Facebook username and password. Then, the first time he accesses MyMoney, he has to log in with his credit union member number and password, plus answer the multifactor authentication challenge questions he set up with his CU. On subsequent visits, the MFA questions won't be asked. All this is supported by 128-bit encryption.

What if you don't use a Fiserv core system? Originally developed for clients of the Fiserv Galaxy core processing system (now part of Fiserv's CU7 strategy), MyMoney can be integrated with any core processing system, according to Jay Slavin, senior vice president of the Galaxy business line, and the other Fiserv folks I talked to. It involves a one-time licensing fee and a monthly maintenance fee. Fiserv started advertising the application on Facebook this week.

One more cool thing about this before I sign off: Once the application is on a Facebook user's profile page, all his friends who visit will be able to see that he has it--and can click to add the app to their own pages. It will be interesting to see how many do this and whether banking through a social network will really take off.

Comments

[Jessica Jones]

I checked this out last night and joined the group. The members are young, but not just 19-year-olds...it looks like they range from 18 to 35. The comments (or "wall posts" in Facebook talk) were overwhelmingly positive! The people who use this app love it for its convenience. I wish my CU would sign up...I sent them a very encouraging note.

[Ron Shevlin]

I hate to admit it, but I just don't get it.

First off, everywhere I turn, I hear CUs complain that the average age of their member base is too old. So if the average age of a CU's members is 45, and 45 year-olds aren't hanging out in Facebook, who is the CU reaching by setting up shop in Facebook?

Do CUs think they're going to ATTRACT new members through Facebook? I'd be the first to admit that Facebook users might turn to each other for recommendations on banks/CUs, but I can't imagine that having a Facebook page helps drive those referrals.

Second, the reason FIs set up shop in supermarkets and on college campuses, is that in the physical world, "being where your customers are" delivers real convenience. But online, when you're one bookmark click away, how does a CU being on Facebook offer any more convenience than its own site?

I can't help but think that a lot of CUs need to go get some younger members FIRST, and THEN evaluate whether or not setting up shop on Facebook makes economic sense.

Clearly, there's something I'm just not getting here.

[Morriss Partee]

@Ron - I'm working on writing up a paper explaining why Facebook is a remarkable marketing engine, that may explain why/how it can be effective in this way. It's hard to see it until you've dived in deep. You have excellent points about it as always.

[Mike Templeton]

Lisa, great points and examples about how CUs are using Facebook today. I applaud KeyPoint CU for being the first to create online banking access for Facebook users.

Judging only from initial reactions, it seems that applications like Fiserv's MyMoney are going to be a big hit with users as more FIs come online with the program.

I think one of the main reasons that young adults and the Gen Y crowd aren't heavy users of CUs today is because no one has educated them on what CUs are or why they are different than banks. IMO, sending CUs into Facebook to help parade and distribute that message is a step in the right direction for acquiring new (and younger) members.

[Roger Conant]

Excellent article in yesterday's NYTimes about some new technology that should make Facebook seem like "dial-up". The article is titled "Online Chat as Inspired By Realchat". Sounds like "stealth socialization"...exciting.