Remember Tarrant County Credit Union’s “Change is Good” program? It’s a wild success! In a well-written CUES Management Magazine article today, Erica Pelzek writes:

After the promotion launch April 28, Tarrant County CU signed up 152 “Change Is Good!” accounts in less than a month and opened 25 new checking accounts specifically for members who want to participate in the “Change Is Good!” program. Tarrant County CU typically opens approximately 20 new checking accounts in a month without the program, according to [CEO Lily] Newfarmer.

“We’re not even at month one yet, and the staff is already nearly at the goal,” Newfarmer says. “There’s proof in the numbers.”

You know what else is amazing about this product launch?

1. Tarrant County Credit Union moved SO swiftly on this product. They got a request for the offering from a member in February and they went from idea to implementation by the first of May. It wasn’t a plug-and-play product, either. It was completely new in the credit union industry, and their vendor did an amazing job developing the back-end technology required for the launch.
2. The product was, like I just mentioned, a member request through their website. That’s collaboration: letting your audience help you improve your product! It didn’t come from a consultant, a presentation, or a white paper; it originated from a member.

Yep – collaboration is catching on. In an opinion piece in the July 5th issue of Credit Union Times, Guy Messick (attorney at Messick & Weber P.C., NACUSO General Counsel, and CU podcaster) writes:

There are many external threats to the industry (e.g., threat of taxation, diminishing margin spreads, excessive regulation) but the real threat is our inability to respond to the external threats. The credit union model is in deep trouble but the response of most of the industry is to ignore the warning signs and continue to drift toward becoming a marginal industry.

Guy goes on to present collaboration as a solution to the problem.

Work with other credit unions and third party service providers to generate income from additional and valuable services to members. If operational expenses are too high, create scale and efficiencies by collaborating with other credit unions in CUSOs. Credit unions have proven that these strategies work but most credit unions will never give them a chance to work or give them a half-hearted effort that is destined to fail. Why?

... The majority of the industry is made up of very risk averse people. Change comes very slowly if at all. “If it worked for fifty years, there is no reason to change things.”

How easy it could’ve been for Lily to say, “Well, our vendor doesn’t offer this and no other credit unions are doing it yet, either.” Thanks again, TCCU, for demonstrating that change is indeed good for the credit union industry.

Update: Here’s part of a great GonzoBanker article posted today, Giving debit its due credit, discussing how to increase debit transactions and the economics behind it:

The [debit loyalty programs] that have gained the most traction are those that are de facto rebate programs. The most discussed is the Bank of America Keep the Change program, where the daily total of debit transactions is rounded up to the next whole dollar and the amount needed for that is transferred to a savings account. B of A matches the amount transferred in the first 90 days and 5% of the amount thereafter, with an annual maximum of $250. The bank gets a lot of additional debit transactions at the $.33 transaction fee at a cost of less than $.05 for the match, and they get a savings account on which they pay .5%. Pretty smart.