Challenge 2025

The Digitalization of the Global Credit Union System

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A New Decade, A New Goal

In 2014, World Council of Credit Unions set a goal of reaching 260 million credit union 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. That is why we are now addressing how we increase membership going forward—through the digitalization of the global credit union system by 2025.

Measuring Global Digitalization

World Council will measure the digitalization of credit unions in four key areas for Challenge 2025.

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 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.

 

Follow Our Progress, Tell Us About Yours

Track the latest developments in digitization by subscribing to our Challenge 2025 Blog. You can also send us updates on how your credit union or credit union system is striving to help us meet Challenge 2025 at communications@woccu.org

How a Digital Platform is Changing the Way Australia Does Payments

In just over two years, a shared payments platform in Australia has revolutionized the way consumers, businesses and government agencies both make and receive payments.

New Payments Platform Australia—an organization mutually owned by 13 financial service providers—launched its New Payments Platform (NPP) in February 2018. Designed to support a 24/7 modern, digital economy, the NPP allows financial institutions to connect to a shared platform where their accountholders can make and receive payments.

By April 2020, dozens of credit unions, mutual banks and building societies were among the 90 financial institutions with more than 67 million accountholders using the NPP. Close to 20% of all payments between accounts now travel via the NPP, which processes an average of 1.3 million payments worth more than AU $4 billion each day.

Most single payments, which would previously have been sent via a bulk electronic clearing system, are now being automatically routed by financial institutions over the NPP. The NPP also allows credit union members and other accountholders to set up their own unique PayID—which is linked to their account. Approximately 4.7 million PayIDs have been registered, with this number growing at 180,000 per month.

Innovative use-cases that tap into the NPP’s core capabilities have also started to emerge, including:

  • independent payments solutions providers.
  • a service that enables employees to access their income as they earn it in real-time.
  • a consumer-to-business payment service that uses the NPP’s speed and PayID to deliver real-time validation and processing for online payments.
  • combining the NPP’s speed with blockchain to create equity management, compliance and share registry services.

The NPP is also helping the Australian Government respond to the COVID-19 pandemic by supporting real-time payments to government agencies charged with delivering policies and programs related to the crisis.

In the future, New Payments Platform Australia is committed to extending and enhancing the capability of the platform to meet the needs of participating financial institutions, payment providers and users of the wider payments’ ecosystem, whether it be for retail P2P payments or more complex B2B payments.

“We’re focused on developing additional native capability that can support a range of use cases, which can be used by participating financial institutions and third parties to do different things. By developing native platform capability, governed by a common rules’ framework administered by NPPA, it is akin to providing ‘building blocks’ that others can put together in different ways to deliver payment products and services outside the platform,” said NPPA CEO Adrian Lovney.

You can learn more about the New Payments Platform and NPPA’s roadmap for the future by clicking here.