Raddon Report

When the Great Recession ended in June 2009, financial institutions and the consumers they serve were eager for brighter days, after living through a period of staggering unemployment, unprecedented decline in real estate values, record levels of foreclosures, and an implosion of automobile sales. While there have been 11 recessions since the end of World War II in 1945, none impacted the consumer or financial institutions as significantly as the 2007-08 financial crisis.

One thing is certain: uncertainty

For credit unions, a major theme in 2020 will be how well they contend with uncertainty.

Ambiguity and insecurity will come from an evolving economic environment, emerging demographic concerns and nontraditional providers' entry into key product areas, including checking accounts by Google and credit cards from Apple. Contending effectively with uncertainty will become the hallmark of well-managed credit unions.

Here are three trends we're watching for credit unions:

Gathering intelligence is the first step in a successful campaign
 

Among the trends we saw in 2019, one theme was constant: The financial services industry is as competitive as ever. 

New technologies, channels and competitors continually disrupted the market, creating considerable noise for credit unions to break through. Nontraditional players forced credit unions to compete on multiple fronts – technology, lifestyle and branding – in addition to having competitive products and rates.

At the end of this year’s Raddon Conference, I had the unenviable task of synthesizing into a single digestible package all that we presented and shared over the three days. The following is my attempt to summarize this amazing event.

“Apple Card is here. A credit card created by Apple, not a bank. Built for simplicity, transparency and privacy. Apply now on your iPhone, and start using in minutes.” – Apple Inc.

By now, you’ve likely heard discussion of a possible oncoming economic recession. The talk of an inverted yield curve and its predictive ability regarding recessions has been bandied about in the financial as well as the mainstream press.

Is a recession likely? The answer is an unqualified yes. But then again, the answer to that question is always yes. The real question is when it will come. And a related question is how severe it will be.

Each year, Raddon brings together many of the industry’s top leaders and visionaries to our invitation-only CEO Forum. This year’s event took place earlier this month in Dana Point, California, with more than 75 executives collaborating for two days of engaging and interactive discussions with their peers. Join us as we reflect back on some of the key takeaways from the 2019 Raddon CEO Forum.

We recently wrote about how to grow deposits.  Just as important as deposit growth is deposit retention. You can grow at a rapid pace, but if all of your deposits are walking out the door, you obviously won’t be growing.

One of the most confounding developments in retail banking is the impact of technology on the branch channel. Perhaps the latest and clearest example of the industry’s try-anything approach to branching in today’s mobile world is Capital One’s newest concept: the Capital One Café.