“It’s important to enroll your members and control your payment options in your mobile banking app, because the one who enrolls is the one who controls,” says Richard Crone, founder/CEO of Crone Consulting, San Carlos, Calif.

Crone spoke Tuesday at the CUNA Technology Council and the CUNA Operations, Sales & Service Council annual conferences held concurrently in Las Vegas.

Crone sees three waves to the evolution of mobile banking:

“The state of mobile banking right now is essentially a race for enrollment,” Crone says. “Your credit union really needs a mobile app because it isn’t enrolling members if it has a mobile-optimized website. Consumers dramatically prefer their primary financial institutions to offer mobile wallets.

“Your credit union needs a mobile-payments plan,” advises Crone. “It’s important that your board of directors understands the mobile landscape. If directors don’t, they probably won’t authorize the type of capital investment that’s necessary to be competitive in this market.

“This will either drastically change the credit union movement, or it will be the last nail in the coffin,” says Crone.