Consumer expectations fuel CUNA Mutual Group initiatives

Consumers’ demand for cutting-edge digital experiences has fueled several new initiatives at CUNA Mutual Group, CEO Robert Trunzo told a general session audience at the PSCU Member Forum Thursday in Austin, Texas.

“Our best strategy is to invest back into CUNA Mutual, the system, and technology,” Trunzo says. “Ultimately, that will enhance the member experience and put us on par with other financial institutions who are trying to take our lunch money.”

In 2018, for example, CUNA Mutual launched AdvantEdge Analytics, a data analytics company and CUNA Strategic Services alliance provider that enables credit unions to deliver a better member experience through actionable data insights.

“When we started AdvantEdge Analytics a year-and-a-half ago, credit union CEOs said to us, ‘Can you help us?’” Trunzo says. “Credit unions and PSCU have a lot of data, so we formed a data analytics company.”

Trunzo says the goal of AdvantEdge Analytics is simple: Allow credit unions to put the best product offers in front of their members.

“Loyalty will only take you so far because there are so many options for consumers,” he says.

To meet consumer needs, CUNA Mutual developed TruStage Life Insurance, a simplified product that reduced the time it takes for a consumer to obtain a policy from 11 days to 11 minutes.

“It’s all about delivering the member experience on their terms,” Trunzo says.

In just over two years TruStage has surpassed $12 billion in issued coverage, $2 billion of which was online.  

“Twenty million Americans have at least one TruStage product with us,” Trunzo says. “We take that trust and that relationship seriously.”

To serve the growing online lending marketplace, CUNA Mutual developed Predictive Loan Growth, a lending solution that turns data-driven marketing into higher conversion rates and deeper relationships by leveraging a platform used successfully by the auto industry and commercial banks.

“Eighty-percent of credit union executives say digital lending is important to them,” Trunzo says. “By 2021, we believe almost 70% of the loans in your credit union will be digitally enabled. Are you prepared? You have to catch that wave. You can see it coming.”

CUNA Mutual also established CMFG Ventures to address fintech disruption in the financial services industry. Trunzo says CUNA Mutual is now a “digital disruptor,” but not a venture capital firm.

“The lens is pretty simple,” he says. “If it’s a technology, product, or platform that could disintermediate you all, we’re going to know about it, we’re going to look at it, we may even invest in it. If it’s a product or platform we can bring to the credit union space only, we’re all over that because it gives us a leg up on the banks.”

PSCU is a CUNA associate business member at the premier level.