THE CORE PROCESSING INDUSTRY LEADERS FORUM ™

Your credit union's core technology should be the engine powering transformation in your community, strengthening your relevance, and contributing to your institution’s gravitational pull. Instead, for many credit unions, the core is more like an anchor, creating unnecessary resistance or ‘drag’ against your efforts to stay relevant. A legacy core does this slowly, expensively, and with all the elegance of a sinking ship.

What if your core could help your institution achieve relevance instead of frustration?

Let's talk about what actually makes an institution relevant in the digital age. Look at any successful non-financial service business and you'll notice a simple, effective formula:

1. Collect, protect, and leverage consumer data in every aspect of the business (think Google’s vision statement: “providing access to the world's information in one click”).

2. Use that data to present opportunities to just the right consumers at just the right time (think Amazon’s legendary cross-sell strategies).

3. Provide a seamless, unified digital experience across all touchpoints, removing all friction from the experience (iTunes, anyone?).
   

Sounds simple, right? Yet, somehow, the financial services industry manages to struggle mightily with step three. Why? Because their core technology isn't actually in control of their digital experience—bolted-on, outdated, and siloed vendor platforms are. And those "best of breed" solutions that vendors have been reselling since the '90s? They've turned into a Frankenstein's monster of inefficiency, high costs, and member frustration.

Instead of modernizing from the core, most legacy vendors have built elaborate, convoluted digital workarounds that require endless patching, costly migrations, and a dozen different login credentials just to check a balance. The end result? Your credit union is about as effective as using an AOL dial-up modem trying to stream Netflix.

If Your Core Isn't Empowering You, It's Dismantling You

A relevant core should enable your credit union to follow a logical, future-proof strategy. If, instead, you find yourself drowning in excuses about why you can't execute key initiatives, you've got a problem. Your core should be your launchpad, not a roadblock.

And yes, relevant core vendors do exist. There are at least a couple of them out there (no, not necessarily the ones that paid for your last steak dinner at that conference). If you need a map to one of them, we can help—and no, we won't charge you a percentage of your core contract savings for the privilege. We won’t tell you who to go with, but we can help you answer your questions using data instead of intuition or emotion.

The Shiny Object Trap: ‘Better Buttons’ Isn't a Strategy

Let's be clear: obsessing over minor UI enhancements is not a strategy. Yes, good UX matters. But it's not the foundation of a resilient, adaptive credit union. The real issue isn't whether members can customize their background color or whether the "Send Money" button is blue or green. It's whether your institution has the digital foundation to own and deploy the kind of data-driven services today's members expect.

Which brings us to the next point: If fintechs (think Paypal, Venmo, and Square) have managed to successfully navigate business lending, commercial accounts, and digital financial services without these supposed "insurmountable" core limitations, why are credit unions still making excuses? The answer: outdated core technology. It's time to let go of the belief that commercial services are too complex for modern credit unions. They're not. You just need a core that doesn't treat them like quantum physics.

Community Banks Are Disappearing; Threat or Opportunity?

The number of community banks and credit unions has been steadily declining. From 1985 through 2010, the number of banks under $10 billion in assets and credit unions declined by over 50% to 7,551 and 7,339, respectively. This trend has continued, with the number of federally insured credit unions decreasing from 4,712 in the first quarter of 2023 to 4,572 in the first quarter of 2024.

As these institutions disappear, a vacuum is forming. Consumers and businesses are being forced into mega-bank relationships they don't want. There's a massive opportunity for credit unions to step in—IF they have the technology to do so. The credit unions that modernize their core and offer relevant, digital-first experiences will attract these displaced members. The ones that cling to legacy systems? Well, they might as well invest in fax machines and landlines while they're at it.

Stop Making Excuses and Lead!

At this point, there are only three ‘legitimate’ reasons to stay the course with your legacy core:

1. You just re-upped with your current provider and can’t imagine paying the termination fees.

2. The ‘strategic relationship’ you have with the core provider’s parent company has you stuck.

3. You really, really enjoy the steak dinners, golf outings, and annual vendor swag bags.
   

The first two can be overcome with planning and execution. The third? Well, enjoy the steaks while they last. Just don't be surprised if your favorite local steakhouse struggles to stay afloat—because your credit union wasn't positioned to support local businesses with modern financial tools.

Your core technology should be a bridge to the future, not a relic of the past. If your credit union isn't proactively positioning itself as a financial and digital leader in your community, you're missing the biggest opportunity of the last century. The choice is clear: modernize and take control, or continue outsourcing your relevance to legacy vendors who are more interested in preserving their contracts than your institution's success.

The good news? Change is possible. And the right strategic partner can help make it happen. The bad news? If you wait too long, there might not be a community left for your credit union to serve.