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Credit Unions’ Online Channel Budgets Growing By 15% -- Or More

With the financial crisis beginning to disappear in the rear-view mirror, financial services firms are slowly beginning to grow less nervous about their survival and are beginning to focus on strategic priorities. For credit unions, the online channel has become a priority as budgets for this channel are projected to increase, according to a recent report from Aite Group.

Aite Group looked at U.S. credit unions' online channel priorities for 2010 by surveying 54 credit union executives. In the Impact Report that summarizes the findings, Aite Group reveals that the majority of credit unions expect their budgets for the online channel to be higher in 2010 than the budgets for 2009. In fact, 58 percent of credit unions said their online channel budget would increase by at least 5 percent over last year’s levels. About 15 percent projected a budget increase of more than 15 percent. And nearly a third (30 percent) said that their online budget would stay the same this year as it was in 2009.

You can read more about the report here.

With more and more customers jumping on the online banking bandwagon daily, it seems like credit unions are on the right track. "Credit union executives largely agree that consumer behavior - namely the prevalent use of the Internet to research and apply for financial products - is driving their focus on the online channel," according to Ron Shevlin, the Aite Group Senior Analyst who wrote this report. "As a result, they're focusing on improving capabilities like e-mail marketing, word-of-mouth marketing, and social networking."

Is your organization increasing its online channel budget in 2010?