Branded under its new moniker, America’s Credit Unions (following the recent merger of CUNA and NAFCU), the 2024 Governmental Affairs Conference (GAC) was a successful one, bringing together credit unions from across the U.S. and the service providers and technology partners that are helping them better serve their members.

Year after year, GAC remains one of the premier events in the credit union industry. Washington D.C. is always a draw, and this year was no different as the conference was well attended. Much of the focus this year was on how credit unions can not only remain relevant in a more competitive banking environment, but how they can grow and thrive and much of that discussion revolved around member experience within the digital channel, how CUs can grow and retain deposits, and where there may be untapped market opportunities to target.

Some highlights included:

• The team from Corridor Platforms discussed how they partnered with Teachers FCU to enable the credit union to leverage members’ data in an intelligent, actionable way to support faster credit decisions for members and do it at scale.

• Modernization of the mobile banking experience was a hot topic and Constellation Digital Partners’ Kris Kovacs talked about how CUs can better attract future members and recognize that younger members have different needs from older ones, and how an improved digital experience will be necessary to bring those younger members in. In that same vein, Union Credit’s Barry Kirby spoke about ushering in the next generation of credit union members.

• Constellation’s partner Pulsate’s Sarah Martin advised credit unions on how they can best leverage true, mobile-first engagement technology to have more timely, meaningful interactions with members and drive loyalty through the mobile channel. 

• Jack Henry’s Shanon McLachlan talked about the importance of developing a payments strategy and how credit unions need to think about how real-time payments should be part of their deposit strategies. 

• An untapped area of opportunity for credit union is in business banking and SMB lending, and Rapid Finance’s Will Tumulty highlighted how CUs can maximize this opportunity to grow their membership base and create “stickier” deposits.

• Glia’s Paul Sheets talked to CUs about the concept of Unified Interaction Management (UIM) and how it achieves what call center and CCaaS providers have been trying to solve, as well as other trends such as how credit unions can effectively leverage generative AI without risking member trust.

• NCR Voyix’s Doug Brown discussed the continuing evolution of member experiences and how technology and AI can be used to help credit union staff better help and serve members.
• And finally, Origence’s Bob Child spoke on the fast-growing electric vehicle (EV) market and how credit unions can utilize innovative technology to take advantage of this lucrative sector while Origence’s Marlene Juarez detailed some of the latest loan origination solutions that credit unions are using to grow their portfolios.

So what were your impressions of GAC 2024 and what were you hearing at the show? Let us know in the comments below!