Payment Industry Insider

This series of posts will outline the sessions at the 2008 Partnership Symposium.

Session Speaker

Mark McSpadden, developer for Banktastic and star of The CU Scoop, was unveiled this afternoon as the CU Skeptic.

Session Overview

“At their current state, credit unions as a whole are no different than banks to the end user.” Since his arrival in the CU blogosphere, the CU Skeptic has been stirring the pot with articles, comments, and interviews based around this central theme. Discover why he thinks “the credit union difference” is largely unapparent in today’s (US) market and what he thinks are the keys to turning the tide of irrelevance. For the first time ever, the CU Skeptic will reveal his true identity and is prepared for an extended Q&A session.

Session Notes

Below are some of my highlights from Mark’s session.

After attending BarCampBankSeattle and hearing about the frustration of someone trying to start a credit union (that was eventually denied), Mark decided to take on his role as the CU Skeptic to start asking tough questions.

“Cheerleaders will always cheer, regardless of the situation.”

“I made sure that as I was writing for the blog, I HAD to be impactful.”

The Difference Between Banks and Credit Unions, according to the Skeptic:

• The structure is all wrong. It sets CUs to be measured up to banks.
• People don’t know the difference. CUs don’t make it easy.

Filene has put out some recent research that says:

• CU employees can’t easily talk about how CUs fit in with society.
• “There is little to no differentiation [in the mind of the consumer].”

In identifying your audience and prospects for members, a good question to ask yourself may be, “Who are we wrong for?”