NAFCU Services Blog

By Tammie Kovacs, TruStage Program Specialist, CUNA Mutual Group and Opal Tomashevska, Multicultural Business Strategy Manager, CUNA Mutual Group

Over the past five years, multicultural consumers have accounted for 100 percent of U.S. population growth and 61 percent of credit union membership growth. As the population becomes increasingly diverse, understanding cultural differences should be a top priority for credit unions, especially with the drive for profitable growth.

Our What Matters Now™: Insights from Multicultural Consumers research uncovered significant differences in behavioral areas like financial product ownership and research behaviors. Those kinds of valuable insights are the keys to understanding how different cultural groups feel about and use financial services. It’s the kind of actionable data that credit unions can use to connect in meaningful ways to this growing segment of the population.

Through this research, our eyes were opened to how people across all races and ethnicities use financial products and services. To learn more about these insights, view our recent webinar. Here’s a sampling of the findings:

• African Americans are twice as likely to take out a student loan than Whites and twice as likely to purchase payment protection compared to Whites and Asians.
• Hispanic consumers are nine times more likely than Whites to acquire a small business loan in the next five years.
• African Americans and Hispanics are more likely to research financial products using mobile apps
• Convenience and flexibility in financial products are more than twice as important to Hispanic and African American consumers than Whites or Asians, even if it means higher rates or fees.
• 61 percent of Hispanics feel it’s important that companies try to be active in their local community, more than any other race or ethnicity.
• 69% of Asian Americans own investment products, equal to Whites and more than Hispanics and African Americans.
• African Americans and Hispanics are almost twice as likely to use mobile apps and call when researching, and are more likely to apply for accounts and products online or through an app.

So, what does research like this mean for credits unions? It should expand your thinking around a diverse population’s motivations for doing business with you. Of equal importance is an increased awareness of multicultural needs, enabling your credit union to better support the diverse communities you serve.

Think about the impact on your credit union. What do you need to do to become that trusted financial partner to your diverse multi-cultural population? TruStage incorporates consumer feedback and retail best practices to offer solutions that are easy to understand, fast to buy, and simple to service. Visit cunamutual.com/whatmattersnow to learn more.