Tag Archives: credit union

Young & Free Texas-style.

Young & Free TexasI’m a big fan of Currency Marketing‘s Young & Free Alberta campaign. I think it’s one of the smartest uses of social media to drive direct business results that I’ve ever seen.

When I speak to people about it, they have just one criticism. That Larissa Walkiw, the spokesperson of the Alberta program and an amazingly talented young woman, makes the whole campaign and you’ll never find another like her.

So a few months back when Tim McAlpine, the pioneer of Young & Free Alberta, announced that he was opening it up to allow for one credit union in each State or Province to replicate the program, I was very intrigued.

Now I see that he’s partnered with TDECU in Texas, the home of the amazing Trey Reeme, to launch Young & Free Texas.

You can also check out their Facebook fan page.

It will be fascinating to see how this new program progresses. I believe there are lots of talented and passionate young people who will take this program in new directions. That there is more than one Larissa, so to speak, and that there are amazing nooks and crannies that other people will take the program as spokesperson. But ultimately the proof will be in the pudding.

Congrats Tim, and good luck Trey and TDECU!

My friend Gene.

I’m a big fan of GonzoBanker.

When I first started working at Vancity, I was brand new to financial services and started looking at industry websites to help orient and ground me in my new job.

I quickly came across GonzoBanker, and it is now one of the only leftovers from those early days of bookmarking. Their irreverent coverage of how IT issues can aid and hinder financial institutions is both useful and entertaining.

So today, I was thrilled to see that they named my friend Gene Blishen as their GonzoBanker of the Month.

Gene is my hero. He is a philosopher, humanitarian, technologist, futurist, banker and a decent, decent man. I look forward to reading his blog whenever he updates it, and his name always comes up when the people I respect the most name the people they respect the most.

It is an honour to be his direct BC credit union peer, be able to access his sage advice and plan BarCampBankBC with him.

So congrats Gene. Well deserved!

Canada leads the world in use of Online Banking.

Canada Leads World in Online Banking UsageWell, it’s always nice to be number one (well, maybe not).

Yesterday comScore released their study which shows that “Of the 37 global markets individually-reported by comScore, Canada ranked number one in adoption of online banking, with 67.1 of Canadian Internet users banking online in April 2008.”

It also shows…

RBC Financial group led the category with 4.6 million visitors, followed by TD Bank Financial Group with 4.5 million visitors and Bank of Montreal Sites with 3 million visitors. Among those banks in the top 10, Bank of Montreal Sites experienced the greatest increase in visitation during the past year, growing 22 percent.

I wonder if my friends at BMO are surprised by this.

The study also showed that the heaviest users of online banking are 45-54 year olds. At first this may seem surprising, but in fact, they are also likely the heaviest bankers: “The segment shows both high penetration (73 percent) and the heaviest frequency in usage (12 visits and 157 pages per visitor per month).”

So can we just admit that online banking is just banking. If your financial institution still talks a lot about online but still has its heart firmly in the branch, here’s some ammunition to change the conversation.

Read the press release here.