Credit unions are taking proactive steps to implement digital technology due to the COVID-19 pandemic while consumers are increasingly thinking differently about how they access financial services—both of which will only accelerate the delivery of digital channels.

That was one of the key messages delivered by credit union advocate and technology thought leader Mark Sievewright during Tuesday’s World Council COVID-19 Response Committee webinar—Driving Digital Transformation in the COVID-19 Era.

“Some things credit unions were planning to do two, three, four years from now, they’re actually trying to get done now or in the next twelve months,” said Sievewright.

Health concerns brought on by the pandemic and the availability of more digital financial services has led to a decline in branch visits and cash transactions. Sievewright says both are signs of what is to come.

“One metric that I discovered recently, was that between now and 2030 close to three trillion transactions will switch from cash to cards and digital payments—almost US $50 trillion in value,” said Sievewright.

That trend is reflected in World Council’s push to digitize the global credit union system by 2025. World Council President and CEO Brian Branch gave a brief presentation on the goals of the Challenge 2025 initiative—which focuses on growing credit unions’ digital channels, digital payments, data analytics and cybersecurity.

“We see, frankly, that the measure of customer service, customer friendliness has changed among consumers around the world. It used to be defined as person-to-person friendliness and credit unions excelled at this. But now it’s measured differently, and very often it’s measured by the ease and user-friendly nature of the digital processes,” said Branch.

You can watch Driving Digital Transformation in the COVID-19 Era in its entirety, but visiting the World Council YouTube Channel.