MSU FEDERAL CREDIT UNION
Federal Credit Union - A year of fintech innovation and collaboration
At the beginning of 2020 , Maxim was approached by MSUFCU ’ s CEO ,
April Clobes , to establish a formal innovation programme . “ I jumped at the chance ,” says Maxim .
“ Fintech had matured quite a bit by that point , there were many large fintech unicorns doing great things , which is where a lot of the venture capital was headed . Meaning there was huge interest in this maturing market and was ripe for tapping its potential .”
Keen to tap into the resources of the industry , MSUFCU set about developing its partnerships and opportunities . “ The Lab provided a way to create better partnerships with startups and give us an avenue to test out ideas in a safe way ,” says Maxim .
But as with all the best-laid plans , there are challenges . After starting 2020 with ambitious plans in mind , COVID- 19 struck . Fortunately for MSUFCU , while the pandemic brought about a few new challenges , it largely acted as a driving force for its Innovation Lab strategy , rather than a hindrance .
Closing their branches for a period at the beginning of the pandemic , freezing budgets and hiring , reprioritising projects and an overwhelming increase in contacts to their call centre and live chat services , all became obstacles to overcome and innovative thinking as an organisation was seen as a way to overcome them all .
Maxim said : “ Instead of holding off on our innovation plans , we decided to doubledown on it . We came to the conclusion that innovating would be our path forward out of COVID-19 . So we took on our first fintech
94 May 2022