Cooperative Business Approach Delivers Again

13 May 2014
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Cooperative Business Approach Delivers Again

The real life application of a cooperative business model is helping New Zealand’s credit unions keep up with, and even be ahead of the pack, in what is a sophisticated and very competitive financial services market.

By working together, the locally owned credit unions and building societies that form the membership of the New Zealand Association of Credit Unions (NZACU), are proving the value of this growing business trend and this week launch their new mobile banking app AccessMobile, which is one of the first to be available on Apple iPad, as well as iPhone and Android phones and tablets.

“Creating a mobile app is an expensive business” said NZACU Chief Information Officer, Deane Johns. “However, by creating scale and working cooperatively, we’ve rolled out a new state of the art mobile banking app to our Member credit unions with 11 different brand ‘skins’, enabling them to deliver a personalised product to their customers who are owners of their cooperative credit union.”
The industry leading, AccessMobile app is fully functional and even allows the user to set up automatic payments.

“Unlike many on the market, it also has specific modes for mobile versus tablet so that it maximises the screen real estate for each device, and isn’t just a scaled up version on the larger screens” said Mr Johns.

The further illustration of partnerships was demonstrated with speed to market, assisted by NZACU’s joint venture partner Finzsoft Solutions.
The release of the Mobile Banking App comes on the heels of NZACU’s launch last year of a collective Anti-Money Laundering (AML) solution for its Members, and a MasterCard® AccessDebit card, one of the first debit cards in the New Zealand market to feature the convenient ‘Tap & Go’ functionality.

NZACU Chief Executive, Henry Lynch, says that this kind of cooperative business fits naturally with the credit union ethos of ‘people helping people’, and is at the core origins of where credit unions began.

“In today’s highly regulated and technically sophisticated banking industry, keeping at the forefront is challenging even for the big guys who are all competing against each other” said Mr Lynch. “By banding together, our Members are creating cooperative buying power that allows all credit unions to punch well above their weight in terms of their market offering”

ENDS

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