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FOCUS ON WOCCU CONFERENCE

SACCO leaders learn about

challenges/opportunities

presented by future technologies

Business futurist Patrick Schwerdtfeger,
the founder of Trend Mastery, Inc., used
his keynote address to tell conference-
goers they can capitalize on disruptive
innovations such as digitization and data
analytics.

“My message, without a doubt, is that
we need to stay on offense. We need
to aggressively go after the change and
implement it as fast as possible within
our organizations," said Schwerdtfeger.

He said if attendees do not have that
mindset, large tech companies will look
to fill much of the space Credit Unions
currently occupy in the financial services
industry.

World Council President & CEO Brian Branch Schwerdtfeger also warned the future of
Credit Union payments and transactions
By Greg Neumann will look radically different as blockchain
becomes more prevalent.
World Council of Credit Unions President and CEO Brian Branch channelled
6th-century BC Chinese Philosopher Lao-Tzu for his “State of the Movement” "I think there's a huge opportunity in
presentation at the 2019 World Credit Union Conference. the financial services industry to use
a blockchain-based system for title
“The key to growth is the introduction of higher dimensions of consciousness into insurance," said Schwerdtfeger, providing
our awareness,” said Branch, using language from Tao Te Ching—Lao Tzu’s classic a list of examples where it could be used.
text—to introduce the concept of how technological disruption is ushering in a
digital future. "I understand a lot of Credit Unions are
making big in-roads with refugees—
“People have become accustomed to getting their information, getting their news, which is a perfect fit for Credit Unions to
doing their social networking with their mobile phones and, of course, their payment begin with—and blockchain can help in
services and commerce with their mobile phones. And therefore, it's only natural that space. There are all sorts of possible
they're going to expect to access their financial services via their mobile phones,” KYC (know your customer) applications."
said Branch.
Blockchain is the record-keeping
He explained that is why World Council's goal for 2025 is the global digitization technology behind cryptocurrencies,
of the Credit Union system—and why Co-operatives provide the perfect model for such as Bitcoin. “Blocks” are comprised
accomplishing that goal. of digital information—like the date,
time and amount of your last digital
"It's difficult for small financial institutions to be able to afford this technology. purchase.
Therefore, that is one of the advantages we see across the globe in Co-operative
systems.The ability of Co-operatives to share the cost of investing in and providing Each block has a unique code called a
that technology, and those high-skilled human technical resources to provide Credit “hash” that allows us to tell it apart from
Unions across the country with that digital technology," said Branch. every other block. That allows digital
financial information to be stored in an
open, distributed ledger that can record
transactions between two parties in a
verifiable and permanent way.

40| SACCO Star Magazine