This year’s budget season could be the most important ever: Here’s why

As you gear up for the 2025 budget season, long-term strategic planning is more critical than ever. The financial industry is undergoing rapid transformation, driven by advances in technology, changing member expectations, and the evolving nature of money itself. If you fail to adapt to these shifts, your institution risks becoming one of the many member-owned cooperatives left behind in an increasingly competitive marketplace.

This budget cycle offers a rare opportunity to position your credit union as an undeniable force with which to be reckoned. Doing so will require you to rethink spending priorities, challenge long-standing assumptions, and build out your digital operations to uphold the fiduciary commitments you’ve made as a modern community cooperative. Now is the time to make bold decisions, especially when it comes to technology, digital asset custody, and the financial products and services your members will soon demand.

Faster, cheaper, better

The pace at which technology is evolving, particularly in transaction speeds, processing costs, and the non-traditional ways members expect to store their value, is unprecedented. Your members now expect instantaneous payments, minimal processing costs, and flexible options for storing and accessing their money—in all forms. This shift has accelerated with the unparalleled adoption of digital assets by giants like BlackRock and Fidelity earlier this year. Thanks to the most successful ETF launch of all time, banking consumers and your members now have unprecedented access to new and innovative ways to manage their financial lives—with zero involvement from their financial institutions.

For your credit union, this presents both a challenge and an opportunity. If you allocate sufficient resources in this budget cycle, you will be well-positioned to educate your staff through interactive digital asset seminars and to give your institution the option to execute a well-defined digital asset adoption plan. If you fail to do so, you may find yourself playing catch-up this time next year, at which point it may be too late to regain a competitive edge.

You’ve likely prided yourself on being a stable, trusted financial partner for your members. However, stability cannot come at the cost of stagnation. If your credit union isn’t agile enough to keep pace with irreversible cultural shifts and technological advancements, you risk obsolescence. At a minimum, your members will leave for more innovative financial institutions that can better meet their needs.

Seek first to understand

Before making any strategic decisions, ask an essential question: Are we truly listening to our members? At the end of the day, it’s your members who keep your institution alive with their deposit dollars and loan interest income. Ignoring their evolving needs and expectations is a risk no credit union can afford.

In an age where financial products and services are becoming more personalized, member feedback should be at the center of every major decision. Have you bothered to ask your members about their interest in digital assets? Are they frustrated with your institution’s limited savings options as their dollars are debased daily? What do they value most in their financial services provider?

Annual satisfaction surveys and creative NPS calculations aren’t enough. You need to engage your community directly to gather meaningful insights and actionable feedback. Unfortunately, many institutions fail to do this, assuming they know what their members want rather than asking them directly. This is a dangerous approach, especially as money morphs, society changes, and member expectations evolve.

Fortunately, core-integrated tools are available to help you stay connected with your community. Partnering with a CUSO whose foundational philosophy is consolidation and extension of data from the core will allow your institution to gather real-time feedback from members and make informed decisions based on their needs. By establishing strategic partnerships with industry-leading innovators, you can ensure that your strategic initiatives are in tune with the people you serve, rather than being driven by executive assumptions.

The only thing at stake is everything

Ignoring the rapid evolution of technology and the importance of member feedback comes at a significant cost. If you fail to act during this budget cycle, you may soon find yourself on the wrong side of a fundamental shift, not just in the financial industry but in the global marketplace at large.

One of the most pressing risks is the potential for deposit flight (and the unknown amount of money which has already vanished!). As digital assets and the tokenization of wealth become more mainstream, your members will continue to move their money to institutions that offer these services, leaving your credit union behind. Furthermore, if Elon Musk has his way, your members won’t even need a traditional financial institution once alternative platforms (like X) offer all the services they require.

If you delay adopting these technologies until 2026, you may find that the gap between you and your more forward-thinking competitors is too wide to bridge. The cost of catching up at that point—both financially and in terms of lost trust and membership—could be prohibitive.

Modernizing marketing

Attracting new members and retaining existing ones is important, no question. But is spending millions of dollars per year on stadium naming rights, billboard advertising, and TV airtime really the best path forward? What if, for just a few thousand dollars, you could educate your entire executive team and prepare to educate your members on a new asset class with a market cap exceeding that of the entire credit union industry?

An intentional focus on delivering value through innovative services, personalized financial planning tools, and educational resources on digital assets will aid your credit union in creating deeper, longer-lasting relationships with members. After all, a well-informed member is more likely to trust your institution, rely on your services, and advocate for your brand—creating organic growth that far surpasses the fleeting impact of a billboard or TV ad.

One thing is certain: it is impossible for you to attract and retain any of the assets owned by the estimated 93 million American adults who now own crypto if custody services, core-integrated deposits, and blockchain-based payment services aren’t provided in a timely manner. This is just one of the reasons we are so impressed with the work being done at St. Cloud Financial Credit Union with their brand-new CU Digital Asset Vault™.

Plan for tomorrow’s success, today

The future of your credit union depends on your ability to meet the changing needs of your members. This means making strategic investments in technology sooner rather than later. It’s no longer enough to simply provide checking accounts and auto loans—your credit union must offer the innovative products and services your members expect.

As an executive, you will need to grapple with some difficult questions: What investments will ensure that our members remain satisfied and loyal over the long term? How will we educate ourselves and our staff on emerging trends? Who will we partner with to achieve these critical objectives?

The choices you make in this budget season will determine the future of your institution. This is not a time for complacency. Technology is evolving rapidly, and your members are expecting more from you than ever before. Failure to act now could leave you attempting to play catch-up in 2026, a position from which it will be difficult to recover.

By focusing on member feedback, marketing through education, and making strategic technological investments, your credit union can position itself to thrive in the years ahead. The time for action is now, and the path to success lies in embracing the future while staying true to the core mission of serving your members—and doing it with a partner who is dedicated to your success!