Credit Unions, Banks and Mobile Banking

Let me begin by saying that I began my career at a credit union, and I have only positive things to say about the experience. In fact, the member service that I witnessed during my time at IFCU is among the best I've seen during my 17 years in the financial industry.

That said, earlier today I read an article on the CUNA website titled, "CUs ahead of competitors on mobile banking," and there's some terminology that I'm struggling to justify. For instance, the article states, "credit unions are leaders in the mobile banking efforts surfacing so far."

How is the term "leader" is being defined? If you look at quantitative data such as "number of users" then clearly Bank of America is in the lead with nearly 1 million clients. Or, if you consider the qualitative such as "depth-of-solution" I would again argue that the banks such as Wachovia and Wells Fargo would be at the fore front.

The article references a study that says, "23% of the largest credit unions" versus "17% of the largest banks." And again I'd suggest that the terms are a little vague. Are we comparing the top 25 banks and the top 25 credit unions, or are we relying what appears to be a more subjective definition of "largest."

Just a little food-for-thought: Always remember to dig into the data behind the research before you accept the executive summary as gospel.