Welcome and Introduction | Emerging From COVID-19: Consumer and Financial Institution Perspectives

COVID-19 has had unprecedented impact on the economy, consumer behavior, and the financial services industry.  From record decline in GDP in the second quarter of 2020, to historic jumps in unemployment, to catastrophic closures of small business, the implications have been profound.  The impact on the financial services industry has also been profound, and it will continue into 2021 as the industry deals with an historically low rate environment and growing loan losses. While we have already begun to see signs of emergence and economic growth, many sectors of the economy will feel the impact of COVID-19 for an extended period of time, and some are likely to never recover. 

We anticipate significant and permanent changes in many aspects of consumer and small business behavior, both financial and otherwise, and these changes present real opportunity for financial service providers. These changes are in reality an acceleration of trends that were already underway, and impact a broad range of areas, including financial product design, branch distribution and branch design, technology deployment, staffing, and the credit union business model. In this session we will examine these trends with the intent to understand how the financial services industry is changing and what credit unions can do to survive and thrive in this new environment.