Many banks and credit unions covet young adults for the potential they offer as long-term customers, but it’s hard to reach out to them from the traditional corner branch.

That’s why a unit of Fiserv Inc. have come up with a computer application that it said will reach young people where many of them hang out on the Internet social networking site Facebook.

Fiserv’s MyMoney program, which initially is being sold only to credit unions, lets members of participating institutions view account balances and transaction histories and transfer funds online without leaving their Facebook page.

Eventually the program will be available to banks and is expected to have a wider range of banking functions, such as loan applications.

But one of the biggest benefits is the free advertising to other young adults a credit union gets online through the program. When a Facebook user decides to join MyMoney, Facebook’s “news feed” feature announces it to friends of the customers and friends of friends. That gives them a chance to join online as well, including a link to help them find a participating credit union in their area.

The program recently was cited as the best online innovation by The Banker magazine at its annual retail banking technology awards.

Jay Slavin, senior vice president of Fiserv Galaxy, said the program is intended to capture the attention of an 18-to-34-year-old market.

“When on average you are spending 25 minutes a day on Facebook, it is all about convenience,” Slavin said. “It is all about being where your target market is.”

With more than 100 million active users of Facebook, there is great potential for reaching many members of Generation Y, the sons and daughters of the baby boomers, Slavin said.

Right now, Slavin said, only about 6 percent of people in the targeted young-adult age range are members of credit unions. But they are the people who are or will be needing loans, and lending is the primary way credit unions and most banks make money.

“You can’t wait for them to come to you,” Slavin said.

Fiserv launched the program last winter to a limited number of credit unions, but now it’s available to all of the credit unions that use its other banking technology services. Fiserv sells financial technology products and services, such as automated account keeping and online bill payment, to thousands of banks and credit unions around the world.

So far 37 credit unions are using MyMoney, and 1,200 Facebook users have signed up to use it. One of them is Holly Awwad of New Baltimore, Mich. She works for Christian Financial Credit Union, which offers MyMoney to its members.

“I do keep in touch with certain people who live outside of the state and friends and co-workers through Facebook,” said Awwad, 27. “Having it connected to my Facebook page makes it that much easier to get my banking done, because I check my accounts almost every day as well.”

Kirsten Gardner, marketing manager for Fiserv Galaxy, stressed the importance of the “viral marketing” aspect that occurs when people sign up for it on the Facebook page. Viral marketing, in this instance, is the automatic spread of information about MyMoney from one Facebook user to another whenever someone adds it to their page.

“If I go in and add MyMoney to my Facebook application, then all of my friends get a little notice that says I added it and they can click on it,” Gardner said. “That’s one of the ways they are made aware of it. Instead of the typical advertising, which that group really isn’t interested in, they are interested in what their friends are doing and what their peers are doing.”

If Facebook users can’t find their credit union on the list of participants, the program makes note of it and sends an e-mail to the credit union telling it that a member is interested in MyMoney.

The program is encrypted to keep anyone from breaking into a user’s account or viewing balances, and a Facebook user even could block people from finding out he or she joined, Gardner said.