CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 181 Walt Agius on CUSOs, Indirect Car Loans, and Lending in the 21st Century

 Walt Agius knows credit union lending.  And he especially knows what credit unions need to to stay competitive in the 21st century.

Consider this podcast a deep dive into today's lending.

The guest is Walt Agius, CEO of Lendsys, a fintech, and also CU Lending Edge, a CUSO that today focuses on car loans but, says Agius, he is looking to extend the portfolio. 

In the past he was CEO of CU Sol, a CUSO, and also CEO of California Bear Credit Union.

He really knows lending, especially car loans.  

In this podcast Agius offers tips about how to make indirect auto lending work for the credit union (and, yes, he knows many credit unions have grumbles about indirect lending).

He also throws out the idea that every credit union should be looking hard at syndicating every loan that comes in the door.  That strategy dramatically limits risk.  He said he would want to keep perhaps 10% of most loans but he would want to sell the other 90% of other participants - and this collaborative way is a particularly credit union mindset.  

Listen up.

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CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 180 Kirk Drake, Joe Cianciolo HomePace, Mike Kenzie Patriot FCU on Brainstorming Fintech

 Put your brainstorming hat on. You'll want it as you listen to this podcast that serves as a preview of the January 20, 2022 CU 2.0 Brainstorm event that will gather together fintech leaders and credit union executives for a day of lively presentations (topics to be chosen by the attendees) and conversation.

 Consider this podcast a mini preview of what the Brainstorm event will feel like.

Joe Cianciolo talks about how HomePace - a fintech that makes home equity investments that may be tapped by homeowners and buyers without taking on debt.  

Chief information officer Kenzie tells about the tech priorities at Patriot Federal Credit Union, a $900 million institution - and he tells what he looks for in the fintechs he works with

Drake tells about the urgency of matching up credit unions and the right fintechs and the challenges of making it happen.

It's a show that will leave you more informed and also energized.

Listen up.

Want more info on the Brainstorm event? Click here.  There's a sign up tool at the same site.

Want more from Cianciolo? You  got it.  Here's an earlier CU 2.0 podcast with him from June 2021.

Want more on the CU 2.0 Mastermind group? Here's a November 2020 podcast on it.  

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CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 179 Bryce Deeney of equipifi and the Rise of BNPL

 BNPL.  Remember that because you soon will be using that abbreviation often.

It stands for Buy Now, Pay Later and it is just about the hottest trend in payments at retail.

Today's US market is small, maybe $50 billion but forecasts show the BNPL market crashing into the many hundreds of billions of dollars by the middle of the present decade.  And then the numbers start to get dizzily huge.

Why so much interest?  Oldtimers will recall that BNPL was a staple of 1950s retail but as credit cards proliferated it receded into the background.  But now it is again hot and that's because it speaks to the purchasing needs and desires of Gen Z and young Millennials.  Why don't they just slap down a Visa card and put it on credit? The advantage of BNPL to them is that they know the total cost of purchase when they make it.  The full payments amount, spread out over an agreed upon number of months, is there to see.

Pay the minimum on a credit card purchase and suddenly the total amount paid can vault much, much higher.

So the younger generations are hopping aboard BNPL which, right now, is largely used for consumer purchases of a few hundred dollars to maybe a few thousand.

Right now it's mainly fintechs that are playing hard in this space.

But Scottsdale AZ based equipifi is a fintech that wants to enable credit unions in particular along with some banks to play in this space.

In this podcast with co-founder and CEO Bryce Deeney you will hear about equipifi's secret sauce which is software that can approve and fund a BNPL loan at retail in under a minute.

No application is required. No FICO score is checked.

The basis for the loan is knowledge of the history of the member's checking (sharedraft) account and insight into how much surplus money generally is in the account.  So that's a solid basis for forecasting that this consumer can in fact handle this monthly payment.

In the podcast Deeney tells in detail exactly how equipifi works along with how it is integrated into the core.

Any credit union that wants more members under, say, thirty years of age needs to listen and take notes.  

Keep listening and you will hear the equipifi has plans to roll out a BNPL service for SMBs too.  How cool is that?

Listen up.

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CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 178 Cameron Madill on Credit Union Websites and Much More

 Be bold.

That is the loud message from Cameron Madill, CEO of PixelSpoke, an Oregon headquartered marketing agency that primarily serves credit unions.  He also hosts "The Remarkable Credit Union" podcast.  

Too many credit unions simply want to fit in, he says.  

Dare to be different and that just may get you noticed.

That's just one take-away from this podcast - there are many more.

Want to know if your website is good? Madill tells us the main way credit union websites go bad. Use it as a checklist to judge your own.

Do you do member testing of your site? You probably will want to after listening to ths podcas because Madill tells the enormous benefits of testing with even a handful of members.

He also tells why credit unions need to embrace storytelling in their marketing, a topic he has written about for CUInsight.  

Buckle up because he also tells why PixelSpoke is a worker owned cooperative and why it is a certified B Corp. The latter is a credentialing program that designated businesses that put greater emphasis on purpose, not just profit.

As for worker owned cooperatives. that's a comparatively small slice of the cooperative pie in the US but it also is fast growing. Hear why PixelSpoke now is owned by its workers.  

Listen up.

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CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 177 Amber Callahan VP of Marketing at 1st Advantage FCU and Kristin Harrison Web Strategies on Digital Marketing

 What you don't know about digital marketing can be your undoing. That is 2021 fact.

For some years credit union c-suite occupants have shrugged off digital marketing - it's just for kids, our members skew old.  Maybe that was true (maybe it wasn't as true as the c-suiters believed) but what now has become indisputable in our pandemic era is that digital is here and it has become a significant part of just about every life.

That includes credit union members.

Where's a credit union to get started in digital marketing? That's what you will hear about in this podcast with Amber Callahan, VP of marketing at 1st Advantage FCU in Virginia, and Kristin Harrison, director of business development at Web Strategies, also in Virginia.

They have had a multi-year journey together and you will learn how to get started in digital marketing and how to go to next, higher levels.

Do note: this is pretty much a tech free podcast.  There's no need to have a techie at your side for this one.

And accept the reality: we have entered the zone where tech is what matters. To quote the New York Times about Google and Facebook: "these tech companies are rich and powerful because they are the biggest sellers of advertising in the world."

Digital already accounts for more than half of global ad spend.  Many billions of dollars get spent on digital advertising.  There are good reasons for that. You will hear about that in this podcast.

Listen up.

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CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 176 Vizo and Aptys on the Reinvention of the Corporate Credit Union

 If you had asked me ten years ago what the future was for corporate credit unions I probably would have said: they have one?

There were reasons for cynicism: You remember Wescorp, right? There are links in the show notes if you need memory refreshing.

But - and this is a huge but - there are literally thousands of small credit unions that needed and still need a corporate credit union to provide crucial assistance in a range of functions, from payments (especially contemporary ultra fast money movement) to short term liquidity.

I covered the corporate credit union beat for a few years at Credit Union Times and, while I cannot say the sector every thrilled me, little by little I grew to see corporates as essential in today's credit union universe.  Were the credit union sector to shrink down to a few hundred behemoths corporates likely would vanish.

But in a world with 5000+ credit unions, many minuscule, the need for corporates remains.

Have they modernized? Are they part of 21st century financial services or are they more of a curio shop of dusty processes and tools?

Today you hear the answer.

That's because in this podcast you will hear from Eric Dotson, EVP at fintech Aptys, and Jaime Agonstino, Vizo’s Director of Marketing and Business Development.  

Vizo is the product of a merger of Mid-Atlantic Corporate Credit Union and First Carolina Corporate Credit Union.

Aptys enters this picture because it was tasked with modernizing Vizo's payments technology, which had been something of a rat's nest of tangled threads from the two merged in partners.  The tools just would not suffice in what is becoming a realtime payments world, Vizo knew it, and so it brought in Aptys to produce something new, bigger, better.

It was a multi-year process. Hear the details here.

Along the way you will also hear mention that some other corporates - Alloya and Catalyst - are doing similar with their payments. 

The message is plain: corporate credit unions are making changes to seek to stay relevant.

Listen up.

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CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 175 MBFS CEO Mark Ritter Tells How to Make Member Business Lending Work

 Some credit unions are making lots of very profitable member business loans.  Most aren't.  In fact, by Mark Ritter's count, maybe 300 of the nation's credit unions are genuine players in this business. The rest are dabblers, he says.

That's a shock because in the last couple years there has been a stampede of credit unions eager to get into member business lending. The reasons are obvious.  There has been an avalanche of deposits that need to be put to work.  Meantime, both the home mortgage and car loan markets are sputtering, definitely as far as credit unions go.

The eyes in the credit union c-suite shift to local businesses and the question gets asked: how do we lend to them?

Ritter, longtime CEO of Pennsylvania based CUSO Member Business Financial Services, which specializes in member business lending, knows the reality.

About 80 credit unions are active with MBFS - 13 are owners - and they range in size from tiny to over $1 billion in assets.  Ritter pegs the MBFS sweet spot as institutions in the $300 million to $1 billion range but, he says, MBFS has no size limits, big or small.

MBFS in many ways provides credit unions with turnkey service. That means they prospect for borrowers, negotiate the terms, service the loan, and do pretty much everything except provide the capital to lend.

Want to know why member business lending initiatives sputter at many credit unions? Also want to know who not to hire to make those loans?

Ritter has the answers in this wide ranging podcast that is a must listen for any credit union exec who wants to get into member business lending - or wants to do better at it.

Listen up.

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CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 174 Tyler Gillies Debtsy on 21st Century Debt Collection

 What are the chief tools of old school debt collectors? Phone and US mail.  Two problems. Nobody answers the phone when it's an unknown number (do you?) and US mail, increasingly, is tossed unread because all the important, urgent stuff comes via email.

Enter Debtsy, a fintech that is pioneering 21st century collection techniques that are kinder, gentler and - above all - digital. The chief Debtsy tools are email and its website and, in the process, Debtsy also uses data to sift through charged off debts to zero in on those borrowers who have both the means and the willingness to repay.

A lot of debtors have neither. Debtsy seeks to focus in on the borrowers where the potential for return is real. 

That approach looks vastly more effective than the old school techniques.  It also is highly cost efficient because much of it is automated.

You will hear all about 21st century debt collection in this podcast with Tyler Gillies, Debtsy's director of operations.

Debtsy of course knows that most credit unions seek to have a positive image in their communities and so it avoids the bruising, demeaning tactics of at least some debt collectors.

What size credit unions will Debtsy work with?  Pretty much any size. Gillies says clients range from $10 billion+ behemoths to small credit unions.  In the podcast he also details exactly how a credit union starts with Debtsy, what the costs are, and how long it takes for Debtsy to get busy trying to collect. Spoiler: the whole process usually is very fast.

Sure, we know talking charged off debt is a something of a bummer - but this nonetheless is a surprisingly upbeat podcast.

Listen up.

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CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 173 Alexey Krasnoriadtsev BankingON on Bank Dora, Mobile Banking Now and Love

 Early in this podcast you will realize that  Alexey Krasnoriadtsev is a different kind of tech CEO.  For starters, this is a podcast where you will not hear much - probably nothing - that sends you to Google to look up words you don't understand. But the bigger difference is that this is a tech CEO who talks about why it's important that users of technology feel loved by their tech, that credit unions and other financial institutions do right by their users (and Alexey backs that up by refusing to help efforts that don't align with that philosophy), and who admits a lot of FI tech is blah - and he tells why that is so.

You know his work.  In podcast 172 you heard about Bank Dora, the innovative neo-bank birthed by a credit union.  BankingON worked on that project.

The core BankingON pursuit is creating new mobile banking apps and that means tools that do what the users want (rather than what the vendors and FIs want which is the norm).

Be prepared to be surprised, often in this podcast.  Especially if you are a CIO or CTO who knows how fintech execs talk.   

Alexey talks about his frustrations, his hopes, his dreams and why at day's end he is a happy guy.

You didn't expect to hear that, did you?

Listen up.

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CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 172 USAlliance's CEO Kris VanBeek on its Neo-bank Bank Dora

 Meet Dora.  She just may change all that you think about mobile banking.

A product of USAlliance - a $2 billion credit union based in Rye, NY that happens to be the legacy IBM employees credit union - Dora is the first credit union attempt to create a so-called neo bank, that is a branchless institution with no bricks and mortar.

USAlliance has been joined in this effort by three other credit unions: Affinity Plus Federal Credit Union ($3.5B in assets) headquartered in St. Paul, Minn.; Digital Federal Credit Union ($9.8B in assets) in Marlborough, Mass.; Service Credit Union ($5B in assets) in Portsmouth, N.H.

It may be seeking others to join in helping to spread Dora which, presently, is aimed at low to moderate income Americans who may be underserved or unserved by traditional financial institutions.

Can Dora survive in a marketplace where there are heavily funded, venture backed competitors - Chime for instance? 

In this podcast USAlliance CEO Kris VanBeek offers candid, honest history about how and why Dora got birthed and how he sees it succeeding.

He is candid that he does not see Dora as a big money maker for USAlliance. But he believes it will generate a little profit.

He also indicates that Dora is going after different consumers than a Chime, say.  He anticipates that many of Dora’s accounts will carry low balances and the economics of running Dora will be unlike a Chime.

Want to find out about Dora? The app is available in the Apple App Store, also Google Play. Signing up for an account is shockingly fast and easy.  And Dora’s checking is free.

In this podcast VanBeek gives a shout out to BankingOn which played a significant part in creating the app.  Tune in to next week’s podcast which will be with BankingOn and how it sees the future of mobile banking (think better, slicker, easier to use apps and be ready to toss existing apps in the dustbin).

Listen up.

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CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 171 Andre Iervolino on Steps You Need to Take To Keep Your Credit Union Relevant

 Irrelevance beckons. And it will swallow many credit unions whole.

That is the message delivered by Andre Iervolino, a longtime credit union senior staffer who wrote a provocative piece in The Financial Brand entitled "10 Factors That Will Determine Banks' Future Relevance."

Reading is article will rock you because, frankly, he is not optimistic about the future of many credit unions.

A core reason is that, often, they just don't get that technology is rewriting the game book.  What mattered 25 years ago does not count today.

In this podcast we explore the key takeaways of the article and the first is that the nature of a primary financial institution has changed and, said Iervolino, "Community financial institutions no longer compete only against the large banks within their marketplace, but also with big tech (Apple, Amazon, Google Checking, PayPal), fintechs, and neobank/mobile banks such as Chime, SoFi and Ally."

He added: "On average, financial services customers have between five and eight relationships spread across multiple institutions, many of them not traditional banking providers."

How do you compete against that complexity?

His second takeaway is remapping the future of the branch - think small footprint, cashless, staffed by Apple type geniuses and, yes, he tells how you will hire them. Hint: it involves paying a lot of money.

Next he throws the FICO score under the bus and proposes that credit unions adopt what he calls a Financial Health Score.

Along the way Iervolino offers key survival advice: Act like a startup.

Prepare to be challenged.

Listen up.

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CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 170 Tim Keith of SRM on The Great Reset in Financial Services

 Things are different today in financial services and, increasingly, there is a realization that we are not going back to "normal," not later this year, probably not ever.  That means credit union executives have to think bigger - more boldly - about how to compete in a changing financial services landscape.

The podcast opens up with a huge credit union 2021 fact: institutions are awash in deposits.  Why? What to do with them?

Data-driven thoughts on that and many more credit union issues come from Tim Keith, chief strategist of Account Boost for SRM, an independent advisory firm that focuses on financial services companies, credit unions included.

In the podcast Keith tackles tough issues - how should credit unions pursue branch realignment, how can they do business banking right, why aren't they better at offering online account opening, and what is a simple action step for deepening relationships with existing members.

It's a wide ranging podcast - take notes because you will get ideas well worth developing as you seek ways to navigate today's turbulent financial services currents.

Listen up.

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CU 2.0 Podcast Finalytics.ai Episode 169 on How Digital Can Be Harnessed to Revolutionize Member Service

 The language on the Finalytics.ai website is bold: "Our mission is simple: use technology to help financial institutions offer the same exceptional service they are known for in-branch, online. As digital commands a greater share of the customer touch, we are passionate about helping organizations grow and keep the promise of modern service excellence alive."

Read that again.

For as long as I have been involved with credit unions, I have heard c-suite executives telling us that their differentiator is their people.

And then along came the pandemic.  What difference do your people mean to the member who does not want to set foot in a branch and in fact wants to move the relationship entirely into the digital realm?  

How do you deliver first rate member service through digital channels - and know that it can be done and in fact already is being done (think USAA and Chase)?

These are the questions that shape this podcast with the co-founders of Finalytics.ai, Craig McLaughlin,CEO, and Mark Ryan, chief analytics officer.

Along the way we explore why so many big data projects fizzled into failure at credit unions a decade ago and also why ai - artificial intelligence - is the engine that is reshaping financial services.

And note there are moments to be afraid.  For instance: a generation ago your institution had maybe 10 or 20 competitors. Now it has thousands and many aren't even credit unions or banks.

That's not to suggest throwing in the towel. But you will have a fight on your hands.

Listen up.

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CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 168 Jake Tyler Finn AI on Conversational Banking 2021 Style

 The future of banking just may be voice - but that will probably mean talking with a computer. Already tens of millions of Bank of America customers use its Erica and that number is growing at a brisk rate.

It should be no surprise.  Siri, Alexa and Google Assistant are part of many of our lives today. We talk with machines. We like talking with machines.

Question: how is a credit union to compete in this sphere.

Enter Finn AI, a conversational banking company formed precisely to address these needs for credit unions and community banks.

Already Finn AI has a couple credit union customers - BECU is one. And it is looking for more.

That's why it has scheduled an October 6 virtual conversational banking summit, a half day devoted to giving credit union and bank execs the information they need to make decisions about AI and conversational banking.

Did I mention it is free for credit union execs.

Link here.

If you can't make the summit, sign up anyway and you'll get a link so you can watch at a time more convenient for you.

Speakers include executives from Amazon, BECU, MX, United Federal Credit Union (also a Finn AI customer), and Kirk Drake, the founder of CU 2.0 and author of a book on AI.  

In this podcast, with Finn AI CEO and co-founder Jake Tyler, you will hear more about the summit but you also will here about Finn AI's tools, its pricing, and why Tyler is persuaded that conversational AI banking just is not a technology that can be ignored.  It's a candid discussion, tightly focused and to the point.

Listen up.

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CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 167 Nathan Baumeister ZSuite Technologies on Finding Riches in Niches

 Be real - few credit unions can genuinely be all things to all members because how big would the institution have to be?

As you ponder that - really drill into the idea that there can be success in being small - now consider a fintech named ZSuite Technologies.  It has three product lines that it makes available to its financial institution partners: ZRent, aimed at property managers and landlords; ZDeposit, again aimed at property managers and landlords, this tool helps track rental deposits and understand the laws vary by state, sometimes by city; and ZEscrow, which helps escrow account holders - such as lawyers and government agencies - better track and manage those monies.

All niche? You bet but that's the intent.  The initial tools grew out of a Massachusetts community bank which wanted ways to better compete in a marketplace where it sometimes seems that only behemoths thrive. That's when a lightbulb clicked. Property managers and small landlords had lots of problems - how many still keep paper records? - and so computer skills were harnessed to help solve those problems.

And then why not attempt to persuade those property managers and landlords to shift most - maybe all - of their banking to the institution that helps solve their nagging business problems?

The escrow tools - the most recent addition to the portfolio - grew out of the discovery that for many escrow accounts are a real hassle.  But the right computer programming could sole the problems.

All small? You bet. But small can be beautiful.

On the podcast to tell the story of ZSuite is the CEO Nathan Baumeister. He tells about the company's formation, why small is beautiful, and ZSuite's ambitions to offer its tools to more credit unions.

Listen up.

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CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 166 Jill Nowacki on the Credit Union War for Talent: HR in 2021

 It's tough out there.  That's a paraphrase of how Jill Nowacki, a 20 year veteran of the credit union industry and presently CEO of Humanidei + O'Rourke where she focuses on talent recruitment for credit unions.

When fast food outlets are advertising starting pay at $15 and up per hour in much of the country you get a hint of how tough it is right now to recruit for credit unions.

But the problems aren't limited to entry level jobs.  In this podcast Nowacki talks at length about issues in filling c-suite jobs (even CEO slots) and also the increasing challenges in recruiting new members for the board of directors.

One takeaway from this podcast: start thinking strategically about employees and board members.  Random just isn't going to hack it anymore.

Also focus in on the credit union advantages in hiring - for instance a genuine community focus and a focus not on profits but on doing good.  Many of us - and especially many younger people - put a high priority on those attitudes and credit unions have the right stuff.

Nowacki admits that at senior level jobs banks have a powerful attraction - stock options that can produce personal wealth.  Credit unions do not have options.  Bur they have that powerful draw of a culture committed to doing good. And that will bring in job applicants.

Nowacki does not underplay the difficulties in today's hiring marketplace but she nonetheless is upbeat. That's the attitude that just may prevail in today's talent wars.

Listen up.

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CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 165 UNest and Smarter Savings for Children

 You know the horror stories - the educational loan burden keeps mounting for many millions and, frankly, the options for lessening that burden are not plentiful.

But there are options. Meet UNest. It's an app and what it does it help set aside money for a child. It's flexible too. The underlying law is the Uniform Transfers to Minors Act which allows an adult to set up a tax advantaged savings plan that benefits a minor and the money can be spent on education, but also on a first car or a wedding or many other things.

Who gives also is flexible. Parents of course but also grandparents, other relatives and just plain friends.

Earnings in the account are tax advantaged.

You never heard of the UTMA? Join the club. It is not widely known legislation. But, executed smartly, it can deliver real benefits to a child.

On the podcast to tell us about UNest are Peter Mansfield, CMO, Erin Matta, VP partnerships, and Alison Silverstein, CEO of KidFund, a savings app that recently was acquired by UNest.

Where do credit unions come in? UNest already is working with one credit union to put the UNest app in the hands of members and it is looking for more credit unions to partner with.

Note, too, UNest sees the real power of its app as best serving the middle class and upper middle class - that is, the credit union membership. The app helps with setting savings goals and the ultimate goal is success.

Listen up.

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CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 164 Pamela Owens SVP Inclusiv on African American Credit Unions and a Whole Lot More DEI 5 2021

 She's smart. She has around 20 years experience at Inclusiv, the association for community development financial institutions and its predecessor organization. And she has put a lot of attention on African American Credit Unions.  Will they survive? Does it matter?

Meet Pamela Owens, a SVP at Inclusiv and she comes with a lot to tell us.

As for African American credit unions, they will survive and, yes, it definitely matters, says Owens in this podcast.  She tells why.

She also gives a grade for credit union industry efforts regards Diversity, Equity and Inclusion efforts (and know she is not an easy grader).

Along the way we talk about progress African Americans have made in regard to credit union employment - and the progress they need to make in regard to C-suite employment.

Credit unions, unlike banks, are birthed with a moral reason for their existence. Banks exist to profit their shareholders.  Credit unions - especially CDFIs - exist to bring financial services to the underserved and that is indeed a reason to get up in the morning.

If you want to feel good about being in the credit union industry this is the podcast you want to listen.  Of course you will also get some to-do's - but this is work that isn't going to be finished soon.  

Listen up.

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Find out more about CU2.0 and the digital transformation of credit unions here. It’s a journey every credit union needs to take. Pronto

CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 163 Khellar Crawford CEO Otomo

 Go to the website for Otomo and here's what jumps out at you: "Be the money platform people love. Turn any account holder into an avid user with autonomous personal money management."

Read it again.

What Otomo is about is a revolution in our digital money management and here is a fact: on a fundamental level, online and mobile banking are not substantially different from what debuted in the mid 1990s.  

Another fact: PFMs are not significantly more engaging than they were when they were introduced a generation ago.

Otomo's plan is to revolutionize all of that.

To rethink how we bank.

And, yes, to make it all much more engaging - and fun! - than we are accustomed to.

On its LinkedIn page, Otomo says about itself: "Picture a world where your money knows where to go as soon as it hits your bank account, organizing itself in real-time. Sounds like something out of Blade Runner? It's not.

 "Otomo is delivering on banking's ultimate promise of hyper-personalized cash management tools today. We deliver our service directly through your favorite financial institution or money app. In other words, you'll quickly be able to offer smart banking that can provide engaging, long-lasting, and meaningful experiences to your customers."

Ready to hear more about the Otomo revolution? In this podcast you will hear at length from Khellar Crawford, CEO and co-founder of Otomo and you will also hear why he founded it and why your credit union just may wat to explore deploying it to your members.

Face it? Members increasingly want more from their digital banking experience than they are getting.  Otomo just may be what they are hunting.

Listen up.

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Find out more about CU2.0 and the digital transformation of credit unions here. It’s a journey every credit union needs to take. Pronto

CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 162 Peter Rice Workers Credit Union on What's Stressing Out Your Members and How Credit Unions Can Help

 Money woes.

It sounds like the title of a blues song but, ask Peter Rice, Chief Banking Officer at Workers Credit Union in Massachusetts, and he will tell you it's not an oldie but today's lyric and he can prove it with a recent Central Mass survey that found 65% of the residents said they were unsure, stressed, or extremely stressed about money.  

Ouch. that's a lot of anxiety but, said Rice, it's exactly a place where a credit union could and should help and, in that way, it will also gain a competitive edge.

In the process, Workers has introduced a new branch concept - called PlanIt - which, get this, features an interactive hologram named Olivia and a short, perky robot named Pepper.  

I don't kid you.

That's because the Workers hope with its new branch is that it will be welcoming, inclusive, but also will help inspire members to achieve their personal financial wellness.

A stat that hit Rice like a brick is that most of us - even the seemingly well off - don't have $400 in ready cash to deal with financial emergencies and yet this past 18 months have been a text book illustration of how the unexpected and unimagined can become our reality.

We need to be financially well to deal with these speed bumps in our life highway.

A goal of the PlanIt centers - Workers has opened three and has plans for more - is to help members to feel empowered and also to get them more engaged with the credit union.

And, yeah, people do come into the branches to interact with Olivia- who is multi lingual and very helpful - and also with Pepper who is cheery.

Is this the future of the credit union branch?

Is this how a credit union can win the battle for the member?

Expect to hear challenges to credit union orthodoxies in this podcast.  Rice thinks into the future and in this podcast he tells his route to getting there. By the way that accent you hear is not a rogue Boston lilt. It's from Rice's native Ireland.  

Listen up.

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Find out more about CU2.0 and the digital transformation of credit unions here. It’s a journey every credit union needs to take. Pronto

CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 161 Kavita Singh Payrailz on AI and Your Credit Union

 Ask Kavita Singh - a vice president at payments company Payrailz - what's a smart way to differentiate a credit union in a a competitive marketplace that is ever more cluttered and her answer is succinct: AI.

As she wrote in a recent Credit Union Times article, "Credit union leaders must go a step further and find a true strategic differentiator. This can be found via artificial intelligence."

A few years ago AI was akin to The Matrix - kind of a cool but spacey idea and, truth to tell, none but the very biggest credit unions even had it on their "learn about" lists.

That's changed.

AI is suddenly everywhere.  Call your cellphone provider and a machine will answer.  Ditto at the big credit card companies.  Also airlines. And down a lengthening list of institutions that, increasingly, turn to machines to find information, answer customer questions, solve problems.

In Singh's view, credit unions are ideally positioned to win at AI, mainly because they already have bushels of member data and that data, properly used, will tell how best to serve this member's needs right now.

Singh gives this for instance: "For example, a member may pay a particular bill around a certain time of month. AI will learn this behavior and begin to proactively alert, or remind, members in advance of the pending bill."

Think about that. A simple nudge may help save a member a late fee and that is a way to build member loyalty.

AI can also predict in advance when a member is about to bounce a check and that's not black magic. It's knowing the account balance and also knowing what bills are likely to come in soon and if the numbers don't add up that member could be prodded to shift money from another place into an account to cover the incoming bills.  That means more late fees saved.

Think too about how good companies like Amazon and Netflix have gotten about predicting what you want to consume next.  They are not guessing.  What they are doing is cranking in past consumer behavior and taking a very educated guess about what this consumer wants next.

AI is changing our lives and it will be a factor in what credit unions thrive (and which don't).

You want to hear Singh on credit unions and AI.

Listen up.

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Find out more about CU2.0 and the digital transformation of credit unions here. It’s a journey every credit union needs to take. Pronto

CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 160 Izabella Gabowicz COO Sensibill Answers the Spending Question

 You know the income of many of your members.

Now here's the big question: do you know what they are spending it on?

Down to the SKU level - that is, on exactly what are they spending?

You want to meet Izabella Gabowicz, COO and a founding team member at Toronto based fintech Sensibill, a company built around the insight that financial wellness is not one size fits all.  Joe's financial wellness might include a craft beer a day, wile Susie's might favor a non alcoholic kombucha a day and, yeah, knowing such differences night help a financial institution deliver more customized financial wellness programming.

Says Sensibill about itself, "At Sensibill, we're working to make financial services personal—you could say, more human. We build products that reveal insights into everyday spend that can be used to truly personalize financial services. And in doing so, help people achieve their unique version of financial wellness."

Focus on that: insights into personal daily spend.

It all adds up. A newspaper, a cup of coffee, a short taxi ride and who is keeping track?

Sensibill can.

How?  Listen to this podcast where Gabowicz extols the benefits of SKU level spending data.

Know too that Sensibill's products touch 60 million people worldwide.

Call this financial wellness 2.0.

Listen up.

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Find out more about CU2.0 and the digital transformation of credit unions here. It's a journey every credit union needs to take. Pronto

CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 159 Kelli Ellsworth Etchison LAFCU and Gary Lee MDT CUSO on DEI DEI 4 2021

 Kelli Ellsworth Etchison,  chief marketing officer and chief diversity officer at the $950 million, Lansing, Mich.-based LAFCU and a member of Michigan’s Black Leadership Advisory Council, and Gary Lee is Chief Client Office at MDT, Member Driven Technology, a tech focused CUSO, are in this podcast to tell why DEI - diversity, equity and inclusion - matter to credit unions.

Here's the big question Lee addresses: how does MDT explain to its owners, customers and prospects that it - a CUSO that specializes in delivering cloud based core processing - puts a large emphasis on DEI?  What business is this of a tech focused CUSO?

It's a central concern, explained Lee in the podcast and he added that MDT has even signed new customers who said their preference is to do business with companies that share their concerns about social justice and equality issues.

As for Etchison, she puts a DEI concern on the table that we have not heard before in over a half dozen DEI focused podcasts.  Her idea is that we have to stop looking at DEI simply as a concern inside the four walls of the credit union and instead look at it in a bigger community orientation.  Her point: until there is real DEI in the community, a credit union's DEI focus can produce only so much good.

That is a huge idea and a huge challenge. Many credit unions are doing very well in regard to DEI inside walls - but how about in the community?

The mammoth idea here is that systemic racism results in, for instance, low credit scores for many - and so they become prey for payday lenders rather than good credit union members.

Help more people in your community achieve the successes they deserve and the result will be a stronger. more successful credit union.

How large is that idea?

You might sat the subtitle for this podcast is do good for your credit union or CUSO by doing good for the community.

Listen up.

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Find out more about CU2.0 and the digital transformation of credit unions here. It's a journey every credit union needs to take. Pronto

CU 2.0 Episode 158 Jack Henry Experts Talking Fraud Trends and Credit Union Vulnerabilities

Newsflash: ask the experts and they will tell credit union executives that a tidal wave of fraud very likely will be crashing into them and soon.

Why? For the past year criminals have been kept busy attempting to cash in on the various federal and state government pandemic related relief programs such as PPP loans.  That money is drying up so they are casting their eyes in search of new targets and you just may have a bullseye on your back.

That’s why you need to hear this wide ranging conversation with two Jack Henry fraud and financial crimes experts, Rene Perez and Nat Southern.

This is a conversation about crime trends and also about crime trends that remain largely ignored.

A big trend for instance is that as financial institutions, especially the big ones, have toughed their perimeter defenses, criminals have shifted focus and are eyeing credit union members for vulnerabilities - which they very often will find.

Perez says a trigger for this is that many financial institutions have simply gotten very sophisticated, often in response to prodding from regulators.

But he adds that he talks with maybe 10 small financial institutions a week that are still doing a lot of their fraud work on paper, with humans doing the reporting.,

That increasingly is just not adequate, not when smart criminals enter the battle.

You will also hear a phrase - “willful blindness.” That’s a term regulators are using to describe an institution’s failure to detect fraud perpetrated by insiders or perhaps by friends or community leaders.  

This is not a technical conversation.  It is more in the nature of cops and robbers and what you need to know about the robbers who want to steal your credit union’s money.

Listen up

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CU 2.0 Podcast 157 DEI Doubleheader Emma Norman (Local Government FCU and AACUC) and Lynn Heckler (PSCU) DEI 3 2021

Welcome to the CU2.0 doubleheader podcast where you will hear two perspectives on DEI and the industry. 

"We are stronger together." That is what Emma Norman, director of learning and development at Local Government Federal Credit Union and also chief diversity officer at the African American Credit Union Coalition, has to say when asked why LGFCU is all in when it comes to supporting the Credit Union DEI Collective.

She adds that what she tells credit unions is that "DEI has to be part of your strategy."

Think on that.  DEI - diversity, equity and inclusion, a movement that gained force in the past year as evidence multiplied that the United States is a country with deep, lingering racial divides - just maybe is a whole lot more than a nice to do.

"DEI is a business imperative," said Lynn Heckler, chief talent officer at PSCU. Her point: the credit unions and allied companies that want longterm success will be very sure they look much like their communities and across America those communities are increasingly diverse,

This is a wide ranging podcast, with two very different voices and perspectives but the two women agree on this: DEI is a real, important concern.

Local Government FCU of course is a powerhouse. Its assets exceed $3 billion.

PSCU is the nation's leading payments CUSO - it supports 1500 credit unions and their many billions of payments annually.

These are two important institutions - and that is why it matters that they are saying DEI is real and it is real  for any business.

Listen up.

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Find out more about CU2.0 and the digital transformation of credit unions here. It's a journey every credit union needs to take. Pronto

CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 156 Renee Sattiewhite AACUC DEI 2021 2

 You know Renee Sattiewhite. She's CEO of the African American Credit Union Coalition (AACUC), has been a past guest on this podcast (episode 101), she is a co-star in DCUC's Tony Hernandez's recent podcast (155) and she is the person to see if you want to know how African Americans are faring in credit union c-suites, in boardrooms, and as they stand in teller lines.

But, lately. in the DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) universe, her interests are broadening and she is pondering how many minorities (Latinos and women for instance) are succeeding in credit unions.

DEI, she says, is not a minute, it's a movement.  Indeed.  Started amid the despair of last summer - George Floyd RIP - a year into it and the question has to be, what's been accomplished.  Sattiewhite tells her opinion in this podcast.

Know that progress is getting made. But this is hard, continuing work.

A recent project is CCEP - cross-cultural exchange program - where credit union people are pared with another, typically of a different race, possibly a different gender - for a 90 day dialog.   

A talk with Sattiewhite is lively. She laughs.  She mentions people you should know (Pete Crear, Victor Corro -- both past CU 2.0 podcast guests by the way).  

She also expresses fundamental optimism because, she says, talk with young people (Millennials and Gen X) and "they are not playing around."  These young people want change and are unprepared to accept less.  For them real racial and gender equality is non negotiable.

Listen up.

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Find out more about CU2.0 and the digital transformation of credit unions here. It's a journey every credit union needs to take. Pronto

CU 2.0 Episode 155 Tony Hernandez DCUC on the AACUC CCEP (Initials Decoded Below) DEI 2021 1

 Now don't you wish you had a magic decoder ring?

There's an alphabet soup in the podcast title. Let me decipher.

DCUC - Defense Credit Union Council, the trade group for some 181 military themed credit unions (and many are behemoths - Navy Fed, Pen Fed, you get the picture).

Tony Hernandez is the DCUC CEO, after logging 25 years in the Air Force where he finished as a colonel.

AACUC is the African American Credit Union Coalition.  You know AACUC because last year the CEO Renee Sattiewhite was a guest on the show.  Remember that name because you will hear it frequently in this podcast.

As for CCEP that's a new AACUC initiative that has paired people of different backgrounds and often different races for a 90 day interaction.

Hernandez is on the steering committee, and he has authored CUInsight blogs explaining the why of CCEP.  

The first CCEP round comes to a close in July, but the hunt already is on for participants in a new round.  

Experts debate when the US will become minority majority, meaning whites will no longer be in the majority, but one fact is certain: that day is coming and now is the time to focus on efforts to produce more harmonious race relations,  And a big part of that just is talking with people not like us.  (Whatever we are.)

Along the way in this Hernandez podcast you will hear a great deal about why defense credit unions matter, why they have an ideal membership mix, and how a 25 year Air Force veteran transitioned into the credit union world.

Hernandez' personal story is something you didn't expect, from how his wife was instrumental in his getting the DCUC job (never sneer at being a plus one!) to musings about the difficulties in ascending the military ranks ladder.

Listen up.

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Find out more about CU2.0 and the digital transformation of credit unions here. It's a journey every credit union needs to take. Pronto

CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 154 Joe Cianciolo Home Co-Purchasing

 An elderly member contacts you.  He/she has a stack of medical bills, little in savings, but substantial equity in a home.  What are the options? How can you help?

Two obvious choices are a HELOC and a reverse mortgage but there are significant problems with both. When there are no other options, well, maybe....

But now there is a third way and today's podcast guest, Joe Cianciolo, CEO of HomePace, is here to tell us about what amounts to co-investing in single family homes (sorry condo owners, HomePace presently is not investing in them. It also is not interested in rental property or vacation homes).

What HomePace does is buy an option to purchase up to 17.5% of a home.  It pays for that ownership now, But it does not collect until the home is sold, or in rare cases the owner buys out their position.  That means HomePace is in for the longterm.

HomePace is a passive investor. It has no right to force a sale.

HomePace's investment is not debt. It has no impact on the homeowner's FICO score.

Another HomePace play is co-investing in a new home purchase.  Say a buyer is cash short and can come up with only 10% of the purchase price for a downpayment.  HomePace may match that 10%, qualifying the buyer for more favorable loan terms.

In such cases, HomePace envisions the credit union as the mortgage originator - and that's a plus in a time when credit union mortgage market share continues to slip.  A new tool in a credit union's lending tool set just may help close more deals.

Note: HomePace requires its owners to have a minimum 10% equity in a home.  It will not invest in a no down or 3% down purchase.  Lenders who portfolio mortgages generally will accept the HomePace participation.

In this podcast, Cianciolo tells how HomePace works, what it looks for in a deal, what states it operates in (and one state where it believes it unlikely it ever will do business), and why it especially likes credit unions as partners.

A number of players now are in this co-investing market but a HomePace distinction it that it already is working with one credit union on its deals, it believes it will announce several more shortly, and it is actively seeing additional credit union partners.

There are many cases where a co-investor is an obvious advantage in a deal.  Check out HomePace and this co-investing universe.  There just may be advantages for members in need.

Listen up.

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Find out more about CU2.0 and the digital transformation of credit unions here. It's a journey every credit union needs to take. Pronto

CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 153 Jon Voorhees on What You Do Not Know About Smart Branching

 Jon Voorhees has spent his work life optimizing branch performance. He has headed initiatives where an institution added hundreds of branches and he has headed initiatives where hundreds of branches were closed.  His last job at a financial services company - he now is a consultant based in Washington State - was as a senior vice president at Bank of America and you can guess how many challenges he faced at that bank.

But he knows credit unions too and in recent years has worked with a number on a simple question: how to optimize the branch strategy.  The question is easy to ask but hard to answer, especially since so much that impacts branching, from the pandemic to financial technology, keeps changing.

One thing Voorhees is adamant about: branches aren't going way.

Another thing: branches make for remarkably effective billboards for financial institutions.  Maybe you cannot afford a sizable ad daily in your local newspaper, but a properly positioned branch, with the right kind of signage. just may succeed in reminding your community that you are still thriving, still ready to help with their financial services needs. 

This is a wide ranging conversation, something of a primer on branch optimization,

Along the way you will find out where in supermarket branches make sense (or not), what could possibly go wrong with a branch that featured a Starbucks, and exactly where a branch needs to be in a shopping center.

Personally, I went into this podcast thinking, close'em all.  I had come to think that branches had served their purpose and were done. After giving Voorhees a listen, I now believe there is indeed a valuable place for branches in the credit union system - but only when they are smartly sited, tweaked for today's times, and wear the right, eye-catching signage. And many institutions just aren't getting that right.

The fixes are in this podcast.

Listen up.

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Find out more about CU2.0 and the digital transformation of credit unions here. It's a journey every credit union needs to take. Pronto

CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 152 Bill Clark CEO TimeTrade SilverCloud on Digital First Banking Trends

 You know the headline - in fact you could write the story on the explosion in digital banking transactions during the last pandemic year.  

But do you know this: there has also been an explosion in the use of digital self-service information gathering and problem solving.

That's the surprising news in a report from TimeTrade SilverCloud, a provider of customer engagement solutions.  

In this podcast Bill Clark, CEO of TimeTrade SilverCloud offers the specifics - and prepared to be surprised.   Everybody knew members have been using digital to check account balances and pay bills but who knew members were making strong use of digital to investigate everything from PPP loans to how to get contactless debit cards.

By TimeTrade SilverCloud's data,  "Usage of online self-service increased 38% from March to April 2020 and has sustained a level 69% greater even a year later – demonstrating a shift in customer behavior to leverage self-service options before reaching out for live support."

Another factoid: Usage of knowledge based in mobile banking apps is up 82% year on year.

A third blockbuster number: "Chatbot usage on bank and credit union websites and mobile apps increased 272% year-over-year."

A last fact: Credit unions saw a 107% increase in year over year in pre-scheduling in branch appointments from Q1 2020 to Q1 2021.

The numbers tell the story: Something big has happened in regard to how we do our financial services.

This is a brisk podcast.  Listen up.

Like what you are hearing? Find out how you can help sponsor this podcast here. Very affordable sponsorship packages are available. Email rjmcgarvey@gmail.com

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Find out more about CU2.0 and the digital transformation of credit unions here. It’s a journey every credit union needs to take. Pronto.