CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 142 John Herrera The Immigrant Banking Journey

 Before logging into this call, I studied up on who John Herrera is.  He was born in Costa Rica, then came to the US to go to college at the University of Delaware and one thing led to another and instead of going back to Costa Rica to build a better society he stayed in the US and has worked on building a better society for all of us but with a special focus on Hispanic immigrants such as himself.

My first question to him, off mike, is how did he get from there to here.  The podcast starts off with him telling that saga.  

Today Herrera is a senior vice president at Self-Help in North Carolina, where his focus is on Hispanic relations and he has been busy building banking relationships with immigrant communities in North Carolina but also Illinois, Florida and California.

Also on is resume is that he is a co-founder of the very successful Latino Community Credit Union in North Carolina.  That credit union got its start some 20 years ago when there was a wave of robberies and murders of immigrant workers who got paid in cash and often carried large sums.

He is the founder of El Pueblo in North Carolina which focuses on civil rights for immigrants.

He was named an immigrant innovator by President Barack Obama.  

He was the first Hispanic immigrant elected to a North Carolina municipal office. He served as an alderman in Carrboro NC.

He was named by Time Magazine as one of 31 people who are changing the South.

In this podcast he offers rich and deep insights into how to serve immigrants - especially Hispanics - and he muses on how the United States is soon to become a minority majority nation (by 2045 according to many demographers).  This is smart, sensitive commentary.  Take notes. It's a primer in how to serve a crucial US demographic.

Listen up.

Along the way, many mentions are made of Jim Blaine, the retired CEO of State Employees' Credit Union of North Carolina. Hear the Blaine podcast here. Read more of Blaine's thinking in this CUInsight blog.  

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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 141 Teresa Freeborn CUNA's "Open Your Eyes" - a Return Conversation

 CUNA is still at its "Open Your Eyes" to a credit union campaign and Teresa Freeborn is still heading the effort.  Regular listeners will remember Freeborn from her podcast two years ago, episode 29, and when she asked for a return we gladly said yes.

You probably heard that CUNA paused the campaign last year for what was called a re-set. Freeborn tells what happened.   

Along the way, CUNA spun the campaign off as a separate company January 1, 2020. The campaign now is led by CU Awareness, LLC

Freeborn also tells what is happening now where about half the nation's states are on board with supporting the campaign and more are on tap to go online this year.

Freeborn stresses in the podcast that this is a critical chance for credit unions to join together in lifting what has been a long stagnant market share.  The big banks keep getting bigger.  Credit unions need to fight the trend.

Freeborn's belief is that the cooperative structure and nature of credit unions is a huge advantage - but it is not always cleverly deployed. The "Open Your Eyes" campaign is a step in that direction.

(On that note, do read the CUInsight blog "Credit unions, Quo Vadis," which draws on a conversation with retired credit union CEO Jim Blaine to develop the theme that the cooperative foundation is the key to success in credit unions.)

In this podcast Freeborn clearly discusses her disappointments in leading this campaign and at the top of the list, there is meager participation among credit unions with over $1 billion in assets.  By her count just 98 of the biggest 320 credit unions are supporting "Open Your Eyes" - and their maximum annual contribution is capped at $500,000. Freeborn does not know why the biggest are holding back and she is plain in her unhappiness about this.

"We are trying to build the credit union brand," said Freeborn and her point is that a rising tide lifts all ships.  The campaign will benefit all credit unions.

Why don't more people join and make real use of credit unions? They don't believe they can join one and if they can, they don't believe it could have the national reach of the biggest banks.  The facts are different - but many in the consuming public just don't know.  Thus the need for a continuing campaign to put credit unions on the minds of many of us.  

By the way, "Open Your Eyes" is an entirely digital campaign and you may think, I have never seen an ad.  Freeborn says she too has never seen an ad but she is happy about that because the campaign  is targeted - specifically at Millennials - and she is not in that group.

So if you are not seeing ads just maybe that means the campaign is functioning as designed.

Just coincidentally, on the day we talked for this podcast, Xceed, where Freeborn had been CEO, voted to merge with Kinecta. 83% of voting Xceed members approved the merger, which has created a $6 billion credit union, the nations 35th largest.  Freeborn is staying on as president and has promised a return visit to discus in detail the merger and what it may mean for credit unions.

This podcast is only about "Open Your Eyes."  That's a huge topic on its own.  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

And like this podcast on whatever service you use to stream it. That matters.

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 140 AI and Gesa

This is not an infomercial for Scienaptic, an AI vendor with a particular focus on lending.  

There are two guests on the podcast -  Eric Steinhoff, a Scienaptic executive vice president, and Kevin Willborn, vice president of consumer lending at $3.3 billion Gesa Credit Union.

Essentially you will hear that Scienaptic's tools are a way to speed up loan decisioning and also to make the decisions very possibly better.  It's hard not to like better and faster.

Willborn also tells what loans he plans to run through Scienaptic - lots of different kinds.

This is a tight podcast but in it you will hear how Scienaptic in fact creates better tools for smarter underwriting.  It's a short course in the secret sauce of an AI engine.

Steinhoff also tells why he prefers to work with credit unions over community banks.  You will want to hear this.

At Gesa, meantime, the determination is to up its lending game and that is why Willborn took a look at new tools for smarter processing.  When he heard the Scienaptic presentation he knew he had found the vendor for Gesa.

Right now, Scienaptic has multiple credit union clients but it is looking for more.

Find out more about AI in CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 138, a lively talk with CU 2.0 founder Kirk Drake. Link here.

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

And like this podcast on whatever service you use to stream it. That matters.

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 139 Sundie Seefried on Cannabis Banking

 On July 1, Sundie Seefried, longtime CEO of Partner Colorado Credit Union, makes a huge career change. On that day she resigns the credit union job to become the CEO of Safe Harbor Financial, LLC, a Partner Colorado subsidiary formed for the purpose of handling cannabis related banking.

When Safe Harbor was created in 2015, it was a groundbreaking institution for conducting compliance based banking that would satisfy regulators.  

Safe Harbor has become a big, consuming business and, said Seefried, it's helped put credit unions into the conversation of cannabis banking - and, increasingly, that is a conversation that is being heard as more states legalize marijuana.  Included are multiple big states: California, Washington, Michigan, and Illinois. In only a handful of states is marijuana fully illegal.

In this podcast Seefried talks about the process of validating the cash that flows through a marijuana business. She also talks about the early days of Safe Harbor - and the hostility and ridicule she faced.

Who's laughing now?

By any measure, Sundie Seefried has emerged as the queen of cannabis banking.

What would her father, a Baptist, missionary think about this? We ask her.

Just as we ask about that uncommon first name, Sundie.  

We ask about being perceived as a maverick in a credit union industry that does not always revere its mavericks.

The one question she is asked that she doesn't answer is the question, are there plans to take Safe Harbor public?

Her podcast with CUInsight is mentioned. Here's a link.

Reference is made to how much it costs to open a Dairy Queen franchise - and surely you want to know how that came up.  Listen for it.

Earlier CU 2.0 cannabis related podcast guests include Paul Stull, also multiple guests on two long cannabis podcasts, episode 20 and an early unnumbered show.

Listen up. This is a fun episode.

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

And like this podcast on whatever service you use to stream it. That matters.

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 138 Kirk Drake on Artificial Intelligence and Why You Are Five Years Behind the Leaders

 Start today, really embrace AI - artificial intelligence, where machines think and they are good at it when fed enough of the right data - and, guess what, you are already four or five years behind the leaders and that group includes most of the money center banks and maybe even a few credit unions.

Sounds gloomy? Well, it is, kind of, but CU2.0 founder Kirk Drake is here with a new book, FinAncIal, which aims to tell credit union executives what they need to know about AI and also what they need to get doing, right now. This book is not so much about theory as it is an action manual and, know this, AI is something every credit union needs to be exploring right now.

The good news is that there are many hundreds of AI focused fintechs that are actively hunting for credit union customers.

The better news is that those fintechs can be met through the CU2.0 Mastermind Group.  Drake talks a bit about the CU mastermind in this podcast - and he and a few members exhibit a bit of what it's like to be in one in this podcast, #121.  An earlier podcast - #106 - lets Drake and executive coach Dr. Patty Ann Tublin talk about what a mastermind group is and how it works.

But back to AI.  The Matrix is now and you can choose the blue pill (blissful ignorance) or the red (confronting the sometimes unpleasant realities ahead ) abut the deal is that AI is the red pill and it is the future no matter how many blue pills you munch.

Why do so many credit union execs want to dodge the unpleasant uncertainties of embracing AI and the wholesale institutional changes it will deliver? We talk about that in this podcast and a lot of it is simply that credit union people are nice people but they sometimes don't want to dive into changes that will discomfit many.

Except with AI there is no choice. It is coming your way no matter how tightly shut your eyes are.

In the podcast Drake tells why - and what you need to get doing, like this afternoon.

Buckle up, it's a fast ride.

Listen here.

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

And like this podcast on whatever service you use to stream it. That matters.

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