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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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 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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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 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.

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

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.

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