Live from the CU2VIP-Live Event #2 Ray Crouse on CUSOs and Fintechs

 Money talks.

Fintechs are hungry for money.

Ray Crouse, CEO of Parsons Federal Credit Union - and a CU 2.0 Podcast veteran (episode link here) - talked in detail at the CU2VIP-Live event about how credit unions and fintechs both can harness the money raising ability of CUSOs, credit union service organizations.

Ray, by the way, is also chair of the board of NACUSO, the National Association of Credit Union Service Organizations.

Parsons, incidentally, is not a huge credit union. It has assets of around $265 million - but Crouse has found a few million dollars that will get invested in CUSOs.

Why? In this short podcast he tells why he sees CUSOs as crucial to credit unions today, maybe especially today when many are looking for new income sources.

Consider this all you wanted to know about CUSOs and credit unions but didn't know who to ask.

Listen up.

Live from the CU2VIP-Live Event #1 Martin Walker Next Level Ventures on Venture Funding for Fintechs

 The inaugural CU2VIP-Live event will become a Woodstock like meeting in this sense: yes, hundreds of thousands went to Woodstock but if you  asked for a show of hands of those who were there be ready to count well into the millions.

Five years from now many will say, yes, I was there at the first CU2VIP-Live event.

We were actually there and what you will be hearing this week are snippets of short talks with participants - who also were there.

The first episode: Martin Walker with NextLevel Ventures with its $250 million-plus venture fund for investments in fintech oriented CUSOs that will bring next gen tech to the credit union industry.

The big idea: to stay competitive with mega banks and fintechs credit unions have to up their technology game.

The better idea: by investing in early stage fintechs credit unions can get a sizable jump on the market and just maybe will gain competitive advantages.

Sound good?

You bet.

Keep listening and you will also hear why Walker attended CU2VIP-Live and what he got out of it.

Listen up.

CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 189 Chase Neinken Chimney on Calculating Success

 Boring. Old. Anachronistic.

Are those the words that come to mind when you think of calculators?

Guess what: maybe those adjectives apply to the calculators at your financial institution's website...but that is not how Chase Neinken, a co-founder of fintech Chimney, sees them.

That's because Chimney is in the business of creating calculators that engage members in looking at their finances in new ways.

Chew on the company's mantra: Engage more customers. Fund more loans.

You know you now want to know more about Chimney.

This podcast will be the short course. Then go to the website - link in the show notes - click into the Chimney website and you will find some 30 templates that are there to try for free.

As in: at no cost.

Neinken in the podcast also reveals that the typical Chimney FI customer is billed under $1000 monthly. That's for 10 calculators.  Fees are not based on institution size or number of members. And there is no minimum contract, no need for any time commitment.

You understand calculators. We all do. But the Chimney message is that there is a new breed of calculators that you won't typically find on a credit union website but your members will find them at fintechs such as Nerd Wallet.

Can that member be won back?

Neinken says sure, with Chimney's calculators.

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 188 Clint Lotz TrackStar AI and Smarter, More Inclusive Lending

 How many loan applications does your credit union reject because of the applicant's credit score?

Harder question: how many times are those credit scores erroneously lowered due to faulty information in credit reports?

Listen to Clint Lotz, ceo of TrackStar AI, and the answer is that plenty of loan apps are rejected for exactly those reasons.

What if your institution could harness machine learning tools to swiftly analyze a credit report and identity probable errors that when fixed would result in a 50 to 100 point jump in the credit score?

Sound good? That's why you want to listen to Lotz as he talks about contemporary, cutting edge credit repair tools that will enable a credit union to empower a loan applicant to quickly initiate repair of his/her credit report and, in the process, position the credit union to comfortably grant the credit the applicant seeks.

How good does that sound?

Why haven't you heard of similar before? Probably, says Lotz, because it is all new, enabled by the emergence of inexpensive cloud based computing (think AWS, Amazon Web Services).  But powerful cloud on demand computing is here and that has made it possible to analyze loan apps and credit reports in wholly new ways, says Lotz.

Along the way you want to hear what Lotz has to say about FICO.  No hints here as to what he says. But buckle up when this moment arrives.

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 187 Joel Schwartz DoubleCheck - NSF the Encore

 NSF has become the new four letter within the financial industry.  While many institutions have grown dependent upon the $30 or so they charge a customer/member for an NSF, Washington DC is revving up to throw shame at FIs that impose those fees.

What's a credit union to do?

A year ago we did a podcast with Joel Schwartz, founder of the then fledgling DoubleCheck, a company created to help consumers - and their FIs - better navigate NSFs. You are going to want to listen to that podcast - link here.

A lot has happened since that podcast. Washington DC has gotten more vocal about NSFs - you aren't the only one having nightmares about the CFPB and Elizabeth Warren.

A lot of FIs - from Chase to B of A to many credit unions have slashed or eliminated NSF fees. You might think that this is curtains for Schwartz and DoubleCheck.

Think again.

There is the NSF and then there are the ripple effects such as late fees imposed by merchants and credit card companies. Often the late fees can add up to lots of money that inflicts still more damage and pain on a consumer struggling to stay afloat. That's where DoubleCheck's patented technology comes in. It gives an early warning to the consumer about late fees heading his/her way and it also offers alternatives (such as putting some charges on a credit card).

This is win-win. It's good for the consumer and good for the FI (and it does not create bad press which doing nothing can).

You might think this will be a somber podcast, talking about bounced checks and fees and cranky politicians.  Be prepared instead to laugh. Schwartz knows what he is dealing with is serious stuff but he is a man who can see the lighter side too.

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 186 Doug Brown NCR on Stayin' Alive, Innovation, and Engaging Your Members

 To start the podcast we asked NCR executive Doug Brown the hard question: exactly what can mid-size and small credit unions do to stay alive in the face of relentless competition from fintechs who increasingly are gobbling up home mortgages, p2p payments and a lot more - and what can NCR do to help them.

The questions only got harder from there.

In the podcast Brown tells about how to beat fintechs by achieving better member engagement.

We also talk at length about BNPL, where credit unions may find a piece of this action, and questions to ponder about BNPL. Does it make even a tiny bit of sense to pay for a $100 gourmet sandwich in four easy payments - and by the time you've paid it off do you even remember what you ate.

In this podcast you will also hear crypto currency brought very much to earth.  Brown tells how NCR is planning to use crypto and blockchain to revolutionize international remittances and how cool is that?  This may also be a fast track to bringing many under- and unbanked into the credit union universe if crypto helps them move money to relatives and friends faster and at much reduced expense.

Blockchain, maybe it's not just for geeks anymore.

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