CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 207 Michele Dean on Thinking Big on Long Island

 Meet Michele Dean, CEO of Suffolk Federal Credit Union on Long Island in New York and that is a $1.5 billion institution.

That makes Dean one of few female CEOs of big credit unions - and in this podcast she talks about that. She also talks about her credit union mentor, Kirk Kordeleski, who hired her when he was at Bethpage and who gave her increasing responsibilities that put her on the path to senior leadership.  You know Kordesleski. He's twice been a guest on this podcast, most recently talking about creative credit union compensation strategies. Link in the show notes.

Dean gets animated in talking about what Suffolk needs to do to stay competitive in a region where three credit unions are bigger, and one of them is much bigger.

How to survive? According to Dean it will be by harnessing smart tech and she is on the hunt for just that.

Proof: your podcast host met her a few months ago at an Austin Texas conference hosted by CU 2.0 - and, she says, she already is pursuing tech projects with three fintechs she learned about there.

In the show she mentions crypto expert Joe - that is Joe Keller, a digital guru and a past guest on this show. Link to his podcast in the show notes.

And there's also a shout out for cannabis banking leader Sundie Seefried - and there's a link to her show in the show notes.

Here's a question for you: Do sharedraft accounts matter anymore? You want to hear Dean's answer.

A final thought to ponder: is Dean a harbinger of a generation shift that is radically remaking the CEO office in credit unions as Baby Boomers punch the clock for the last time? And what would that mean?

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 News Flash equipifi Closes $12 Mil Series A Financing Round

 Close a Series A round and that's a sign the venture capital community believes this is a company with a definite future.

Congratulations to equipifi, which just closed a $12 million financing round.  

In this podcast equipifi CEO Bryce Deeney - a December 2021 guest on the podcast in a full length show - tells why equipifi impressed VCs, what he sees as the company's future, and why credit unions need to be looking hard and now at deploying BNPL.

Yes, BNPL has recently hit some bumps in the road - I explore that in a recent CUInsight blog - but Deeney is confident that BNPL will win a place in the lending portfolio of most credit unions.

A key will be smart, savvy deployment. He talks about this.

Don't miss this podcast. You need to get BNPL on your institution's roadmap. Starting about now.

Listen up.

CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 198 Seth Brickman QCash on How an Amazon Guy Found What He Wanted at a CUSO

 Seth Brickman's career includes the US Navy (remember Top Gun? That was his motivator). Then he landed at Microsoft, he co-founded a startup Nicolette which builds tools to help parents make informed decisions about their baby's health, then he was at Amazon where he earned a patent  involving Alexa and the content delivered to its screen.

Now he is at QCash, a CUSO created by Washington State Employees Credit Union (hear CU 2.0 Podcast #56 with past QCash CEO Ben Morales).

Why QCash? In the podcast Brickman tells why but the short version is that he had reached a point in his life where he wanted to do a lot of good and he joined QCash because it seemed to him to be the vehicle that could make that happen.

Listen to this section of the podcast multiple times. Take notes. You want to get highly talented techies into your organization. Brickman tells how.

At QCash, his dreams are big. The CUSO presently serves 50 credit unions. His goal is to double that number by year end.

Partly it's that Brickman has tweaked QCash's product messaging.  It no longer refers to itself as an alternative to payday lending. Now it's about helping members through what QCash calls life events.

Don't think QCash is abandoning the people it was created to help. It isn't. The QCash focus remains making loans - oftentimes to individuals who might not qualify for traditional lending products - to help members deal with life events, from a blown car transmission to false teeth.

What's exciting about QCash is that its loans do not involve a traditional application. It connects to the core and that gives it ample insight into this member who wants a loan.  

Brickman also is expanding the QCash toolbox - for instance there now is an emergency response loan that will let a participating credit initiate lending to community members after a natural disaster - an earthquake, fire, even Covid-19 - literally within minutes of the event. How cool is that? The credit union can legitimately call itself a financial first responder.

What could be more in the credit union spirit than that?

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

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CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 205 OGO's Tim Daugherty on Why You Need a Business Continuity Plan

 The pandemic. The Great Resignation. Oregon wild fires. Tornados in Kansas.  Face facts: it is tough to know how to deal with the next disaster that comes on your scene because who knows what that will be?

This century - from Katrina to the war in Ukraine - has been a wild ride filled with the unpredictable.  It has become essential for every c-suiter to live by the Boy Scout motto, Be Prepared.

But that isn't easy when there's no knowing what you need to be prepared for.

This is where Tim Daugherty enters because in this podcast he tells what a credit union needs in a business continuity plan - and he also muses about the maybe 25% that do not have a realistic plan in place.

Joining him is Shane Butcher. a CU 2.0 Podcast veteran and director of CISO Services at OGO, who offers insight into where data and hackers figure into BCP.

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 News Flash Paul Fiore on Crypto and Credit Unions

 You know Paul Fiore.  He's the co-founder of Digital Insight - a grand dad of online banking and still in use at numerous credit unions today. Fiore has been on staff at credit unions, he also was a founder of CU Wallet, an innovative attempt to create a uniquely credit union mobile payments tool.

Now Fiore is spending much of his time noodling crypto and looking for ways for credit unions to play a part.

Know this: he still very much thinks credit unions need to offer crypto solutions to members. Otherwise, some members will just take their money elsewhere.

Also know that as this show was recorded in late June 2022, Bitcoin was down about 50% from a high a few months earlier. It had lost $20,000 in value in that span!

Fiore said he is holding his crypto and he adds that the big investors in crypto whom he knows are doing likewise.  It's a down cycle for many markets, not just crypto, he says.

Don't panic.

And credit unions, he insists, still need to be investigating what crypto they need to be offering their members.

Listen up.

CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 206 Fearing the Unknown Unknown with Risk Guru Amanda Cohen

 Now it has become time to fear the unknown unknown.

That is a mantra of Amanda Cohen, the director of governance, risk and compliance products at Resolver, a developer of risk and security management software.

Consider this podcast an extension of the themes and realities brought up in last week's podcast with OGO's Tim Daugherty on BCP, Business Continuity Planning.

In this show with Cohen we are edging further into the wilderness of risk and pondering the risks that are out there but we just don't know them yet.

What hooey?

Indeed, just as talk of a pandemic was hooey in, say, December 2019. And talk of a war in middle Europe surely was ridiculous in February 2022.

And let's not even mention Hurricane Sandy, the Great Resignation and how about all those teller jobs you just can't seem to fill.

There are so many risks to contemplate nowadays and what Cohen presents is a disciplined perspective on how to come to grips with the risks you face whether you know them or not.

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 News Flash Finalytics' Craig McLaughlin on Your Credit Union's Digital Maturity

 Just how good is your institution at digital - and do know that today digital is the financial services superhighway.

Just maybe there is no need to guess about the maturity level.

That's because Finalytics has issued a free Digital Maturity Index - download here - where many credit unions share their own grades of how they are doing in terms of setting and achieving digital goals.

An upshot: credit unions have a long way to go before claiming excellence in this.

A piece of good news: many credit unions now seem more aware of their digital shortcomings than they perhaps did 10 years ago.  

A key finding in this report: 84% of respondents acknowledged that digital is key to their institutional future.

Telling about the report - and the reactions received - is Finalytics CEO Craig McLaughlin.  

Listen up.

CU 2.0 Podcast News Flash: The BNPL Update with SRM's Paul Davis

 What a difference a few months make.  Earlier this year the hot idea in CULand was BNPL, Buy Now Pay Later tools that allow a consumer to pay for an item - anything from a pizza at GoldBelly to a fancy exercise bike - over multiple months.

But now CFPB is asking BNPL players for lots of info about their practices, regulations are probably coming, and changes are afoot.  

Add in sky high inflation - and its impacts on consumer wallets and also the cost of money -  and suddenly, in some quarters, BNPL is just another four letter word, not to be uttered in polite company.

But let's not exaggerate. Just this week Apple announced its intent to get into BNPL.

Now are you confused? Here the unravel our confusions is Paul Davis from SRM who tells about a recently issued white paper on BNPL and its findings for credit unions.

Of particular note is that SRM sees a continuing role for BNPL but stresses that it be viewed not as a standalone but as a component of a holistic product set.

Davis also tells what a credit union needs to do in deciding where and if to deploy BNPL and he suggests that credit unions are well positioned to integrate BNPL with consumer financial education tools.

Listen up to this installment of the CU 2.0 News Flash where we give voice to credit union news.

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 204 Guy Messick on CUSOs, Fintechs, and Your Future

 If you are a credit union executive you should be staying up at night chewing on this question: how do we survive in an age of relentless technology innovation and an increasing consumer acceptance of trusting their financial services to a fintech.

Tossin' and turnin'.

Guy Messick, a retired lawyer who now serves as CEO of NACUSO Business Services, is a man you want to hear.

NACUSO Business Services is a recent offshoot from NACUSO, the trade group for CUSOs and the credit unions that own and use them, and this offshoot has a specific focus which is to help credit unions and CUSOs hook up, especially CUSOs with a fintech focus.

Messick believes that CUSOs are a tool that potentially give credit unions an enormous marketplace advantage.

But he also knows that the two need a place to meet and mingle and get to know each other and each other's needs and wants. Thus the rise of NACUSO Business Services.

Its offering include a listing marketplace where many fintechs just might want to be featured.

This just might be a way to get better sleep at night. 

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 News Flash: Eltropy Buys POPi/o: The Credit Union Communication Toolset Gets Bigger and Smarter

 The news is that Eltropy, which provides compliant communication tools to 300+ credit unions including text and chat, has bought POP/io, a leader in video banking which serves 100+ financial institutions.

This matters because - a stated goal of the company - is to provide community institutions the communication tools to compete with the biggest banks.

Communication with members should be a key credit union strength. And in 2022 that increasingly means digital.

Face to face is so 20th century.

In this podcast you will hear from Gene Pranger, executive chairman and founder of POP/io. If his name is familiar it might be because he founded uGenius, a company bought by NCR in 2013.  

Also on the show is Ashish Garg, founder and CEO of Eltropy.

This show is the debut of the CU 2.0 News Flash where we will put voices to breaking credit union news.

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 203 Ted Brown Digital Onboarding and Deborah Colby One Nevada CU

 Subtitle this podcast: what a fintech needs to know and do to succeed when working with credit unions.

Just maybe knowing how to do that is the special sauce that has powered Digital Onboarding - not that many years out of the DCU Fintech Innovation Center - to having 80+ customers in financial services, mainly credit unions.

And in this podcast Ted Brown, CEO of Digital Onboarding, tells where he got the idea for a company that provides tools that help credit unions turn members into raving fans who use many of the institution's tools, from direct deposit to automatic card payments.

By the way, the more such tools a member uses the stickier the relationship.

Oh...the idea that led to Digital Onboarding's core business mission came out of talks with DCU execs who shared pain points and wishes and, click, the light bulb went off in Brown's head and the company's business plan took shape.

Brown is candid in this podcast. 

But so also is Deborah Colby, chief marketing officer at One Nevada Credit Union who is in the show as a one person truth squad. Spoiler alert: she is a raving fan of Brown and Digital Onboarding. If you are hoping for Shark Tank snark, you won't find it here.  

What you will find is Colby's perceptive take on what a fintech needs to know to really click with a credit union.  Heads up, fintech execs, if you don't catch that bit you have missed gold.

Credit union execs, listen and you will hear good ways to assess if you are in fact getting what you need from your fintechs.

The format of this show departs from our pattern. Here you will hear an intro, then we cut to a one on one with Ted Brown where Colby puts in a cameo at the end, then we go to Colby on her own telling how One Nevada works with Digital Onboarding.

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