CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 224 Peter Maher Open Banking Solutions On Why They Are Offering A Free Core system

 Free. That's a price you don't hear for a core system - particularly not one with over 100 installations globally and with a pedigree that includes executives who played central roles in bringing the DNA core to market and that core today is integral to Fiserv's product line.

The company is Open Banking Solutions and you haven't heard of it or its core because its cloud-based core is in use in much of Latin America.  Now it is coming to the US.

Also in the product mix is mobile first digital banking, an automated collections tool, and business intelligence and reporting tools.

Peter Maher, chief commercial officer, added that the company's target market are credit unions between $50 million and $500 million in asset size.

The reason? Many of those institutions are stuck using outdated cores that just don't let these credit unions keep pace with market needs.

He insisted the Open Banking Solutions' product suite is exactly the fix those credit unions need.

Keep in mind, too, that these tools - developed in Latin American markets - are effortlessly bilingual, Spanish and English.

And now the company is looking for a credit union or two to pilot the debut of the core in the US market.  Maher tells what they are looking for in the 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 Money Talks Episode 4 Kirk Kordeleski on Interest Rates and A Credit Union's Executive Retirement Plan

 The stark reality is that as interest rates edge up - and already in much of Europe inflation has climbed above 10% in the year and interest rates will follow - a fresh new look is being given credit union executive retirement plans.

It is just is exponentially harder - and more expensive - to plan retirement in a high inflation world.

Accept that funding such plans will cost more. Maybe a lot more.

But not funding it has its own costs starting with  loss of executive talent and difficulty in recruiting new talent.

In this show,  Kirk Kordeleski, onetime CEO at Bethpage Federal Credit Union, one of the nation's biggest, and now an executive at OM Financial Group, which specializes in SERPs which are building block retirement plans for key credit union executives, untangles the fast changing environment for executive retirement planning and he looks at it from the viewpoint both of senior execs but also the board members who will have to authorize such plans.

No one talks about income, definitely not in the credit union world. But in this show you will here the facts.

Be prepared to be surprised.

Listen up.

Want to know more about SERPs - or other matters raised in this podcast? Email Kordeleski Kkordeleski@om-financial.com

This show is in a Money Talks series where credit union compensation is untangled.  This show will help some executives negotiate better pay packages and will also help some board members understand the ways in which 2022 credit union compensation is utterly different from 1992 comp plans, even 2012 plans because now competition for talent is so much fiercer.

Hear episode one in Money Talks here.  Episode 2 is here. Episode 3 is here.

Have suggestions for topics to explore in this show? Email me, Robert McGarvey - rjmcgarvey@gmail.com

CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 222 Kris Kovacs Constellation on How It Can Be Easy for a Credit Union to Add the Tech It Needs to Compete

 You know it: Banking today is about tech. That's where the battles will be fought and some institutions will thrive, others will perish.

You also know if you are a senior credit union executive that there is much tech you have coveted over the years but were told you couldn't have it.  Maybe it was your core system that wouldn't abide it, maybe another platform, or maybe the integration costs were prohibitively expensive.

You know what we are talking about? Then you have to get to know Kris Kovacs, CEO of Constellation, a CUSO birthed to make it easy for a credit union to add the tech it wants, from AI tools to crypto to pretty much whatever you imagine because Constellation is open to adding fintech tools that its customers want.

This is a smashing of the technology walls that, for  decades, have created moats around credit unions that kept them - and their members - removed from the tech they truly wanted.

Sounds like magic? It kind of is and in the show today Kovacs - himself a longtime credit union executive until he left to launch Constellation - explains exactly what Constellation does and how.

Along the way he gives a strong endorsement for going the CUSO route - he has never had investors at his door demanding quick sales now!  Constellation enjoyed the time to develop the tools and services it knew credit unions wanted and needed.

Kovacs also tells why credit unions just may be a perfect customer for many fintechs and, surprise, speed of adoption is a key credit union strength when it comes to financial technology.  Kovacs tells why.

If you want to regain optimism about how credit unions can beat off mega banks on the one hand and neo-banks and quasi banks on the other this too is the show for 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

CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 216 Chad Heese Chief Lending Officer Rogue Credit Union

What a difference a year makes.

A year ago the typical credit union was awash in deposits - much of it coming in via stimulus money - and accordingly there was a rush to get that money back out on the streets working. that meant loans.

In mid 2022, the deposit glut is history for most credit unions.

So what happening on the lending side?

Meet Chad Heese, chief lending officer at $3.7 billion Rogue Credit Union in Oregon.  He spends his days pondering how to profitably put Rogue's cash on hand to work and in this podcast he shares a range of ideas, some quite unconventional.

Heese also recounts how he got started on his career in financial services and he traces it back to a time when he called an HR person at a bank twice weekly for months before he even got an interview.

But when he did get that interview he got the job and now he has almost 20 years of service at credit unions along with a few starter years at banks.  His is an intriguing job history and that's where we start the show.

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 217 Kent Lugrand CEO of InTouch Credit Union on Rewards Innovation and a Lot More

 This is a different kind of podcast. Unlike just about any other in the series.

It started normally enough.  An email came in from a PR person offering Kent Lugrand, CEO of the $1 billion InTouch Credit Union in Texas, as a guest to discuss the institution's high yield checking account which provides members a way to earn up to 4% interest on deposits if they put $2500 per month on their debit card.

Then I discovered that InTouch has made a $1 million pledge to fund food banks for the hungry and needy in DFW, Las Vegas, and Detroit, its three chief regions.  Money to fund this comes from a share of revenues generated by credit and debit card usage and also new loans.

The combination of food for the hungry and more interest for members seemed interesting and relevant enough to warrant inviting Lugrand to guest.

But we get a whole lot more than that. For instance: Lugrand started his career as a stockbroker and for some years he made the very big bucks. He had everything he wanted to buy and that was a lot of stuff because he had grown up one of nine children in a Plains state family where money was in short supply.

He still remembers when he got his first winter coat that was brand new. He tells that story in the podcast.

Did I mention that Lugrand is African American? I did not and that is because he is a man who is proud of who he is but he also is proud that he's a good family member, proud that he cares for his community, proud that he is a hard and smart worker.

 He talks about him and race in the podcast too.

And why he ditched the high flying life of a stockbroker for credit unions.

Along the way we do talk about High Yield Checking.

But buckle up. This is not the ride you expect - but you definitely won't want your money back.  This is a podcast you will tell many others to listen to.

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 220 Joseariel Gomez Shastic on IPA (Intelligent Process Automation)

 You may think IPA is a particular kind of craft beer but Joseariel Gomez, CEO of Shastic, is on the show today to tell all you don't know but need to know about Intelligent Process Automation. Along the way he also tells about RPA, robotic process automation.

What Shastic does is develop tools that let credit unions speed up many, many processes - everything from processing home mortgage loan applications through collections. Much that occurs in these functions is drudgery and, in many credit unions, the processes are very, very slow, manly because data is siloed and it had never been created for easy sharing across internal credit union functions.

What benefit does Shastic provide its credit union customers? Gomez did not hesitate in offering his one word answer: Speed.

Face it, we are in a now culture. Consumers want answers now, not tomorrow. Tomorrow often is too late. Members grow dissatisfied. Speed has become a crucial business tool.

Credit unions frankly often lag at speed. It's not a core skill.

Shastic's tools just may be the answer.

Shastic's tools also are a plus in today's environment where employees can be hard to find.  But what if cloud based automation can do a lot of that work?

The big surprise is how affordable Shastic's services are. 

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 221 Jaime Marks Credit Union Cheerleader

 Ask Jaime Marks how she sees her role in the credit union universe and her answer comes fast: cheerleader.

She is a true believer in the credit union mission and the credit union difference.

Most recently she has been a vice president at California Credit Union but along the way she has worked at CoastHills Credit Union, also Ent Credit Union.

Now buckle up for a wide ranging discussion that explores where credit unions are heading.

Central to that voyage is the credit union's culture and, quick question, in a few words what is the culture of your credit union?

Clichés don't score. Neither do hollow words. What - really - is the essence of the culture?

In this discussion she references a recent American Banker article that names the best credit unions to work for.

We also talk about State Employees Credit Union which has announced its appointment of a Chief Culture Officer.

When the nation's second biggest credit union tabs culture as critical to succeed, that's a hint that this is a topic that matters. really matters.

There's more in this show - how to succeed in business banking, a quick question to ask an REI employee, and also what life is like on the merger merry-go-round.

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 219 Todd Anderson LendingArts on the Gold in Auto Refinancing

 Cars are more expensive than ever.  New cars are hard to find in a marketplace ravaged by supply chain bottlenecks.  Consumers are keeping their cars for ever longer terms.

Add that up and one conclusion is that the new car financing marketplace is slowing.

But another conclusion is that there just may be an emerging market opportunity in car refinancing.

It's a relatively new finance play.  Many, many credit unions still aren't doing it.  In this show, Todd Anderson, VP of lending at LendingArts, tells about the benefits, for credit unions and their members alike, in offering car refinancing.

He also tells how LendingArts may help bring new members into a credit union via an auto refinance loan.

Anderson, himself a longtime credit union employee before joining LendingArts, understands how credit unions think - and he talks us through how and why car refinancing in fact is a great tool for credit unions, especially now.

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