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Lee Wetherington, director of strategic insight at Jack Henry, the big core maker (Symitar is theirs), has a picture in his head of the path to success for tomorrow's credit unions.  Picture yourself as a platform, he says, and, yes, a platform company is Amazon, for instance, and what makes Amazon a platform is that it creates an environment where many other vendors can also sell and consumers in turn can reap the benefits of choice and keen prices.How's that apply to credit unions? Wetherington sees the credit union as a platform where the best, most useful finech tools are aggregated to best serve an institution's members. The credit unions with the best tools win.A necessary ingredient in this equation: core systems that provide an open environment that allows for reasonably easy and inexpensive integration of third party tools and, yes, some core providers maintained rather closed universes. But that just won't work going forward, insists Wetherington.Buckle up because Wetherington has more big ideas to throw your way. He says, for instance, that early in 2021 Google will unveil a powerful suite of banking tools that will be free to credit unions to offer to their members. But he calls it a Faustian bargain. That's because what Google wants is the data of the members and although Google says it will not ask credit unions for access to the data, it has another route to getting it. In the podcast, Wetherington tells how.There's also a provocative discussion of cores in the cloud.  Accept that that is the future and, actually, it's better that way for most institutions.By the way, Wetherington is adamant that core systems are a lasting part of the financial services universe. But he tweaks that by explaining that nowadays cores come in many different forms, with many different capabilities.  It's a wide ranging podcast.  Hop aboard for a voyage into tomorrow and your credit union.In this podcast mention is made of a 2000 article I wrote for MITs Technology Review magazine. There's a link to the interviews with Google's founders in the show notes.There's also a link to a 2012 article I wrote on Google and its introduction at the 2012 Money2020 show of a predecessor to the banking tools it now is about to unveil. A third link is to a Google video on its banking tools.  Watch it.A fourth link is to a story I wrote on neo bank Lili.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.comAnd 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

Are credit union members healthier?The $3 billion Colorado based Canvas Credit Union knows the answer for its members - and the answer is that they are.That's because, Canvas, working with Filene, compiled data that looked at the health of its members versus average Coloradans along three fronts: financial, social, and health.  The verdict is that Canvas members score higher on all three fronts.That, said Tansley Stearns, guest for this podcast and chief people and strategy officer at Canvas, is excellent news - both for the members themselves but also for the credit union.That is because she believes that the brands that win over the next 10 years are the brands that consumers believe advance their health.Stearns hopes that other credit unions do similar research and if there is a pattern where credit unions collectively boost members' health think about the power of that messaging in getting across the credit union difference.Doing good by members just may be the credit union ticket to ride to competitive success.Learn more about this in this lively podcast.  If this podcast leaves you wanting to hear more from Stearns, watch her CUBroadcast segment on this topic here.  It's a lively 12 minutes.Like what you are hearing? Find out how you can help sponsor this podcast here. Very affordable sponsorship packages are available. Email rjmcgarvey@gmail.comAnd 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

Ask Ray Crouse, CEO of the roughly $250 million in assets Parsons Federal Credit Union, if he is helming an endangered institution and be ready to get an earful.Crouse well knows the NCUA data that show big credit unions growing (ones over $1 billion in assets) while little credit unions, and Parsons counts as small in many metrics, are struggling for air.But Crouse does not see Parsons as endangered.A few years ago, Crouse and the board explored how big Parsons FCU needed to be to be secure and the number that came back was $350 million.  That is now the five year growth target and it obviously falls far short of the $1 billion minimum size some seers throw out for credit union survival.But Crouse is confident the number will works fine for Parsons. A big part of the reason is that Parsons is an unusual institution. It still primarily serves a single SEG (engineering company Parsons), it has just two branches (Pasadena, CA and Centreville VA), it has just three ATMs (but it belongs to CO-OP's ATM network and also reimburses members for any fees incurred in using out of network ATMs), and member appearances at branches are rare. It's an institution that went online and digital before Covid and that's because the bulk of the members are engineers and people accustomed to being around engineers.Parsons has just 22 employees.  Some credit union half its size have twice as many employees.In this podcast you will hear why Crouse is confident of survival and you will also hear how to well serve members in a contactless context.There's a grumble about NCUA's demands on board members.And Crouse also tells that Parsons is open to a merger but is in no rush and, first and foremost, needs to find a group that will be compatible with the Parsons engineering employees.This could have been a woe is me, downbeat discussion about managing a credit union in an era of vanishing loan interest rates. It's anything but.  Crouse is upbeat. You will be too when you listen.Want more Crouse? Listen to the CU2.0 Mastermind podcast - he's one of the guests.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.comAnd 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

Suddenly a lot of credit union CEO eyes are turned to small business as the financial institutions hunt for ways to bring in profitable business.And credit unions - many of which have been especially active in PPP lending - are finding that small business is receptive to their overture. The money center banks often are indifferent to small businesses and community banks often lag in the tech tools small businesses want in a financial institution.Monit, a new cashflow management app for small businesses, just may be the tool that helps bring in more small business members.  Monit is not in any app stores, it is only available to members and customers of financial institutions that are Monit customers, said Steve Dow, Monit CEO. The Monit app is customized to resemble the credit union's.Dow added that Bank of America lately has made much of its Cash Flow Monitor for small business - but Monit puts a similar tool set in the hands of small business users at credit unions and community banks.What Monit does is monitor key financial numbers for the small business and it also forecasts cashflow.For the credit union, additional tools are offered. For instance, a credit union can see exactly what share of wallet it has of small business members.  Note: that data is anonymized except for small businesses that explicitly opt to disclose their data.Monit will also help a credit union find targeted lending opportunities so that more efficient and effective offers can be made.How Monit works is that it ties into the accounting software used by the member - often Quickbooks. Monit does not require integration into the credit union's core.In the podcast Dow explained the benefits for both the small business and the credit union with Monit.He also talked at length about Monit's PPP related tools which will prove newly useful in the fresh wave of PPP lending.Like what you are hearing? Find out how you can help sponsor this podcast here. Very affordable sponsorship packages are available. Email rjmcgarvey@gmail.comAnd 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

Don't you wish you knew when a member is about to pop down a Chase credit card to buy a pricey pair of Nikes - especially when you are prepared to offer a $5 discount just for using your institution's credit card?Just that is the thought that has powered the development of Mall IQ, a San Francisco and Istanbul based company that has won backing for FIS.  But Batu Sat, Mall IQ founder, acknowledged to us that the company's ambitions go way beyond malls and it wants to connect financial institutions with customers and members wherever they are - high streets, car dealerships, furniture stores, and of course malls.Mall IQ has digitized and mapped many shopping environments so it can know your member is in a Nike store and not a GAP. "We understand the floor plan" said Sat.A member enrolls in the Mall IQ program through the credit unions' mobile banking app.  That enables push notifications of deals, discounts, etc. when using the credit union's card to make purchases."This is not spray and pray marketing," said Sat.  Mall IQ offers a one month trial of the product before a credit unions signs a contract.  At a time when every credit union is hunting for new revenue streams, Mall IQ is coming along at an opportune time.Check out how it works and what it does in this podcast.Like what you are hearing? Find out how you can help sponsor this podcast here. Very affordable sponsorship packages are available. Email rjmcgarvey@gmail.comAnd 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

The pace of change at credit unions is quickening.  That's the central message from Doug Brown, senior vice president and GM of Digital Banking at NCR.In a wide ranging conversation, Brown explores five key trends:* Channels quickly collapsed in 2020 as digital and physical experiences merged; this is only expected to accelerate next year. Experiences were ‘de-channeled’ as physical and digital experiences converged.Banks and credit unions are now operating in a more dynamic, distributed model, causing de-channeling to occur at a rate much faster than initially expected, in some cases three or more years ahead.* Branch strategy will shift to accommodate the evolution of self-service. Branches will remain relevant, but they must adapt to become part of the larger ecosystem. There will be a continued evolution of self-service, one that includes leveraging technology to provide touchless alternatives and increased automation to enable continued access to cash.*The ATM will remain a critical touchpoint and utilize expanded functionality. ATMs are not going away. They are just getting smarter, more capable, and more fully digital.* An increased focus on end-to-end delivery and management. Consumer behaviors will be dynamic into 2021 and beyond. Being able to quickly modify digital experiences and business structures to accommodate customer needs and provide a consistent user experience regardless of channel will be a competitive imperative moving forward. This is all part of the profound shift toward digital first banking.* Small business earns bigger focus. The pandemic disproportionately impacted small businesses and gig economy workers; they faced a drastic liquidity crisis. Small and micro businesses have experienced a heightened need for financial advice and guidance. This year, we saw many community and large regional banks step up and help businesses through PPP loans, even when the national institutions elected not to. This has caused the smaller and mid-tier institutions to win market share and gain new business accounts, a significant opportunity.Listen up, Brown in this podcast offers a vivid picture of an existing credit union experience that blends digital with legacy banking.In this podcast, mention is made of the new digital bank, Lili. Story here.A related podcast is with Octavio Marquez, a senior VP ar Diebold Nixdorf. 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.comAnd 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

A dirty secret inside credit unions is that many frontline workers - and very possibly most senior staff - just do not use their institution's digital banking tools. Why bother when you work in a branch?  Just walk up to a teller and, whoosh, task handled.And then along comes a pandemic that closes many branches, and makes many members and employees leery of setting foot in the open ones, and suddenly there is a stampede to adopt digital.  A couple problems however.  A lot of the institution's staff cannot adequately explain how to use the tools because of their own lack of familiarity and a lot of the members who are newly adopting digital are starting at ground zero and genuinely need help.Enter John Findlay's  Digital Academy, a SaaS (software as a service) tool that aims to solve both problems for credit unions.Better still: right now there is a 90 day free trial because, says Findlay, the company wanted to do its part in helping financial institutions and their members and customers meet the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic.What Digital Academy gives financial institutions is an automated way to create an instructional walkthrough that can be used by members and employees alike. How easy is it to create this? Often an institution can create a walkthrough for, say, Mobile Remote Deposit Capture in perhaps a half hour, says Findlay.How can it be that easy? Remember, it's automated.  Basically the credit union grabs perhaps a half dozen screen shots. How simple is that?The cost? Findlay says the company's tool kit is available for a fee correlated to asset size. An institution in the $100 million range might pay around $15,000 annually. An institution with $1 billion in assets might pay $100,000 annually.He stresses that significant staff technical expertise is not required to create an instructional walkthrough.  The aim of the tools is to democratize the creation of learning tools.In the podcast there is mention of a CUBroadcast show - here's the link.There's also mention of a podcast about the CU2.0 Mastermind group - link here.Get your FREE ticket to the December 9th CU2.0 Fintech Mastermind Presents Showcase Day 2020.  This is the first of its kind event where CU 2.0 has brought together the industries' top leaders form well known Credit Unions and paired them up with top Fintech experts in one place! Our subject matter expert will help you and your organization tackle the top issues we face today with unique master classes, tailored for folks just like you.Get your ticket at Eventbrite. Click here.Read up to learn more about Mastermind groups here in this CU2.0 blog post.Hear the first CU2.0 Mastermind podcast here.  In this episode Kirk Drake and Dr. Patty Ann Tublin, who facilitates the CU2.0 Mastermind groups, talk about why and how Mastermind groups work and who will benefit from them.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

 Is now the time to bury the ATM?A few months ago the answer looked like a definite maybe but now, says Octavio Marquez, Senior Vice President and Managing Director, Global Banking, Diebold Nixdorf, ATM traffic is up across much of the US and oftentimes it is higher than pre-pandemic levels had been.What's happening, says Marquez, is that financial institutions - credit unions very much included - are rethinking their branch networks and in that process many are also rethinking the role of the ATM.  That new look at ATMs is accelerated by the reality that many of us are seeking to minimize person to person interactions.  And financial institutions are also beginning to look at the ATM as not just a piece of machinery but as a useful player in digital banking.Along the way, Marquez talks about new uses for ATMs. They no longer are just about spitting out money and taking deposits. On many we can now pay utility bills.  Some can also perform KYC chores for a credit union. Some can print out and distribute a new debit card.Clearly it's no longer simply your father's two note machine.The podcast opens with a brief discussion of a new partnership of Truliant Credit Union and Diebold Nixdorf where DN All Connect Services are now available to Truliant members.  Said the press release, "The comprehensive service will increase branch and ATM channel efficiency, offer enhanced digital integration and provide members with modern and convenient self-service banking options.”Rik Kielbasa, chief digital officer at Truliant, said: “Our expanded partnership with Diebold Nixdorf will help us anticipate future market needs and develop even stronger connections with our members. User expectations around ATM services are constantly evolving, and enhanced functionality allows us to exceed these expectations and increase service levels. Implementing DN Allconnect Managed Services offers opportunities to continuously optimize the member experience so we never miss a moment with them.”In the same press release, Marquez said, "Together, we’re on a mission to amplify Truliant’s membership through a truly consumer-centric, highly-available ATM experience.”Listen up.Get your FREE ticket to the December 9th CU2.0 Fintech Mastermind Presents Showcase Day 2020.  This is the first of its kind event where CU 2.0 has brought together the industries' top leaders form well known Credit Unions and paired them up with top Fintech experts in one place! Our subject matter expert will help you and your organization tackle the top issues we face today with unique master classes, tailored for folks just like you.Get your ticket at Eventbrite. Click 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.comAnd 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

 This is a special CU 2.0 Podcast where the aim is to take listeners inside the CU2.0 Mastermind group where credit union executives and fintech executives join together to explore new ideas, to review problems, and together - by sharing wisdom and experiences - join in reaching higher levels of success.In this episode Ray Crouse, CEO of Parsons Federal Credit Union and board chair of NACUSO, Darryl Hicks, CEO of fintech FlexPay, and Kirk Drake, founder of CU2.0 talk candidly about Mastermind groups and along the way you will get a sense of the flavor of what a Mastermind group really is and how it works.Consider this a glimpse into how a group works.In this podcast you will hear personal testimony from all three on what they are getting and have gotten out of Mastermind groups - and both Drake and Hicks, longtime members of Mastermind groups, offer vivid reports of exactly how Mastermind groups have benefited them, personally and professionally.Hicks, in the podcast, males mention of Johari quadrants. Info on that is here.  Listen here.Get your FREE ticket to the December 9th CU2.0 Fintech Mastermind Presents Showcase Day 2020.  This is the first of its kind event where CU 2.0 has brought together the industries' top leaders form well known Credit Unions and paired them up with top Fintech experts in one place! Our subject matter expert will help you and your organization tackle the top issues we face today with unique master classes, tailored for folks just like you.Get your ticket at Eventbrite. Click here.Read up to learn more about Mastermind groups here in this CU2.0 blog post.Hear the first CU2.0 Mastermind podcast here.  In this episode Kirk Drake and Dr. Patty Ann Tublin, who facilitates the CU2.0 Mastermind groups, talk about why and how Mastermind groups work and who will benefit from them.Like what you are hearing? Find out how you can help sponsor this podcast here. Very affordable sponsorship packages are available. Email rjmcgarvey@gmail.comAnd 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

Branches are not going away.  That's a firm belief of Nathan Rogers, a longtime financial services executive who has spent many years in shared branching - a feature he calls a significant credit union strategic advantage.Yet now, amid the pandemic, many credit union executives are talking. about pulling out of the shared branching networks.  Why bother with it if nobody is using the branch?Ask Rogers and he sees that thinking as short-sighted and in fact now is the optimum time to offer shared branching and thereby provide more member service without the expense of opening and staffing a branch that may in fact have an uncertain future.Back up a step. Know that there are around 1850 credit unions participating in the CO-OP shared branching network.  They have around 6000 branches collectively and that is bigger than any branch network in the US.  Feast on that. The credit union shared branch network is the biggest in the country.Along the way in this conversation we also explored the credit union shared ATM network - another industry advantage that often is inadequately explained to members and prospective members. And we discuss new trends in digital banking and the branch of the future.Listen up 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.comAnd 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

 Go big or go home.  That's the bold message from investment banker Peter Duffy of Piper Sandler and for some years he has been in the thick of credit union mergers.And Duffy is here to say there's a new trend.  Used to be, most credit union mergers involved a shoebox credit union getting devoured by a bigger one.  You know why that played out. Usually the small credit union had reached a point where its viability was questionable and the regulator, with winks and nods and maybe a shove, engineered a shotgun marriage with a bigger, healthier institution.According to Duffy, that is changing and now very big credit unions - some with well over $1 billion in assets and healthy balance sheets - are talking "mergers of equals" with like sized institutions.Why? It just is getting tough to compete with the money center banks who control an ever expanding piece of the financial pie. Add in the competition of fintechs and, suddenly, institutions with assets under, pick a number, $500 million? $1 billion? $5 billion? Are finding it ever tougher to thrive.And $5 billion, by the way, often is the number that survival oriented big credit unions have their eye on, says Duffy.Duffy also posits that what he calls Covid fatigue is wearing out many credit union senior managers and lots of board members. A merger to them may appear to be a great exit strategy. Along the way in this podcast Duffy throws out lots of Piper Sandler research findings on what it takes to succeed today.  Take notes. This is excellent stuff.You won't sleep well after listening to this - but you just may hear your path to institutional survival.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.comAnd 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

 Do it for me. That is exactly what more and more credit union members expect from their financial institution. Especially around payments.Amazon's Alexa is smart enough to remind us that, based on our order history, it's now time to re-order cat food.  Why can't my credit union remind me to pay my car lease, my mortgage, and the Discover bill that is always due on the 15th?The insight of Payrailz, a Connecticut based fintech, is that the credit union in fact probably has all the tools it needs to do those reminders - even to initiate the payments for members that choose.Enter the world of AI powered payments.Mickey Goldwasser, chief of staff at Payrailz, said we are entering into an era of "Do It For me" - and AI makes that a very possible reality.A member forgot to pay his/her American Express card bill - but won't that member welcome a nudge? "Usually you have paid American Express by now?  Is that bill due?"Smart payment rails can also be called upon to actually make the payment.The beauty is that drudgery is being taken off the member's plate - and smart machines are running with it.13 credit unions are in CU Railz, a CUSO that owns Payrailz. A few other credit unions, and a smattering of banks, also have adopted the technology. But, says Goldwasser, 90% of Payrailz business is with credit unions.Size varies from small to the $12 billion Sun Coast.Listen up. The time is now for smarter payments tools that anticipate what members want to pay and help them do it.Do it for me is now a reality in payments.This, clearly, is the next evolution in payments.Dig deeper into AI and credit unions in earlier CU2.0 Podcasts - with Posh Development and Coalesce, both DCU Innovation Lab companies (our podcast with the Innovation Lab director Vasilios Roussos is here).A recent podcast with Fahd, the CEO of Abaka, tells more about AI and how credit unions can sell smarter. Like what you are hearing? Find out how you can help sponsor this podcast here. Very affordable sponsorship packages are available. Email rjmcgarvey@gmail.comAnd 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

Here's the fast track to making members feel they are being sold to: offer them products and services they have no interest in or use for. How often does your credit union do exactly that? But if you want a member to feel understood, valued, offer him or her something they honestly want or need.If only it were so simple, you grumble.Maybe it is exactly that simple.Meet Fahd Rachidy, the CEO of London-based ABAKA, a company in the business of harnessing AI to help financial institutions - credit unions included - better serve their members.Fahd also is a strong believer in democratizing his tools.  He proudly says ABAKA serves small financial institutions and giants.  The company uses a SaaS model - software as a service - so users pay as they go and for what they consume.  Some FIs spend low five figures in a year with ABAKA. Others may be high six figures and beyond.So what you want to know is how offer members what they want. Really.  Listen to the podcast where Fahd tells about ABAKA's tools for zeroing in on what he calls the next best action - that is, pinpointing what this member wants now.How? By using account data the institution has on hand, supplemented with publicly available third party data (from social media posts to credit scores and history).Crunch that data right, says Fahd, and an institution can jump from a 3% conversion rate to 30%.You want to hear more about this.Along the way in this podcast Fahd also talks about ABAKA's conversational AI chatbot tools - and many members in fact prefer to talk with a machine - and also about how AI is making PFM tools, at long last, easy to use and actually useful.The theme of this podcast is that AI has come of age and now is ready for credit union deployment.Listen up.Dig deeper into AI and credit unions in earlier CU2.0 Podcasts - with Posh Development and Coalesce, both DCU Innovation Lab companies (our podcast with the Innovation Lab director Vasilios Roussos is 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.comAnd 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

 Most credit unions continue to wrestle with too many deposits and too few places to park that money profitably.  Call this Part 3 of the CU2.0 deep dive into lending in the pandemic era and that is because Barclay Keith, CEO of Artis Technologies, has developed tools that will enable a credit union to empower business members - think home improvement retailers, contractors, jewelers, etc. - to initiate personal loans to consumers, typically in the range of $3000 to $65,000.For the credit union, this just may be a high yield lending arena that also may well bring in new members.For the business, a fast, convenient way for a shopper to borrow may bring in bigger and more sales.For the consumer, this may be a quick and easy way to borrow at competitive rates.Win-win-win.For the consumer it typically takes minutes to complete a loan app, a process that can be initiated and completed at the retailer.  The underwriting is AI powered, there's instant KYC verification, and the lending institution - the credit union - gets to set its own policies. Some may not want to lend to subprime borrowers, others may.  Some may want to lend only to super-prime borrowers, many will have a broader standard. Artis Technologies lets the lending institution set the policies it is comfortable with.The conversation with Keith in this podcast is a broad look at how the Artis tools work and the benefits that may come to credit unions that deploy them.Part 1 of the new lending tactics series is #113 with Sherif Hassan on small business lending.  Part 2 is #114 with Nicholas Hinrichsen on opportunities in refinancing car loans and also lending to subprime car buyers.   You know you have money on hand you want to put to work.  Listen to the CU2.0 trilogy for ideas you can use today.Barking alert:  There is some barking and growling in this podcast, noises that defied filtering software used in editing the podcast.  The podcast is clearly audible.  And no animals were injured in recording the 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.comAnd 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

Call this the best of times for digital member service company Glia and that is because, in the pandemic era, credit unions' traditional member service tools have fallen out of favor and so just about all of us have become significantly more digital, said Dan Michaeli, Glia CEO and co-founder.Just a couple years ago, many credit unions looked at digital customer service tools as a "nice to have." That's changed for many and, suddenly, these tools are must haves.Especially at credit unions, says Michaeli and that's because credit unions have always had a member centric attitude. And digital tools just may be the best tools around.Here is what Glia says it does: "Glia creates digital-first moments that simplify and transform conversations between institutions and their customers using Messaging, Video, Voice, CoBrowsing, and Artificial Intelligence." Even better, as service switches from channel to channel - as often happens - the context and history are retained. No more maddening moments for a member who just spent 10 minutes explaining a problem to a rep and now is asked by a new rep to  tell about the problem. From scratch.  How frustrating is that?Right now, we are in a shift from telephone based member service into a variety of digital channels, including oldfashioned voice, but with text, AI and more claiming ever larger roles.An upshot is that members may find themselves experiencing better service and now they will be able to pick their own channel.Are these tools that mainly will abound at only the biggest financial institutions? Michaeli believes otherwise. He in fact believes that this technology levels the playing field and a $100 million credit union just may have member service tools that rivals that of a big five money center bank.How cool is that?You want to know - indeed, in the Covid era you need to know - about digital member service and that's why this half-hour is a must listen.

Call this Part 2 of our smarter lending for credit unions. The recent episode, #113, explored small business lending with Capiform's Sherif Hassan. Listen here. This week it's time for something entirely different.Happy with your car loan portfolio?Many credit unions are anything but and this has become a crucial issue as most are awash in deposits and now are hunting for profitable places to put that cash to work.Car loans could be it. But indirect lending...not so much.Enter Nicholas Hinrichsen, an online car sales veteran who co-founded an online used car marketplace in 2015 when he raised $10 million in venture capital. They sold that business in 2017 to Carvana, which by now has grown into one of the nation's biggest used car retailers.After logging three years at Carvana he is again starting up a new company, with $5 million in venture funding, where the aim is to help credit unions better sell car loans to their members.Hinrichsen knows car loans and he also knows about credit union dissatisfaction with indirect loans.  He has a better idea: helping members refinance existing car loans issued by third parties, converting them into credit union owned loans.Credit unions can win that fight, said Hinichsen, because usually their loans are better, at lower interest rates.Most credit unions, he admits, do "spray and pray" marketing, sending out mailers to all pre-qualified members. In this podcast he tells a smarter, more cost effective way to contact the right members, ones who just might be prospects for car refinance.Keep listening because he has an idea for tools that will essentially pre-populate a loan app for a member, using data the credit union already has. So filling out a loan application literally takes seconds.And another - intriguing - idea he has is about how to profitably make sub-prime loans to existing members and, in the process, to create a path for them to get lower interest rates going forward. Just that may be a core credit union mission, especially as more members deal with economic pains of the pandemic.You know you want to issue more and more profitable auto loans. This is a podcast you have to hear.Contact Hinrichsen here.  The company is named ClutchLike what you are hearing? Find out how you can help sponsor this podcast here. Very affordable sponsorship packages are available. Email rjmcgarvey@gmail.comAnd like this podcast on whatever service you use to stream it. That matters.

Call this Part 1 of our smarter lending duet.  Part 2, posting tomorrow in podcast 114, is on smarter car loans with Nicholas Hinrichsen. You don't want to miss that one. PPP loans just may have awakened credit unions to the immense opportunity there is in small business lending.  That's what Sherif Hassan, CEO of fintech Capiform, believes.  The opportunity is there.But to win that business credit unions need to speed up their lending process, said Hassan, and they also need to create a more efficient process that cuts costs.Automation - smart technology - is the key.  At many credit unions, the typical cost for funding a small business loan is around $3600, said Hassan.  Capiform's tools  get that cost down to maybe $360.At that cost, suddenly making smaller loans - maybe $50,000 or $75,000, loans that often are what small businesses want - is realistic.Community banks have long had a lead in small business lending, but CU2.0 Podcast listeners recently heard Steve Bruyn of Foresight Research say that his data shows a huge drop in customer satisfaction at community banks. That's an opportunity for credit unions.Add in the comfort many credit unions gained in the PPP program - where they learned they could successfully deal with small businesses and also with the federal government - and the path to more loans for credit unions is clear.It comes at an ideal time. Many credit unions are drowning in deposits. Small business loans are a profitable path to safety.Don't many fintech lenders want that same market? They do. But credit unions - with their community focus - have a fast track to succeeding in that battle. Listen up as Hassan tells why.You may have heard Hassan's earlier podcast. Here's a link.Listen up to this new podcast 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.comAnd like this podcast on whatever service you use to stream it. That matters.

 Now just may be the worst of times but it also is an opportunity for credit unions to reinvent themselves, by reimagining their roles and taking an active part in helping to limit what many experts see as a coming eviction crisis, as renters who have suffered enormous economic hardships in the Covid-19 pandemic are put out on the streets. What if credit unions made available emergency loan funds to help renters avoid that outcome?That's the question Jake Schlachter, executive director of We Own It, an organization devoted to reinvigorating the cooperative movement, asks.A starting point is that many credit unions have more set aside than the 7 to 8% excess capital required by the regulator. What if those institutions used some of that money to help renters avoid eviction. What if....Credit unions just might be seen as community heroes.Suddenly, many would know exactly the difference between banks and credit unions.Schlacter has sent out a letter to the CEOs of 1430 credit unions with assets above $100 million and significant excess capital. Here's a link to the letter.Now what happens? Listen to the podcast. You will hear Schlachter's hopes and dreams.This is a challenge to just about every credit union.  But the need is real and the possible payoffs are also real.Want to hear more Schlachter? Here's a podcast I did with him for a different series a year ago.  This one focuses on cooperatives in general with minimal direct references to credit unions.Like what you are hearing? Find out how you can help sponsor this podcast here. Very affordable sponsorship packages are available. Email rjmcgarvey@gmail.comAnd 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

Bank Transfer Day 2020, Bigger and Better?By Robert McGarveyYou remember Bank Transfer day, that 2011 movement that brought in perhaps one million new credit union members, possibly more.Something a lot bigger may be about to happen.That’s the opinion of Steve Bruyn, CEO of Foresight Research who, writing in The Financial Brand, said that its extensive polling had found nearly a doubling of the number of consumers who say they intend to change financial institutions. Now 22% say they are heading to the exit of their present financial institution, per Foresight Research.  Foresight Research elaborated: “We have surveyed almost 11,000 banking customers and credit union members in 44 markets to find out what is really going on in the world of banking from the customer/member’s point of view.  Then we added another survey of almost 700 customers and members to find out what the pandemic had changed in the banking industry.  We found a hot spot of churn.  Churn increased from 12% (over two years) to 22% expected churn in the next year or two.”Hear the Bruyn podcast here.The news gets sweeter still: “Of the people who intend to leave their financial institution almost 3 out of 4 are Gen Z or Millennials - the very block of business that drives the future of your financial institution,” said Foresight Research.Foresight Research added: “So, what drove the high churn?  Even though satisfaction declined greatly (except at credit unions) that was not the culprit.  Customers and members were generally empathetic, likely thinking ‘we are all in this together’. It was all about financial issues like interest rates and fees.  The switchers while forgiving also are looking to reduce cost or increase interest on items like money market accounts, CDs, etc.”This makes sense. The economy is the worst it has been since the Great Depression. Millions of us are unemployed and millions more are underemployed (working fewer hours).  It’s tough to balance the household budget when less money is coming in so a shrewd step is to slash unnecessary outgo.Bank fees are prime to be trimmed. And that is a potential bonanza for credit unions.Ask yourself this: where can credit unions beat banks, consistently?  The answer is and has long been on pricing of everything, from account fees to NSF fees and loan interest rates.  Credit unions are member owned, they have no shareholders who demand dividends.  Most have unpaid boards of directors.  Most pay their employees fairly but rarely lavishly - and here’s a CNN round up of bank c-suite compensation and note that the CEO of Bank of America had total compensation of $24.8 million but he was by no means the highest paid in the group.Big salaries, big dividends to shareholders, and bloated, inefficient branch networks add up to huge expenses on the books and that means customers have to pay through the nose for the privilege of having a bank account.Ac

 For how many years have you heard about omnichannel banking - and you also know not many institution have done this more than pay lip service to an idea of the digital first financial institution.About 90% of financial institutions in the US in fact fall very short of really getting omnichannel, says Vince Bezemer, head of strategy at Backbase, a digital platform provider with the tagline "Become the Bank that People Love."That means about 10% of US FIs are in fact digital first and of course that includes many of the biggest.But it does not mean that credit unions can't succeed in embracing a digital first strategy.In fact now, in the Covid-19 era, many are going forward at high speed to become digital first.As for Backbase's pedigree, know that its clients include Navy Federal, State Employees Credit Union of North Carolina, and Schools First.But Bezemer in this podcast stresses that Backbase has tools and services for smaller institutions too. This podcast is Part 1 of a two part series on digital first.  In this podcast Bezemer talks at length about what digital first means, why it is important, what institutions need to really do it, and why you don't want to define your credit union with cookie cutter tools and apps that literally hundreds of other credit unions use.In Part 2, you will hear from Wildfire Credit Union, a Backbase client that is deep into its transformation into a digital first institution. It's a rare, candid look at what the process really is.You know digital first matters.  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.comAnd like this podcast on whatever service you use to stream it. That matters.