Digital Banking Podcast

In this episode of Digital Banking Podcast, Josh DeTar features a conversation with guest - Merle van den Akker. Merle is a Behavioural Science Ph.D. student at the Warwick Business School in England. Merle’s motto is “You are never done learning” and she backs this up as a host the Questioning Behaviour podcast and as a blog writer at Money On The Mind. 

Merle’s inspiration for all of her work are two big questions: “Why do people spend the money they spend, and why don't people make certain investments?”. One of the main topics she’s researched is around whether online banking and tracker apps really help people with their finances. What’s the behavior that fuels our financial decisions? 

If you want to learn how emotions can influence people’s decisions regarding money, how different payment methods influence your spending habits, and what’s the science behind contactless cards & our spending behavior - tune in to hear it straight from Merle van den Akker. 

P.S. - She also had an interesting point of view about whether we should get back to cash or not, so don’t miss out on it!

Tim VanTassel, a VP of analytics software organization FICO, has rich experience in consulting, financial services, and banking. He’s interested in data and applied analytics, which he finds incredibly important in delivering convenient member experience, especially when it comes to credit unions.

In the latest episode of Digital Banking Podcast, he introduces the concept of FICO score, which is another brand of credit score widely used by lenders worldwide, but he also mentions other issues faced by credit unions and the process of their digitalization. Tim is focused on data, seeing them as an essential factor in user experience, loans, and sales.

What will you hear?

Through many interesting examples provided by both Tim and our host, Josh DeTar, you will learn about the FICO’s main goals, credit, members, behavior scores, sales relevancy, digitalization, and other concepts closely related to credit unions and member experience.

Tim and Josh will also discuss the problem of transactional fraud, another field in which Tim excels. Can fraud affect one’s credit score even if people didn’t know they were victims? You’ll be surprised. 

In this episode of the Digital Banking Podcast, you’ll hear from John San Filippo, the co-founder of Finopotamus. Finopotamus is a digital magazine for credit unions providing the latest fintech news from the industry. John has been in the credit union industry for over 30 years and has fulfilled a range of roles in different organizations. As a proud co-founder of a credit union blog, John now delivers useful tips and tricks to credit unions and technology companies that service credit unions.

Josh DeTar, host of the Digital Banking Podcast, and John San Filippo lead you through a brief history of the credit union, its development, and digital evolution. The two highlight events which have sparked significant changes to credit unions - especially in a year with a pandemic. John touches upon online banking, user experience, API integration, and the role of technology in the modern era.

The conversation also dives deeper into the difference between generations and what that means for handling transactions within a modern banking environment. And, lastly, the two explore how credit unions can compete with all the new fintechs and “Venmos” of the world.

Collin Campbell is one of the brightest minds when it comes to implementing strategic initiatives focused on Credit Unions, and he has some interesting points of view that are going to shift the way you see the overall member experience. 

When Collin started his career, it was in digital. Over the years he has found his place in the finance industry where he works as a strategic advisor for credit unions. In 2019, Collin collaborated with other partners and launched Detalus Strategy. In this episode of the Digital Banking podcast, Collin shares details about his journey with Detalus Strategy and provides perspectives on how credit unions of adapted over the last year.

In this episode, you’ll learn how people's understanding of organizations has changed from the '80s and what the future holds for credit unions. Collin also touches upon a member-centric strategy, and how to meet expectations and deliver the best services to your members by assessing their individual needs.  

In this episode of Digital Banking Podcast, Josh DeTar discusses the development of payment technologies with his guest Mickey Goldwasser, VP of Marketing and Chief of Staff at Payrailz. Having been in the industry since he got out of college, he calls himself a lifelong FinTech. He selflessly shares with us his helpful insights on how to embrace technology and explore artificial intelligence.  

Mickey's goal at Payrailz is to create a smart payment experience that will satisfy the end customers. "Our focus is trying to re-imagine payments and to do so in a way that matches innovation." The topics that Mickey and Josh touch upon in this episode go beyond just financial services. From machine learning to digital relationships, they answer some burning industry questions. 

If you want to hear more about the importance of personalized customer experience, machine learning, and product marketing, tune in to the latest episode of the Digital Banking Podcast with Mickey Goldwasser. 

Sahil Pankhaniya and Christian Trummer are two names that you should remember beyond doubt, if you haven't done it already, because of some incredible things that these guys are working on. They're both seniors at the George Washington University, and this is precisely where they first started thinking about Credit Union Initiative. 

When Sahil first started his studies at the George Washington University, he discovered that his classmates were running credit unions. He also found out that they were helping universities in one essential task – to combat a problem that students have a low financial literacy level. Because of that fact, they have a tough time during the college days and after they graduate to build a strong financial foundation. 

In 2021, Sahil and Christian hope to present a very lightweight suite of products, based on student needs. One thing will bring a fresh and young approach to this – the use of technology and finding as many niche service providers as possible to put them together for their tech system. Also, they're thinking about their future employees and how they will be able to interact with the system and learn fast. 

In this episode of the Digital Banking Podcast, Sahil and Christian are going to explain to us how this process started. From just a seed in their minds to an idea they could talk about out loud until this moment where they're almost launching it into the market. They're also going to give us a young generation’s perspective on finances and how the next money revolution should look. 

Guest Andrew Bertrand, CIO ofOur Community Credit Union discusses 2020's most pressing industry issues with podcast host Josh DeTar of Tyfone. Topics Bertrand covers include strategizing for organizational growth, improving member experience, reducing costs through IT, and achieving many of the critical objectives that support those primary goals. He discusses the special operational challenges for rural CUs. He further examines lessons for CU leadership from the COVID-19 crisis and how to analyze and apply those in future planning.

Andrew discusses Our Community's decision to become a data-driven organization, and he walks listeners through processesOur Community CU has undergone in the pursuit of improving efficiencies, including the enterprise's transformational IT infrastructure changes. He explains how this major systemic upgrade is advancing the CU's major objectives and goals, and helping to preserve its brand identity as digital becomes increasingly prominent in its service model.

He explains the overarching necessity of reaching a state of digital maturity, to meet CU members' ever-changing needs. This is, for example, as CUs must demonstrate agility in accommodating rapidly increasing rates of fuller adoption of digital for personal financial management, which entails the need for increased online member engagement across a range of purposes, such as marketing, account management, financing, problem resolution, and much more.

The discussion goes on to feature Andrew Bertrand's summaries of the kinds of questions that CIOs need to ask to understand the significance of various data trends for determining short-term tactical responses to emergent challenges as well as to formulating its longer-range strategic plans.

Is it possible to be pandemic-ready before one occurs? It was for Numerica Credit Union. 

Based in Spokane Valley, Washington, Numerica’s members-first operations had technological solutions in place to build on to better navigate COVID-19’s curveballs — that way, its 150,000 members could worry about one less thing. 

“Everything we do is all focused on enhancing our member’s lives, helping them fulfill their dreams and building the communities we serve,” says Numerica’s Senior Vice President Information Technology KayCee Murray, who’s worked at the credit union for nearly 20 years. 

From working in the IT department to business analytics, to project management to facilities, KayCee has extensive knowledge in Numerica’s robust set of financial products. It’s no surprise she’s a wizard at making members’ lives easier by employing the most efficient fintech to deliver and help them access services.

Before, during and after the pandemic, KayCee and her team are committed to doing the groundwork that leads to better processes and systems for digital banking, including account origination, money movement and more. 

On this episode of the Digital Banking Podcast, KayCee shares how Numerica tackles finding the balance between good user experiences and backend manual processes. She shares how Numerica educates its community on hackers and financial scams — plus, what the credit union plans to improve with its digital banking platforms. 

Business Data Incorporated (BDI) customer relationship and sales expert, Brian Orta, discusses credit union (CU) industry learnings from the industry's adaptations and needs exposed during the 2020 coronavirus. Orta talks with Digital Banking Podcast Host, Josh DeTar about the unique challenges and opportunities the COVID-19 pandemic has generated for Credit Unions (CUs) to innovate methods for improving their customer and employee experience.

Brian provides perspective on the shared circumstance in which all industries across the global business sector are struggling to adapt during the pandemic. He provides exciting insights into specific problems and the potential range of innovative solutions in new business practices and technology applications in service environment. He examines the kinds of advancements in technology that are necessary for realizing meaningful small increases in service value as well as more extensive upgrades in systems and practices to meet rapidly changing consumer demands.

He further comments on adaptive approaches for CU professionals and external agents networking on behalf of CU support services and product vendors, during the current health and economic crisis and beyond it, as the industry continues on in the digital era. He offers observations, ideas, and recommendations for replacing traditional ways of networking during this time.

Brian encourages thinking about the role of technology to maximize opportunities for improving efficiencies of CU operations. He explains the need for CUs to optimize treatment of customer relationships in the digital sphere. He also surprisingly considers the benefits of a refreshing return to some "old-school" ways of networking and general communications online, as feasible during the pandemic and even in pre-digital-age modes, as practical again after the pandemic

Podcast guest Mike Tierney discusses with host Josh DeTar the contrasts between current and former conventional U.S. American financial institution service offerings and personal finance management practices compared with those in other cultures, such as in the Netherlands.

Tierney, participating in the interview via international telecom, discusses current and future creative concepts for the development of live and digital interactive programs for educating children and adults in effective personal finance management practices.

Mike goes on to offer a vision for the future of the credit union role in helping individuals consolidate their personal financial resources on a powerful unified management platform, complete with an exciting array of helpful digital tools. For example, he considers the usefulness of providing charts displaying data extracted from the user's various accounts, and analytics features generating status reports and other information auto-prompts triggered by variations in account balances, deviations from personal historical behavioral trends, etc.

The discussion goes on to explore inspirational concepts for helping individuals maintain a more consistent and meaningful focus on their financial position and goals, such as employing gamification, announcements of accomplishments, and symbolic digital awards for reaching set financial milestones, and others.