The CU2.0 Podcast

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The United States is awash in medical debt.  How much is there? Hard to say but Kaiser Family Foundation has an estimate of $220 billion and, yes, that’s billion with a b.

Enter CFPB, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau which believes there is a lot of double billing, inflated charges and downright illegal medical debt collection tactics.  

CFPB is looking at banning reporting of medical debt to credit bureaus which the agency says unjustly lowers the credit scores of some 15 million Americans.

Which is why we brought Jeff Grobaski back on the show. CEO of Fort Collins CO based Epic River, a lending as a service provider that helps medical practitioners and hospitals place their unpaid debts at credit unions which pay no fees for the paper and, even better, the credit union assumes little risk.

Nada.

Grobaski was on the show a year ago but the question now is how do the CFPB proposals impact what Epic River is doing?

The other question is why are hospitals and doctors happily turning that paper over to Epic River.  Grobaski explains in the show. It really is a win-win-win, for the patient with debts, for the medical provider with bad paper on his books, and for the credit union that can turn that loan into performing paper and in the process acquire a new member.  

This sounds too good to be true? Listen to Grobaski - he gives the nuts and bolts in the show.

Grobaski, incidentally, is a finalist in this year’s credit union luminaries sweepstakes. As the pub said, “Under Grobaski's leadership, Epic River has been able to connect credit unions with local health care providers to improve patients' ability to pay through low- or no-interest loans. Epic River's program accelerates patient payment, minimizes collection expenses and enhances cash flow for participating health care providers.”

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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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What magic pill can help keep hundreds, indeed thousands of credit unions from vanishing over the next decade?

Vim Anand, CEO of Member Support Services, says his CUSO can create operational efficiency and cost savings through economies of scale and standardization.  The focus is on backoffice technologies and, says Anand, MSS’s tools deliver 20+ % cost savings.

But don’t take his word for all of this. Also on the show is John Bissell, CEO of $1.6 billion Greylock Federal Credit Union in Pittsfield MA. Bissell is a new MSS member-owner and he explains that the credit union took this step because he sees this as a way to stay independent and local and both of those are crucial to Bissell who believes they are a big part of the credit union special sauce.

Greylock, by the way, is the biggest credit union in MSS - the two other member owners are >$400 million apiece - and MSS is actively seeking new member owners because Anand’s goal is $8 to $10 billion in total assets.

And the payoff, says Anand, will be helping more credit unions stay independent.

As for why Bissell is set on keeping Greylock independent understand that he grew up in a Greylock family. His dad logged 30 years at GE which was the SEG that powered the birth of the credit union.

Listen to the show to hear Bissell’s story of how an Amherst College grad with an English degree migrated to Seattle but after 10 years he felt the call to return to western Mass, as locals call the region.

Do you want more credit unions to stay independent? Listen up.

Like what you are hearing? Find out how you can help sponsor this podcast here. Very affordable sponsorship packages are available. Email [email protected]

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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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What’s the credit union mission?

Really?

At Inclusiv CEO Cathie Mahon believes that mission is serving the underserved.

That won her a place as a very early guest on the podcast.

Indeed hers was episode 15.

She’s still working on making that mission reality at Inclusiv.

And this still is a show that explores topics that really matter.

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Bet you don’t know what the word “hapax” means.

Listen to this podcast with Kevin Green, COO of Hapax, an Ai based tool that is built around the files and date inside your credit union. As Hapax explains, “Our Enterprise Model learns your institution's unique practices, policies, and challenges to facilitate knowledge-sharing among your team. It provides a repository of specific data that team members can reference, spurring professional growth, streamlining training, and delivering results tailored to your institution so you can successfully navigate the industry’s rapidly changing landscape.”

Best of all, Hapax essentially pays for itself through reduced employee time spent sifting through credit union policies and procedures.

The big name AI tools - think Chat GPT - are broad gauge while Hapax is very precisely focused and - critically - it’s built around the credit union’s own data.

Importantly, too, each Hapax deployment is in effect a private data lake. Data is not shared with other institutions.

Sound good?

It will sound even better when you listen to the end of the show and find out who the CEO/founder is.

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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Just about every credit union wants - indeed needs - new members and that’s exactly what Union Credit focuses on by providing embedded finance tools to deliver a steady stream of new members to participating credit unions.

And get this: credit unions sign month to month deals with Union Credit.  So it has to perform to keep credit unions. And a credit union can tell Union Credit how many new, approved and funded loans it wants to get this month.

On the show today is CRO and co-founder Barry Kirby and you know him because he was SVP at CuneNexus which in 2020 was bought by CUNA Mutual. The basic CuneXus idea was to provide tools that let a credit union show members loans and credit cards they already were pre-approved for.  

Union Credit, which has TruStage, formerly CUNA Mutual, as a key investor  is taking the kernel of that idea and helping credit unions extend pre approved loans to current non members who - and this is key - can easily be memberized. How does Union Credit work that magic? Kirby gives the details in this show.

How many credit unions have in effect created an obstacle course for prospective new members to complete before they are accepted as a member and that also means before they are offered a loan?  And how many of those prospects drop out before they complete the obstacle course?

Union Credit offers a better, easier path, both for the prospective member and the credit union.

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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The title I put on the podcast with Pete Crear was “A distinguished credit union life.”

Indeed it is.  He was the first to win the lifetime achievement award from the African American Credit Union Coalition - and when they gave him the award in 2003 they decided to name it after him.  

It’s an honor to have had him on the show and so it also is to proclaim this our Great Hits #17

This is episode 136 from February 2021

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The bad news is that after spending maybe a few hundred dollars to acquire a new member there’s a 50-50 chance that within a year that member will go dormant, assuming he/she actually ever showed any activity in the credit union at all.

That warning comes from Har Rai Khalsa, CEO of Miami based Swaystack and, earlier in his career, he co-founded MK Decision, a digital account opening platform acquired in 2021 by Alkami.

What happened along Khalsa’s journey is that he realized that good as digital account opening is - indeed it’s a must for a 21st century credit union - there also needs to be a systematic digital cultivation of that new member where the aim is to get him/her to fund their new account, set up bill pay, and in other ways integrate the account into their lives.

All that latter is what Swaystack has been created to accomplish and it has gamified the process, taking several leads from Chime which, says Khalsa, is simply extremely good at prompting a new account holder to put that account to use.

The key message here: opening an account is the beginning of the relationship not its culmination.

Listen up.

Like what you are hearing? Find out how you can help sponsor this podcast here. Very affordable sponsorship packages are available. Email [email protected]
 
 

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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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On one side is an army of highly skilled criminals, all now equipped with the latest AI tools. On the other side are credit unions and other financial institutions and, face reality, credit unions have to up their game, now, to stay competitive in an AI war.

On the show is Ravi Sandepudi, CEO of Effectiv, a San Francisco based fraud prevention company with deep skills in AI. Ravi for instance worked at Google when much of the pioneering work in AI was getting done in those labs.

Here is how sophisticated - and patient - today’s fraudsters are.  They will open an account built around a synthetic identity - the person never existed - and often they will seek to do the account opening at a credit union because many credit unions have more flexible ID requirements than do banks.

The kicker is that account will be perfectly legal and normal for a couple years - until it’s time to awaken it.  

Ravi also talks about the need for continuous monitoring of an account.  Authentication is no longer a one and done proposition.

These are exciting times for AI fraud detection and prevention and this show gives you a front row seat at the arena.

Listen up.

Like what you are hearing? Find out how you can help sponsor this podcast here. Very affordable sponsorship packages are available. Email [email protected]
 
 

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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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What’s involved in implementing a digital member onboarding solution? 

Probably that's a question you’ve pondered because digital onboarding is a new must have in credit union land.

But how do you get there?

On the show today is Todd Gunderson, CEO of Credit Union 1, a $1.75 billion Illinois-based institution. Gunderson walks us through the steps the institution took in implementing digital onboarding, the potholes along the way and the workarounds.  The payoff has been more and better onboarding of new members who increasingly demand a digital process that is easy to use.  Gunderson has delivered on that.

Also on the show is Philip Paul, CEO of Cotribute, the California based fintech that worked with Gunderson and CU1 to implement digital onboarding. Cotribute says of itself that it’s “the preferred digital customer acquisition solution for fast onboarding, increased conversions, and expanding wallet share.”

Listen to the show - and hear Gunderson’s high praise - and you’ll believe that claim.

Incidentally, because of his relentless candor, Gunderson now ranks as the most frank credit union CEO that’s been on the show.  When he goes through the implementation process it's a warts and all story.  He also tosses out candid observations about common CU failings.  

Listen up.

Like what you are hearing? Find out how you can help sponsor this podcast here. Very affordable sponsorship packages are available. Email [email protected]
 
 

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

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Ex nihil nihil fit.   Out of nothing nothing comes.

That's a building block of Western thought - and then there is Prizeout, an innovative ad tech firm that maybe proves that nihil proposition is wrong.

You've heard Prizeout before. Perhaps 18 months ago, CEO David Metz was on the show with Darlene Johnson of Suncoast Credit Union.

Metz is back, this time with TJ Wyman, chief digital officer at Coastal Credit Union.  Wyman is here to tell why his credit union just climbed aboard and Metz is here to tell about Prizeout's explosive growth and also to detail how the offering has morphed into a cashback tool

Metz and Wyman highlight the program’s unique value proposition of providing rewards to debit card users, who often do not have access to traditional credit card rewards programs. They also emphasize the program’s potential to help credit unions better compete with larger banks by offering an attractive cash benefit to their members.

Listen up.

Like what you are hearing? Find out how you can help sponsor this podcast here. Very affordable sponsorship packages are available. Email [email protected]
 
 

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

Have you heard about Deep Dive? It's Google's foray into AI driven podcasting and. as an experiment, we fed this podcast into it.  What Deep Dive does is create its own podcast - the voices are machines - and here's a link to a 9 minute AI discussion of this show.