The CU2.0 Podcast

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Is this the twilight of the golden age of credit unions? On the show to discuss exactly that question is Jim Blaine, the now retired longtime CEO of SECU, the second biggest credit union in the country.  Blaine may be retired but he still has opinions about credit unions, as evidenced in his blog, SECU - Just Asking!

In this podcast Blaine also digs deep into the question: what exactly is a credit union? We also talk about democracy in credit unions and often the lack thereof.

Recently Blaine has been sparring with his old employer with the flash point being the institution’s new leadership’s desire to move to risk based pricing for loans.  Blaine is against that and successfully resisted it in his years as SECU’s CEO.

Blaine, definitely, is opinionated. But he also is - undeniably - a credit union champion. What he says may make you mad - it definitely made various NCUA employees mad.  But listen up because Blaine, very clearly, articulates a philosophy about credit unions that he didn’t just spout, he lived in building SECU into a US credit union powerhouse.  

Listen up.

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No one has a richer background in credit union journalism than Frank Diekmann.  Over the past 35 years he has been co-founder and editor at Credit Union Times, publisher at Credit Union Journal, co-founder at CUToday, and now he is the founder of The CU Daily, a new publication that is the liveliest credit union pub in my opinion.

Nobody has written more published words about credit unions than Diekmann.

Diekmann has opinions.

Longtime listeners probably think I’m opinionated.

I am.

But Direkmann can and does go toe-to-toe with me on a range of topics - credit union mergers, the future of small credit unions, the credit union federal tax exemption, the future of NCUA and lots more. There are even glimpses into the very future of credit unions - if there is one.

This is a lively show and, remember, Diekmann has years of reporting experience that back up the opinions you’ll hear.

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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This show started out as an exploration of Jack Henry’s 7th annual Strategy Benchmark Survey where CEOs of credit unions and banks reveal what really matters to them.  It’s a data trich survey, there’s a link in the show notes and I say that because the talk with Lee Wetherington – Senior Director of Corporate Strategy at Jack Henry quickly veered into what’s happening in Washington DC and how changes - especially at CFPB - may impact credit unions.

Along the way we discuss how this is an age where data rules, open banking is coming at you ready or not, you probably don’t know your members nearly as well as you think, and small business relationships probably aren’t what you think but they may well be critical to the future of many credit unions.

Does that spicy stew have your taste buds dancing with excitement? It should because this is a show that plunges into the unexpected but it’s stuff you need to know about banking tomorrow.

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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Peter Duffy’s message is plain: The pace of mergers will get fatter and it will involve credit unions of all sizes, from the small to the mega institutions. First Tech and DCU may seem an outlier but now there is ENT and Wings and the pace will keep up, says Duffy who now has joined SRM.

Will the chaos and uncertainty in Washington DC slow the merger pace? Duffy thinks not, indeed the pace may quicken.

That’s because, says Duffy, economies of scale are now the Holy Grail of financial institutions.  Bigger is a competitive advantage, he says.

He does make one surprise prediction: he believes the number of credit unions deals with banks will decrease.  Listen to hear why (and it doesn’t have much to do with ICBA’s caterwauling).

Listen up.

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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This show is a proof to me that my insistence on doing podcasts without written questions in hand or a script is the right way.

I agreed to this show - a talk with Michael Crowl, ceo of $4 billion Austin Texas based UFCU - because I’d heard he had been developing an interesting strategic plan.

At many credit unions there are strategic plans but often they aren’t interesting and often, too, nobody pays any attention gto them anyway.

Supposedly UFCU and Crowl, who has been at UFCU for 20 years and has been CEO since September 2022, were different.

Indeed they are.

But pretty quickly we veered off the plan and dove into how this guy had risen to the CEO job at a very big credit union.  He grew up in government housing.  He worked his way through the University of Houston.  Then he went into investment banking, earned a good score and then - he went into teaching math at a high school.

A few years later he happened into a job at UFCU and fell in love with what a credit union is and could be for its members.

In the show I even ask the hardest question to throw at a CEO - when did you decide you wanted to be CEO and how did you get there?  And Cowl gives a simple but honest answer.

I ask an even harder question: is this your last job?

It’s a great show - and I had no idea it would turn out this way.  But that’s the magic of doing this work this way.  

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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Welcome to CU 2.0 Podcast Greatest Hits #26 and on the podcast is 

Kirk Kordeleski, onetime CEO at Bethpage Federal Credit Union, and one of the industry’s most perceptive thinkers. In this show - from November 2022 -- Kordeleski muses on what he calls the five generations of credit union CEOS and he also offers tips on surviving a recession, advice that very well may be timely.

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Credit unions, most of them, want more small business loans on their books but few credit unions know how to speedily and profitably process small business loan applications and consequently most are lagging when it comes to booking business.

Meet Alex McLeod, a serial startup entrepreneur who now is tackling thee small business loan market with AI powered software that her company, Parlay Financial, is now selling to credit unions.  

Her key message: succeeding in the small business marketplace requires the ability to offer fast verdicts on a loan app - same day preferably.  And because many of these loans are small, machines have to carry a lot of the load.

The rest of her message is that the technology to enable all this is at hand.  ANd that’s the game changer that just may help many credit unions to finally succeed at small business lending.

Heads up: the show begins with around five minutes where we learn Alex;s journey to now and Parlay Financial.  Most of these shows have similar chat at the beginning but usually that winds up  on the cutting room floor. Not this time.  You’ll  know why when you hear this story.

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 the show today is Peter Rice, CEO of Hanscom Federal Credit Union, a  $1.9 billion institution headquartered in Boston that took flight in 1951 at Hanscom Air Force Base.  

Rice is a repeat guest.  His first appearance came in 2021 when he was Chief Banking Officer at Workers Bank.  That episode has been reposted as Greatest Hit #25.  

On this show Rice’s mind roams across the many issues credit unions are now wrestling with - the possible loss of the federal income tax exemption, possible changes at NCUA in the DOGE restructuring of Washington DC, the retirement of America's Credit Union’s CEO Jim Nussle, Hanscom's acquisition of The People’s Bank (Mayland), pending regulatory approval, and a new WealthTrek facility in Government Center, Boston that is reimagining banking today and tomorrow.

But there’s more. We also talk about Rice’s walks on the Camino de Santiago, where he has three times earned a compostela,  a certificate of completion, and he muses about writing a management book about the Camino.  By the way your podcast host has earned two Camino  compostelas, in separate walks.

And there’s even a detour into the political history of Ireland, where Rice grew up.

This is a show with lots to unpack.

Listen up.  And listen again.

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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Welcome to the cU 2.0 Podcast Greatest Hits #25.  This show dates back to August 2021 and it aired as episode 162. The guest: Peter Rice, now CEO of Hanscom Federal Credit Union, and then he was Chief Banking Officer at Workers Credit Union.  He came on the show to talk about a new, dazzling branch concept.  

You’ll hear how Rice’s mind works in the show.

And a few days after the posting of this Great Hit a new episode with Rice will post where his mind roams among the hot topics in credit unions today.

If Joyce’s Dubliners is a prequel to Ulysses, this podcast is a prequel to Wednesdays.  Listen up.

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I’d expected this to be an AI free show but, let’s face it, that just isn’t likely in 2025 but the good news is that in the show Pete Major,  vice president of fintech services at CUSO MDT, offers concrete AI use cases at work in MDT and he also, importantly, offers cautions about security and the leading AI tools.

In a rush to stay abreast of the fast moving AI universe are some credit unions losing sight of the need to be very sure of the security of the tools they use? Maybe.

Major provides tips on how to stay secure while still using AI tools..

But there’s a lot more in this show.

We talk for instance about the need of CUs to keep security in mind when using any technology tools.  If there are flaws - and there have been some doozies in recent years - it’s the credit union that will be saddled with the bulk of the blame.

On a happier note Major discusses a suite of tools for small business members at credit unions - and, he says, demand for the tools is very hot.  Is offering good tools a path to winning more business members? Just maybe.

We close the show pondering what the developments in Washington DC - anything from an end to credit union tax exemption to an end to NCUA - might mean for credit unions and also the rising CU interest in merging.

There’s a lot to unpack in this show.  

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