The CU2.0 Podcast

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Artificial intelligence: is it real or a mirage?

Lots of credit union executives are pondering exactly that question and on the show today are Steve O’Donnell, EVP at One Nevada Credit Union, and Saroop Bahrwani, founder of Senso and CUCopilot, a generative AI toolkit.

They came to the show fresh from a three day joint engagement where Saroop and his team went to the One Nevada offices and  branches and dug deep into what AI is doing and could be doing to make credit union work flows more efficient.

This is not all blue sky theory. A lot of this show is discussing everyday practicalities and how AI can speed them up.

For instance: wouldn’t you like to feed into a computer a batch of your auto loans that went bad and ask the computer to identify what they had in common? One Nevada is doing something much like that already.  O’Donnell tells what they’ve learned.

O’Donnell also muses on the likely impacts of AI on credit union jobs.

Saroop also shares his view of AI tomorrow at credit unions.

This is an upbeat show.

Flip through back pages by listening to Saroop's past appearances on the show - here and here and here.  

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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What happens when an executive who is seeking a SERP plan to sweeten his/her retirement years is turned down for life insurance - which is the bedrock that supports many SERP plans?

And people do get turned down for life insurance due to health issues. Anything from cancer to obesity.

On the show today is Kirk Kordeleski, onetime CEO of Bethpage Federal Credit Union, one of the nation’s largest, and now a partner with PARC Street, where the focus is on matching executives and credit unions with appropriate SERP packages.  

He explains a work-around that still allows the executive to get that SERP.

Know that now probably 95% of larger credit unions offer SERPs, at least to the CEO, often to a handful of c-suiters.  What’s the story at the other 5%?  Kordeleski tells in this show.

He also talks about mergers, recent CEO terminations (more keep happening), and the continuing war for talent that means more and more credit unions need to look at adopting SERP packages.

Listen up.

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A state regulator in Illinois. General counsel at NCUA. A co-founder of Callahan Associates. Longtime CEO at GTE Financial.  Head of the National Credit Union Foundation. Guess who.

Meet Wendell Sebastian, call him Bucky.

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Subtitle this show: All You Want to Know about CUSOs but Didn’t Know to Ask.

On the show is Michael Heller, an associate with Messick Lauer & Smith, a leading firm in CUSO law.

Heller and I had started talking at the CU 2.0 Live event in Fountain Hills AZ and it was only natural to capture the conversation on tape for distribution as a podcast.

Here, Heller talks about how CUSOs have evolved to serve new, different needs at credit unions and he also discusses several possible new regulatory initiatives floated by NCUA. 

Along the way we discuss the emergence of new fintech focused CUSOs.

A take away is that CUSOs are of vital importance to credit unions as they strive to stay competitive with big banks.  For the record there are around 1100 CUSOs, with about $4.6 billion in invested capital.  That’s per NCUA.

NCUA also requires that a CUSO “primarily” serve credit unions and their members and Heller talks about what that term means.

He also talks about what NCUA says are “permissible activities” for a CUSO which NCUA itemizes at some length.  A check cashing service probably qualities, a tattoo parlor doesn’t.

Listen up!

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You know about Paul Fiore.  He’s the man behind Digital Insight, the first big digital banking tool that was acquired by Quicken for $1.35 billion in 2007.

Fiore is back dreaming big and his present focus is a company called CU WealthNext (nee Digital One), a CUSO that aims to bring powerful wealth management technology tools to credit unions.

Wealth tech already is big business - just about every big bank already is in it and so are bushels of fintechs.  Credit unions are late to this game. But not too late.

Fiore is optimistic that with the right fintech tools, credit unions can gain a major stake in wealth management - and in this show he tells why he believes that and also talks about how credit unions can get involved in the CUSO and how fintechs that want to be considered can reach out.

In the show Fiore mentions CryptoFi, a crypto currency company (now named InvestiFi) that brought crypto to Tulsa credit union WeStreet.  A year ago we did a podcast on exactly this. There’s a link in the show notes.  

Fiore also mentions the CU2.0 CU 2.0 Live event that took place in Fountain Hills, AZ in early June. Our conversation in fact started there and grew into this podcast episode.

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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High velocity origination platform. That’s a key focus of Amount, a fintech that has a partnership with Velera nee PSCU.

The plain reality is that many credit unions make it too hard to do business with them.  21st century fintechs focus on making that first date very easy to set up.

Ask yourself how many possible new members fall out before completing the many steps many credit unions require.

Thus the focus on ease of credit card origination, a first partnership between the two.  There’s a link in the show notes to an official blub about this but the focus is making this fast and easy.

A second partnership involves Amount’s loan origination solution - there’s a link in the show notes to that blurb too.

On the show today is Nicholas Chang, vice president and Head of New Ventures at Amount.

He’s on the show fresh from a listening tour of credit unions where he heard what their pain points are and what they want from tech vendors.

Chang also is very optimistic about the credit union future and how Amount’s tools can smooth the path forward.

You’ll notice that throughout the show reference is made to PSCU. That’s because it was recorded a few days before PSCU announced its new name.  We usually operate with a one to two month lead time and so it happened in this case.

Besides, Velera has yet to grow on me. I may be saying PSCU for a few more years anyway.

Listen up.

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This golden oldie turns the clock way back - to June 2019 when Jim Blaine, the retired CEO of SECU, then and now still one of the nation’s biggest credit unions, sat for an hour long session where Blaine muses about credit union past, peasant and future. Listen up.

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Small business lending. Name a desire shared by most credit unions and those three words capture it. Most definitely want to do more small business lending but most also are falling short of their own expectations.

On the show today is Sherif Hassan, an expert in how to better use data to make more and more profitable loans.

Sherif is a veteran on this show.  He appeared on episode 113, almost four years ago, and his topic then was “The Opportunity in Small Business Lending.”

It’s not coincidence that this episode wears the same title - but this is a very different, very upbeat show. Sherif is convinced credit unions are well positioned to score very big in this market.  He tells why and how.

Along the way Sherif tells about Benford’s Law, a mathematical formula that automates fraud detection in loan apps.  There’s a link in the show notes to a paper he wrote about it.

There’s also a link to a paper he wrote on highly cost effective data procurement. In one case a small business lender saved $325.000 a year simply by buying data to use in reviewing loan apps more effectively.  Many, many other lenders could do likewise, says Sherif.

If you want an upbeat, optimistic show about doing better at small business lending, this is the episode for you.

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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Here’s the fact: more senior executives are coming into credit unions and are insisting on competitive retirement plans, typically a SERP (Supplemental Executive Retirement Plan).

On the show today is Kirk Kordeleski, onetime CEO of Bethpage Federal Credit Union, one of the nation’s largest, and now a partner with PARC Street, where the focus is on matching executives and credit unions with appropriate SERP packages.  

Know this: credit unions cannot attract and retain top executive talent without offering competitive retirement plans.  And today Kordeleski talks about how the SERP marketplace is faring in today’s unusual times for credit unions.

But as always with a talk with Kordeleski many topics get explored. Tough topics are discussed. For instance: against what institutions should you benchmark your credit union? Probably the answer isn’t the ones you think. Hint: think New York Yakees.

We also discuss why - probably for the first time ever in credit unions - there’s been a number of CEO terminations because the institution isn’t holding its own against peers.

And there’s the matter of AI, how it will trigger significant numbers of credit union employee redundancies, and how credit unions need to handle this. 

We start with me raising a point I recently discussed with Martin Walker of CURQL, a venture fund focused on fintechs and credit unions.  It’s a fact: VC funds see many of their investments fizzle out.  So I asked Walker why it is that credit unions obsess over trying to prevent small losses when such losses are immaterial to the health of the credit union. That conversation happened at a recent CU 2.0 event in Fountain Hills AZ; there’s no recording.  But in this show Kordeleski tackles this issue - and it definitely is a credit union issue.

Listen up.

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Should we merge? With whom? Those questions are heard in just about every credit union’s c-suite and boardroom.  

The answers aren’t easy.

Enter Sam Brownell’s CuCollaborate which boldly states its purpose this way: “We are here to help credit unions adapt, grow, and succeed long term — and we offer the innovation, insight, and know-how to help them do it.”

In its toolkit are powerful analytical models such as AnalyzeCU which lets a credit union quantify its impact and performance.

And a big part of CuCollaborate’s present business stream is consulting with credit unions on merger possibilities and the merger process itself.  This podcast has explored credit union mergers multiple times, but never quite like this.  Brownell has a particular take on how to look at mergers - it’s interesting stuff that he explains at length.

In the process he references Kant’s categorical imperative, which ranks as one of the very most important ideas about right conduct ever articulated.

As the talk about mergers comes to a close, Brownell happens to say he’s in the process of turning the company into a CUSO.  He talks at length about why.

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