The CU2.0 Podcast

Send us Fan Mail

Ignite and preserve. Right there is the motto of rkGoBig, a CUSO with a singular focus: helping smaller credit unions survive and indeed prosper.

That seems a Sysephean task?

Peter Barnard. CEO of CUSO rkGoBig, firmly believes that cooperation among credit unions is a fast way to help more small credit unions survive.

To that end, rkGoBig offers a basket of services include a compliance toolkit - a real help when dealing with the regulator - credit cards, a shared core, card processing, shared back office processing and, well, you get the picture: rkGoBig has the tools a 21st century credit union needs to operate efficiently and effectively.

The biggest credit union presently served by rkGoBig is just shy of $400 million in assets.

Listen up to this inspiring story of helping the small survive.

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

Send us Fan Mail

 Real time payments.  Coming at you right now.  Are you ready?

On the show is James Colassano, an SVP at The Clearing House, an institution owned by some of the world’s largest banks (including Chase, BMO, CapitalOne, B of A, Santander and more). And The Clearing House very much wants credit unions to get involved with its RTP network because its goal is ubiquity.

Already hundreds of credit unions, including Navy Federal, are on board.

The 2024 fact is that consumers - and businesses - want money to move instantly.  

Institutions that don’t possess that capability will fall behind.

It’s easy to get involved with RTP, by the way. Most core systems in use at credit unions already have the capability built in.  Flick a switch, complete some paperwork, and an institution is active.  The starting point in this journey: talk with your core provider.  They likely will know your next steps.

In this show Colassano talks about use cases for RTP and also about how to claw back a payment that was made in mistake.

He also explains how RTP and FedNow are different but fundamentally on the same mission.

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

Send us Fan Mail

It was over two years ago that Chase Neinken was on the podcast talking up Chimney, a fintech focused on delivering cool, fun calculators to credit unions.

Neinken is back and here’s the reason: in fall 2023 Chimney won “best in show” at Finovate and that’s because it debuted Chimney Home, a new tool for credit unions that shows a credit union member today’s value of their home and also lets an institution deliver personalized offers to members.

Admit it, you know how addictive the tools for telling you your home’s value are.  When was the last time you checked Zillow? I’ll confess: in my case it was yesterday.

What homeowner doesn’t do this often?  

The Chimney kicker of course is enabling the FI that hosts Chimney Home to deliver targeted offers to the member, not the generic stuff sent to everybody, but offers that reflect how much equity this member actually has.

How cool is that?

Neinken tells all about it on the show and he also updates us on Chimney’s suite of calculators and wouldn’t you rather your members use calculators on your site, not BankRate?

In the show Neinken refers to a Chimney study of how its calculators actually perform. Here’s a link to that report.

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

Send us Fan Mail

Scrolling through LinkedIn, I happened upon this post on Seth Brickman’s page: “I am excited to announce that I am now the President, Ranqx and can’t wait to help credit unions help small businesses and change communities for the better.”

Stop presses.  Brickman, longtime listeners to this podcast well know, had been CEO of QCash, an innovative service birthed at WSECU and which had been sold to Alloya, a bit over a year ago.

What was up with Brickman?  On LinkedIn he also posted a Ranqx press release that quotes him saying this: “Small businesses make up almost half the workforce, half of the US commercial revenue and over 60% of net new jobs. The ability to help small businesses get access to the capital they need in a fully digital way with each credit union’s own underwriting criteria in under 5 min (as opposed to 1-2 weeks) will be a game changer for communities nationwide and bring businesses back into the credit union. Any time we can drive deposits and impact communities at the same time, we are doing good things for the industry.”

We had to book him on the show.

Here’s the core Ranqx selling proposition: its technology can let a credit union process a loan app from a small business in perhaps five minutes as opposed to the two weeks it might take a human employee to do the same work.

Oh, consider that maybe 70% of small business loan apps are declined by credit unions.  And each of those applications consumed two weeks or more of human labor.

Bring on the machines!

Brickman knows that most credit unions are struggling to bring in small business members. And he believes the Ranqx tools - white labeled - will enable credit unions to more successfully attract small business members.

In the show he also notes that Ranqx is already a CUSO, it has credit union investors but is looking for more. He also says he soon will be looking to hire sales people - email him here.

Give the guy a break, too. We talked on his fourth day at Ranqx.  

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

Send us Fan Mail

You're a credit union c-suiter and you dream about what good you could do if only you had more capital.

Don't just but lottery tickets!

Explore a sale-leaseback of the credit union's headquarters and branches.

This is explored in depth in episode 241 where Ed Lopes and Steve Eimert of CU Real Estate Solutions  tell the nitty gritty.

Oh, and my own personal credit union, Affinity in New Jersey, sold its HQ for $50 million-plus.  I applaud that decision.

Listen up.

Send us Fan Mail

Call this an encore performance with powerful, new information. Back on the show is Rhian Horgan, founder and CEO of Silvur, which she bills as retirement all in one place.

As we age suddenly most of us have to deal with complex and, to us, wholly new topics such as Social Security and Medicare, both involving devilishly complex decisions - and a helping hand extended by a credit union would be greatly appreciated by many aging Americans.

Who better to offer this help than a trusted credit union?

What Silvur provides its credit union clients is deep knowledge about the complexities of retirement plus an extensive tool kit that can be made active at a credit union rapidly, no core access required.

On its website Silvur says this about itself: “Silvur partners with financial institutions to offer Americans holistic, personalized education as they navigate retirement. With the data and insights Silvur shares you can unlock $3,000 in annual recurring revenue per member and customer today. We power deeper strategic engagement to capture the retirement wallet. Don't let today's $70 trillion retirement opportunity become a $30 trillion wealth transfer risk.”

Face facts: we are deep into a massive retirement wave among Baby Boomers (the oldest now are 78, the youngest are 60).  Where many credit unions see big worries, Horgan sees a terrific opportunity for credit unions to meet genuine needs of 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

Send us Fan Mail

Let the Greatest Hits roll on. This is the CU 2.0 Podcast Greatest Hits #7 - everything you want to know about USDA loans. That’s the US Department of Agriculture and it makes loan money available through credit unions to fund everything from farm equipment to renewable energy.

I had no idea this program existed and that credit unions are involved.  

Probably you didn’t either.

Listen up to this Greatest Hit.

Send us Fan Mail

Regular listeners know that a pet peeve of mine is how poorly most credit unions market.

And then I discovered Bo McDonald,  founder and CEO of Your Marketing Co. where the focus is on marketing for small credit unions.

That’s right: small as in under $400 million in assets.

In most cases, McDonald’s company acts as a kind of inhouse marketing department because the institutions he serves often have few if any internal marketing staff.

McDonald knows too that great marketing can’t compensate for poor processes - and he will tell credit unions where they need to improve their technology and their business processes.

Bottomline: this is an optimistic but also realistic look at what small credit unions can do to not just survive but to prosper.

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

Send us Fan Mail

The credit union share of auto loans fell sharply in 2023, down almost 5% from 2022 numbers tracked by Experian.  

Does this augur a grim future for credit unions when it comes to financing cars? Or was it a blip on the screen?

On the show is Will Ely, a solutions architect at Earnix, where he consults with clients seeking more effective auto lending strategies.

According to Ely, data is king of this mountain.  In particular he points to pricing analytics as the key to unlocking more and better loans.

We also discuss why some credit unions have pulled away from indirect auto lending and, surprise, why super prime borrowers aren't always the best for a credit union.

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

Send us Fan Mail

Welcome to the CU 2.0 Podcast Greatest Hits show.

There are over 300 shows in the library and yet a reality in the podcast business is that few of us ever even look at more than maybe the half dozen most recent shows. That’s why we are going to resurface some of the best and most popular shows as Greatest Hits.

This is show #6 Matthew Butler on Charitable Donation Accounts and, no, I hadn’t heard of it either until I talked with Butler.

I like it when people bring me something I hadn’t heard of it so I put him on the show.

Now I’m resurfacing it as Greatest Hit #7.

Here’s why: a CDA allows a credit union to make investments in otherwise impermissible vehicles where the kicker is that 51% of returns have to be distributed as charitable donations (that presently means a 501 C 3).  But the credit union can retain the remaining 49% for its own uses.

Why isn’t your credit union doing this? Probably because you had never heard of it either.

And now you have.

Listen up.