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I am not going to explain to you in any detail what TrustGrid does and that is because in the show Joe Gleinsner, a co-founder of the Austin TX company, does a much better job of explaining than I could.

But here’s the fact: TrustGrid’s tools - which enable secure connections of fintech apps with banking systems - are on the job at a couple thousand US credit unions, says Gleinser.  

Why haven’t you heard of it?  That’s because TrustGrid does not sell to credit unions, it sells to fintechs and it’s the fintechs that pay for the service.

TrustGrid says it delivers fast, reliable fintech networks at scale - and that is why it is a leading provider in a space that is crucial to the safe, secure, reliable flow of financial data.

Understand: this is NOT a technical show.  But listen up and you’ll hear why TrustGrid is important and why so many credit unions and banks use its tools.

Listen up.

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Now for a feel good show.

Lee Silber has put together a book, The Credit Union Way, that he says is inspired by the Chicken Soup for the Soul series and right away that tells you this is a feel good book.

How did it come together? On the show Silber tells how he put together the stories - each of which relates a special credit union moment.

In the episode Silber reads a chapter from the book  - entitled Frank’s Fund - that was written by Anne Legg who happens to be a past CU 2.0 podcast guest. 

Read the book and next time somebody asks you how a credit union differs from a bank, just give the gist of one of the stories and it’s QED.

Listen up.

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AI - is it real or a mirage?

What is certain is that today AI is on the lips on just about everyone in credit union land.

What also is real is a recent MIT finding that 95% of large companies with AI initiatives are getting zilch out of them.

Ouch.

That does not have to be the reality for credit unions.

On the show today is Kirk Drake, CEO of CU 2.0, author of FINANCIAL, a 2020 book that envisions the rise of AI in our lives and in credit unions, and he also is hosting LAUNCH, a September 23-25 event in Oregon which wears this tagline: This isn’t a conference. It’s a launchpad.

In prior years the event was labeled CU 2.0 Live. This year it is held in partnership with Community Financial Credit Union’s ROOM (39)a initiative. Thus the name change.

A huge focus in the event will be launching good stuff in AI.

Drake tells all about the event in this show and the website has a small checklist - Are You in the Right Place? - that helps you decide if this event is for you or that it isn’t.

Listen up.

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In a year about 500 members of First City Credit Union in Pasadena die.  It’s a credit union with 57,000 members.

And what happened after the member’s death?

On the show is Saeid Kian, CEO and co-founder of Ribbon, a fintech that has developed a tool kit to help credit unions speed up the process of settling a member’s estate and also - this is huge - helping the credit union retain some of those assets on its books.

Also on the show is Nav Khanna, CEO of the $900 million First City Credit Union and his is the first credit union to go live with Ribbon.

Why did he agree to be the first? What benefits has First City seen?  

Know this: at most financial institutions the process of handling a deceased member’s accounts is labor intensive.  It annoys the heirs and very likely it also annoys the credit union employees who are tasked with handling the estate.

Saeid knows this first hand because the idea for Ribbon grew out of his own frustrations in settling his father’s estate - a process that took many frustrating weeks.  There had to be a better way, he thought, a way that worked better for the heirs and maybe for the credit union too because the heirs no longer would leave the institution with a settlement check in hand and with the intention to never again deal with that institution.

And Nav tells us it’s really working at First City.

Listen up.

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This is a CU 2.0 Podcast first.

Never before, in almost 500 episodes, have we done this.

On the show is Crystal Zarse, a member of Interra Credit Union, a $1.7 billion Indiana based institution, and she is here to tell about her experience using the Prizeout Cashback+ debit card which rewards users with cashback often around 10% of purchase price, sometimes much more.

Focus on that.  Here’s a member who has taken time out of her to tell what benefits she gets by using the Cashback+ debit card that Interra issued to her.

Also on the show is Joel Richard, an Interra senior vice president of member experience, and David Metz, CEO  of Prizeout.

Metz has been on the show before and what got him a return visit was when his PR person, Andrea Holland, emailed me to offer up a credit union member who would talk about how Cashback+ makes her life better.

A big gong went off in my head.  I had never before done this in a show…and yet credit unions trumpet that they are member focused.  Credit unions are here to improve the financial lives of everyday people.

I had to do this show and, honestly, Crystal Zarse is everything I could have hoped for in a guest.

Message to other credit unions/fintechs: If you want on the show, grease your path by lining up a member to join the mix.

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Call this a week of different kinds of shows.

Today we are doing something we have never done before.  

The guest - the only guest - is Lisa Weinstein, VP of Member Relations at Virginia Credit Union and a 33 year veteran of the credit union industry.

There is no Eltropy employee also on the show.

Weinstein is here to talk about Eltropy’s Collections 2.0, an AI powered tool kit designed to combat delinquencies and increase collections.

How is it working at $7 billion VCU?  Weinstein tells us.

I am interested in hearing from other CU execs who want to come on the show and tell the good, the bad and the ugly about a tech product their institution has adopted. Email me at [email protected] to get this in motion.

Listen up

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When will you retire?

What years of your life should be the ones where you work the longest, hardest hours?

On the show today is Derek Coburn, author of Let's Retire Retirement: How to Enjoy Life to the Fullest—Now and Later, a book that very probably will rock your mind  because it challenges key beliefs that most of us share about retirement.

For instance: at what age will you retire?  

Probably your answer is 65, that’s the number that jumps off most lips.  But Coburn says probably you won’t and he adds the zinger that other ages may well work much better for you.

Like what? How about 75?  Or 70?

And fact is more Americans are working longer- indeed the fastest growing age cohort in the workplace is Americans aged 75 and older!

Surveys also say that approaching 25% of Americans age 65 and higher are now working.

And Ciburn believes that number will only increase as many American seniors are today healthier, more active than were Americans of the same age a generation ago.

A bonus: retire later in life and you need far less retirement savings.  You’ll hear actual numbers in the show - and it will blow your mind.

As for what years you should work longest and hardest? Coburn argues that it’s when your kids are home and for many that means working less in your thirties and forties.

Is that catastrophic for your retirement savings?  No, because you will be working later in life you need less retirement savings.  QED.

In the show, mention is made of an app. Death Clock AI.  Here’s a link to the Washington Post story about it.  

In the show Coburn mentions CU 2.0 founder/CEO Kirk Drake and Resistance Wine.  I’ve drunk it, it’s good.

Coburn says he wears an Oura ring. Here’s the link

In the show also there’s mention of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, a brilliant psychologist who documented the phenomenon he called flow where work is highly focused and we are happiest.  

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You probably have forgotten about the role of credit unions in the country’s marijuana business - estimated to be north of $40 billion.  I know I had. It’s been years since we did a show on this topic.

But on the show today is Kevin Hart, CEO of Green Check Verified, a business that provides tools to financial institutions that serve the country’s many marijuana businesses.

As Hart says in the show, narijuana may not be legal in federal law - it is legal in 39 states for medical use and 24 states for personal use - but there is no federal law prohibiting a bank or credit union from providing financial services to a marijuana business.

That marijuana business too must operate in full compliance with the laws in its states.

How does a credit union successfully navigate this landscape? Also on the show is Megan Bennett, manager MRB compliance at Wright-Patt Credit Union in Ohio.  the 38th biggest credit union in the country with assets around $9 billion. MRB of course is Marijuana Related Businesses.

Bennett explains, in detail, how Wright-Patt decided to serve marijuana businesses, how it’s working for the institution, and why this is a win-win-win for the state of Ohio, the marijuana businesses and the credit union.

How many credit unions serve marijuana businesses in the US? Under 200, probably nearer 150.  But Wright-Patt just may illustrate how it can be done, legally and well.

Listen up.

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What exactly does a credit union’s chief strategy officer do?  

On the show today is Bill Snider, the Chief Strategy & Innovation Officer at Clearview Federal Credit Union, a credit union with around $2 billion in assets that serves 10 counties around Pittsburgh.

Longtime listeners will recall that I have expressed skepticism about strategies at many credit unions, also their commitment to innovation.

Snider is here to show that in fact a credit union indeed can have a genuine strategy and be innovative and, importantly, these abilities are essentials for Clearview which - by virtue of its location - has to compete with PNC, a Pittsburgh local bank that also has assets of about $555 billion and is in fact the seventh largest bank in the US. But Pittsburgh is its home and definitely plays on the local angle.

The show is wide ranging - we talk about AI, mobile apps, and also community service and feeding the hungry.

But all of that is in the innovative stew that a chief strategy officer has to deal with today.

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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Could shared services be the cure that puts a halt to the epidemic of mergers among credit unions?

Could shared services help credit unions increase their efficiencies and dramatically lower their costs so that they can better compete against big banks and fintechs?

On the show today are Vin Anand, CEO of Member Support Services (MSS), and an evangelist for shared support services at credit unions.

To spread this word Anand has brought in Gene Foley, former CEO of Harvard University Employees Credit Union, Kirk Kordeleski, former CEO of Bethpage Federal Credit Union, and Erin Coleman, SVP of Industry Impact at Callahan & Associates.  They are the new MSS Advisory Board  with the mission of providing strategic guidance,

Today Foley joins Anand on the show and they are here to explain how shared services can in fact enable credit union independence. That may sound per se self contradictory but it isn’t and on the show you’ll hear how shared services just may be the lifeline a lot of credit unions are looking to grasp.

For more on shared services and credit union independence there’s another show in the library with Anand.  

To hear the show with Jim Blaine that Foley discusses, click 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