The CU2.0 Podcast

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How could I not talk with the CUEvangelist who sees his calling as “Spreading the Good News About CUs!”

My interest in the CUEvangelist was triggered by a provocative piece titled “Black history is credit union history” that was posted at CUInsight and then I saw the author, Mark Brantley, dubbed himself the CUEvangelist. 

Brantley has the chops to warrant that moniker.  He’s Asst. Director of Operations at Arizona State University but - notably - he is  the former vice-chairman of the AACUC, former board member of CUNA, and former Chairman of the Municipal Credit Union.  

Along that path he has formed strong opinions about what a credit union’s mission should be and he talks about what he believes.

All in, this is an upbeat podcast about credit unions and members who need them.

Listen up.

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Wouldn’t you like to make more - and more profitable - auto loans? Just about every credit union would say a loud yes and that is why this episode is a must listen.  On the show is Zach Eychaner, the VP of Digital Experience at ELGA Credit Union, a $1.5 billion institution based in Michigan.  Also on the show is Mitch Rutledge, CEO of Vertice AI, a Georgia based company that says it provides actionable and measurable account holder intelligence to help credit unions  offer their members the right products, solutions and services at the right time.

How to do exactly that? Rutledge tells how on the show and Eychaner gives the verdict about whether it’s working at ELGA.  

Every credit union wants to know how to make more targeted loan offers and, explains Rutledge, the answers are in the data - the institution’s data that it already has if it learns to mine it properly.

Listen up.

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Amanda Wick is a name to know when talking about things crypto.  A onetime US government prosecutor, Wick specialized in crypto currencies and money laundering.  Later she went on to found the Association for Women In Cryptocurrency and now she is a principal in Incite where she provides expert advice on crypto related matters.  

Wick’s current focus: stablecoin.  

In the show Wick talks about the risks posed by stablecoins to credit unions and also the potential benefits.  

Should credit unions get involved in stablecoin?  Wick’s answer is yes but with eyes wide open.  

Note: this is not a show exclusively for gearheads.  Language throughout is non technical.

Along the way, Wick talks about her book The Catalysts: The Accelerating Forces Forging the New World Financial Order.  Read the title again.  She is talking about what she sees as the inevitability of a new global financial order that indeed changes just about everything.

In the show she refers several times to Napster which provided peer-to-peer file sharing and that may sound innocuous but the reality is that Napster revolutionized how music is distributed and shared.  It shut down a quarter-century ago but its impacts only grew until today recorded music is a digital phenomenon. Think how that has impacted record companies, bands, and an entire huge industry.

Similar is happening today in finance, says Wick, and you ain’t seen nothing yet.  Bigger changes are ahead.  Are you ready?

Listen up.

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Asset liability management - ALM as it’s known - can be fun, good for a credit union’s balance sheet and, dare we say it, sexy.

On the show is Daniel Ahn, CEO of Delfi, a company that - and I quote from the website - “combines deep public and private sector experience with cutting-edge AI expertise—bringing best-in-class technology to banks, credit unions, and other financial institutions.”

The website adds: “Transform your bank or credit union financial decision making and race to the top with our revolutionary platform.

Delfi delivers instant analytics, access to a deep inventory of solutions, and is powered by AI so you can pick the right solution for you.”

This an exciting new, powerful look at ALM in credit unions.  

Also on the show is Scott Daukas, a principal at One Washington Financial, a CUSO wholly owned by Washington State Employees Credit Union and an investor in a new Delfi CUSO.  But One Washington Financial is more than that with Delfi as you will hear in the show.  Indeed it approached Delfi with the suggestion that it form a CUSO - and long conversations followed, not the least of which was explaining what a CUSO is!

One Washington Financial also invested in two other companies that have featured in recent CU 2.0 podcasts - Remynt and Starlight.  Why is One Washington Financial making these investments?  Daukas explains.

Listen up.

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Do you want to talk about bad debts and collections and…what’s that, you’d rather discuss athlete’s foot and gyms?

Listen up: on the show today is Gwyneth Borden, founder and CEO of Remynt, a debt collection CUSO - funded  by One Washington Financial, the investment arm of Washington State Employees Credit Union and a recent guest on the show along with Starlight, an innovative fintech that also won funding from One Washington Financial.

So, yes, Remynt is doing collections but with a dramatic twist: it also emphasizes its mission is  financial wellness and it helps consumers pay off their debts and rebuild credit.

Face it, a lot of Americans are struggling to pay their bills.  Pew Research estimates that a quarter to a third of us struggle to pay their bills every month.

Remynt is there to help, while also helping credit unions collect the money they are owed.

If that seems paradoxical - indeed it is! - listen up as Gwyneth Borden explains Remynt’s approach to debt collection 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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It’s time to talk about something really, truly exciting in credit union land.

How about online/mobile calculators?

Calculators!

Yes, I hear those derive laughs but listen up: on this show you will hear from Tim Pranger at Appli, who has developed calculators that users genuinely like and use.  Katie Ullman, vice president of marketing and community at First Source Credit Union in Utica NY, is also on.  That’s an institution with around $1 billion in assets. Also on the show is Romanelli, First Source’s digital marketing agency.

What this trio will tell you is that a good calculator can be fun, it can  bring in new business to a credit union, and it doesn’t have to be expensive.  

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 do you know about Gen Z?

That just may be the critical question confronting credit unions today and that’s because, age 13 to 29, Gen Z is increasingly the focus of fintechs, neo banks and non banks who all want to grab these consumers.

How can credit unions win in this battle?

On the show is Lee Wetherington, senior director of corporate strategy at Jack Henry, and lately he has been thinking in depth about Gen Z because this generation has entered a prime spending age.

Wetherington believes credit unions in fact have pathways to getting Gen Z as members and he offers a concrete strategy for doing so.,  He acknowledges this will be a tough fight - the competitors are well funded and focused - but he expresses optimism about  the ability of credit unions to win.

Along the way, Wetherington also offers insight into how credit unions can win at AI and how recent developments in crypto banking may turn out to be for the benefit of credit unions.

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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The CUInsight headline caught my eye: “Why credit unions must step up as financial stabilizers to rebuild consumer confidence.”  

The piece was authored by  Dave Buerger, CEO of Union Credit and, before that, he was CEO of CuneXus, where he was a co-founder.

At Union Credit the mission is delivering 1-click, perpetual loans to credit union members. 70+ credit unions are Union Credit customers and a key to Union Credit’s business is that it memberizes non members in a very few minutes.

What triggered Buerger’s piece is a consumer confidence survey commissioned by Union Credit that found that consumer confidence is shaky indeed.

Take aways from the survey are: “Only 12.5% feel very confident about their finances. The majority are in the middle with 57% rating themselves a 3 or 4 out of 5…. 54% are feeling cautious, 45% anxious, and 30% overwhelmed.”

No wonder many institutions are experiencing a slowing loan volume.

Buerger believes credit unions can take steps to  strengthen consumer confidence, 

Buerger wrote in CUInsight: “Consumers are pressing pause, not stop. They’re delaying major financial decisions because they don’t feel safe committing before they understand their options. Yet 36% told us they would still move forward with financing if the offer felt secure and transparent. That gap between hesitation and action is where credit unions have both a responsibility and an opportunity.”

In the show today he elaborates on these thoughts  

Buerger is optimistic but realistic as well.

And he firmly believes that Union Credit’s tools can help credit unions improve their loan volumes,

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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Agentic AI. Google’s Gemini explains what this means: “Agentic AI represents a shift from AI that simply 'talks' to AI that 'does.' While previous iterations of AI were primarily reactive—answering questions or generating text when prompted—Agentic AI systems are proactive. They can reason, plan, and execute multi-step tasks autonomously to achieve a specific goal."

Agentic AI is the hot topic in AI today and credit unions can have it. Now.

On the show are Abhishek Tiwari, chief product officer at Eltropy, and Kent Lugrand, CEO at InTouch Credit Union, an $800+ million institution headquartered in Texas.

Lugrand is a past CU 2.0 Podcast guest. That show ranks high among the best we’ve filed.  Today he is here to explain why he wanted to be an early adopter of this Agentic AI technology and he explains in candid detail.

Abhishek, meantime, is on the show to explain the Eltropy tool and to offer details on the Eltropy Safe AI framework - because safety is key to persuading credit unions to deploy this technology.

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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And First Entertainment Credit Union Begat CineFi.

Say what?

First Entertainment is the big show business credit union.  Based in Hollywood, it has assets of around $2.1 billion and serves around 90,000 members, many of them who work in Hollywood, doing everything from acting to the skilled crafts (such as set building) that create Hollywood’s magic.

On the show is Stephen Owen, CEO of First Entertainment and he is here to tell what CineFi is, why First Entertainment birthed it, and why it is based in Atlanta, GA, some 2300 miles removed from Hollywood.

CinedFi is a digital only institution, no branches, and right now its offerings consist of checking and savings, although Owen says the plan is to augment that product slate later in 2026.

How to become a CineFi member? The FOM consists of a handful of Georgia counties, centered around Atlanta, and although the aim is to serve the large number of entertainment industry professionals who live in the Atlanta area,CineFi is open to others as well. Owen explains in the show.

Understand, CineFi does not have its own charter.  Owen tells how it came into existence - and he adds that there may be CineFis opening elsewhere in the country.

Ours is an age when the creation of new credit unions is rare indeed. You can count on one hand how many were birthed in the US in 2025 and have a finger to spare.

That’s rare indeed.

So the creation of CineFi is an exciting event and it just may give CEOs and boards of other credit unions the impulse to do something similar.

How cool would that be?

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