The CU2.0 Podcast

Send us Fan Mail

In mid February, Curql, the collective of 160+ credit unions, announced its first blockchain investment into Stablecore, a company that provides digital asset infrastructure for credit unions.

Literally hundreds of billions of dollars now are flowing into stablecoin, a digital currency backed by fiat currency and accordingly it has little volatility.

Big banks are pouncing on stablecoins but the credit union problem is a lack of tools for managing digital currencies. Enter Stablecore which is designed to enable credit unions to manage member portfolios of digital currencies.  It’s a solution that’s needed and that’s why Curql chose to put money into Stablecore.

On the show are Nick Evens, President and CEO of Curql, and Alex Treece, CEO and co-founder of Stablecore,

Along the way, Nick offers insights into Curql’s investment strategy and Alex issues an invite to credit unions that might be interested in a pilot that he is putting together.

Sure, you are glad that you sat out Bitcoin but stablecoin is a very different entity. Now’s the time to get to know about it.

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

Are you still relying on product based rewards for members?

Meet the new tool on the block: relationship building.

A trigger is that interchange rates are under attack and, for many financial institutions, it’s been interchange that funded the rewards programs.

So what’s the new approach? On the show is Beth McCoy, CEO of CORA Loyalty, who provides a roadmap for building member relationships that benefit both the member and the institution.  

CORA Loyalty explains what it does this way: “Loyalty leaders are shifting from card-centric to relationship-focused campaigns. The approach rewards customers for activities across the institution: maintaining checking accounts, paying account fees, using credit and debit cards, transacting regularly, and long-term relationships.”

“The goal isn’t card spend, but broader and longer lasting outcomes like growing deposits, encouraging treasury management adoption, and strengthening the full banking relationship.”

Sound good?

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

Fact: credit unions have lots of data about their members. Everything from home address to their liquidity.  

Fact: credit unions, most of them, are woefully inept at mining this data to better serve those members and also to boost member retention and up cashflow into the credit union.

Enter DeepTarget, a Huntsville AL based fintech that serves 285 clients, 85% of which are credit unions and they range in size from around $25 million in assets to several billion dollars in assets.

All come to DeepTarget for its toolkit of proven tools that get results. In 2025 for instance DeepTarget tools helped its customers open 328,000 new accounts, generated $1.98 billion in new loans, and brought in $2.7 billion in new deposits.

The DeepTarget secret is how it effectively mines the data a credit union already has on hand.

That sound you hear is the CU cash register ringing.

Monthly DeepTarget fees are affordable, too, typically four figures a month.

And usually a credit union’s own staff involvement in DeepTarget campaigns is minimal, although accommodations are available for credit unions that want a more hands-on role.

In an era of generative AI all this may seem unglamorous and maybe it is.  But it delivers meaningful bottomline results to credit unions.

On the show is Preetha Pulusani, the company founder and CEO.

And if you wonder how all this tech happens in Huntsville, I have one name for you Wernher von Braun.  If the name doesn’t ring a bell, look it up.

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

Just when I thought credit card rewards initiatives were on the chopping block, here comes David Metz and Priizeout with an innovative twist on credit card rewards and it’s one that already is winning credit union applause.  Proof is that also on the show is Sarah Vasey, Chief Operating Officer at Michigan-based United Financial Credit Union, an institution with around $350 million in assets.

Sarah herself is a credit card rewards  beneficiary and she tells what she really likes about the Prizeout program.  Think shoe money.

Prizeout has been on the show multiple times but that’s because it keeps innovating new offerings that credit unions adopt.

Here’s a great episode that also features Darlene Johnson of Suncoast. Link in the show notes,

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

Do credit unions have a future? And if so what?

Meet Lamont Black, a Filene Fellow  - Credit Union of the Future.

Spoiler alert: Black is optimistic about the future of credit unions.

A finance professor at DePaul University, Black also is a busy writer, speaker, consultant who focuses on innovative technologies including AI and Bitcoin and, nowadays, especially Stablecoin.

In the show Black is articulate in explaining why AI matters to credit unions and he also offers an understandable description of stablecoins and why and how credit unions should hop aboard.

Understand: the estimated volume of transactions around stablecoins in 2025 was $33 trillion. With a t, not a b.  $33 trillion!

Big banks have hopped aboard stable coins, so have giant retailers - think Amazon and WalMart.

Buckle up, this show is a fast ride.

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

Only about one third of your members feel understood by you - that’s the harsh fact that emerges from a member experience survey conducted by the Harris Poll and sponsored by White Clay, a fintech that says it helps banks and credit unions enhance customer relationships and profitability.

On the show today is Mac Thompson, CEO and founder of White Clay, to tell why members feel misunderstood and also to explain why he says credit unions should get busy implementing human-centered digital strategies in 2026.

Human centered digital? Isn’t that a contradiction in terms?

Thompson explains why it isn’t self contradictory and why he believes this may be the key that unlocks greater successes for the credit unions that make it happen.

Along the way he agrees that the biggest banks - Chase, B o A and a few others - have a huge lead in implementing AI.  But Thompson is also optimistic that there is a path to success for credit unions that nurture their human bonds with members.

This is a show with a lot of big thoughts.  But now - with AI rolling out everywhere and seemingly changing everything - now indeed is the time for credit unions to think big.

And Thompson thinks they can.

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

Today Andrea Argueta is director of financial institution advisory at Glia, a company that focuses on providing credit unions and banks digital customer service tools and nowadays that means AI.  So this show’s focus is on the practical suite of tools Glia has working in some 400 credit unions, making Glia very probably the largest provider of AI tools to credit unions.

Importantly, too, Argueta knows credit unions. That’s because before coming to Glia she served as COO at Washington DC based IDB Global Federal Credit Union, an institution that serves the employees of the Inter-American Development Bank and their families and there are members in over 75 countries.  

At IDB Global she was a Glia customer and eventually that evolved into her joining the Glia team.  

In the show she tells about that journey and she also offers insights into what AI is really doing for credit unions today and the smart way for a credit union to join this party.  

In the show mention is made of two prior appearances on the show by Glia executives, Glia CEO Dan Michaeli in 2020 and Jake Tyler a year ago. 

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

Fraud is up, a lot, at credit unions, according to the Alloy 2026 State of Fraud Report, says Sara Seguin, a principal adviser at Alloy.  Sara is a past CU 2.0 Podcast guest - link to that show is in the show notes.  

She’s on the show now to report that credit unions say they have experienced a 72% increase in fraud events, more than any other segment.

Worse, a lot of fraud now involves synthetic identities - i.e., manufactured people - and a long con that may take months or years before the crooks seek to defraud the credit union.

What can credit unions do to fight back?  Alloy has pointers.

Credit unions also have seen a spike in in-branch fraud, says Alloy. That’s surprising but also very worrying.  Hear the details in the show.

Fraud is not a fun topic, I know that. But it is a real, every day concern at just about every credit union in the US and knowledge - of what fraudsters are doing and the tools available to fight back - is indeed power for a credit union.

Understand, too, last year’s fraud trends aren’t this year’s.  It’s a constant battle where the criminals are always updating their weapons.  Credit unions have to do likewise\.

How? What?  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

What a ride Steve O’Donnell has had at One Nevada Credit Union, a $1.5 billion institution where he started as a teller some 22 years ago and in August 2025 he was promoted to CEO.

This podcast is about his journey getting into the top job - and also what he sees as some of the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead for him and One Nevada.

A name you will hear often in this show is “Paul,” that’s Paul Parrish, the prior CEO at One Nevada and a current member of the institution’s board of directors. He also is the one who mentored Steve as he climbed up the ladder at One Nevada.  

Over the years I have had a number of talks with Steve and he always is frank and candid.  

So listen as he details his climb up from a teller role but know that he knows what it’s like to walk in the shoes of a teller.

At the show’s end, Steve tells why it took him a long time to earn his degree at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.  Hear the story and you will know this is a guy you’d like and respect.

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

Safe Harbor, the Golden CO based cannabis banking pioneer, is alive and growing and that’s the message of today’s guest Terry Mendez, the recently installed CEO.

Mendez took over the seat that had been occupied by Sundie Seefried, onetime ceo of Partner Colorado Credit Union who left that post to helm Safe Harbor.  Sundie, by the way, was the guest in CU 2.0 Podcast #139 which posted 4+ years ago, link in the show notes. 

A lot had happened in those intervening years and, to my eyes  at least, Safe Harbor seemed on the edge of extinction.

But Mendez is on the show to share his optimism about growing the business, how it hit financial troubles in 2023-24, how he says the troubles were abated, and why now is the time for more credit unions to take a fresh look at cannabis banking.

Probably Mendez is right, probably legal cannabis now is with us and, indeed, reliable, legally compliant banking has to be part of that package and Safe Harbor says it is well positioned to provide those services to credit union customers.

The reality is that there are many wrinkles to cannabis banking. That’s where a Safe Harbor - a guide that knows the legal route - comes in.

Want to know more about CUs and cannabis? Listen to episode 364 where Wright-Patt Credit Union talks about its experiences.

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