The CU2.0 Podcast

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Ask Allan Brown - a VP and GM, Digital Community Markets at Finastra - what keeps him up at night and his answer is simple: it's trying to stay on top of the digital revolution that is transforming credit unions and community banks.  Brown also is very optimistic. His belief: community institutions that partner with the right fintechs can not only keep pace with the big banks digitally, they very well may be able to beat them at this game.

Along the way Brown discusses mega trends that are changing how financial services are delivered and two key trends, he says, are real time banking (it's coming!) and much shrewder use of data to deliver better and smarter services to consumers.

"The future of financial services is going to be phenomenal," says Brown.

This is one of a half dozen podcasts recorded at Finastra Community Markets in Chicago, October 2019.

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

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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Name the single most important IT system in your credit union.

Spoiler alert: it's not your core.  Not anymore.

Who says that? Mike Hatch, a VP and national sales manager at Finastra, and a core expert. Hatch knows the core is crucial but he also believes that it's the institution's digital orientation that will shape its future.

Core is part of that.

But it is not the end all.

Another question: is your core system holding your institution back? Can you easily - and inexpensively - integrate cool fintech technology into your core?

Say no and you are telling the truth.

But it's the wrong answer. You want an open core that lets you deliver the tech your members want.

Credit unions are looking for ways to be different, says Hatch. An open core helps there.

Think cores are boring?  You won't think this podcast is boring - and you just may find yourself wondering if now is the time to initiate a core conversion.

Scary? You bet. But going out of business is scarier.

This is one of a half dozen podcasts recorded at Finastra Community Markets in Chicago, October 2019.

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

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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Think corporate credit unions died? Think again. Jay Murray, CEO of Vizo,a large corporate that's the product of a merger between Mid Atlantic and First Carolina, is bullish on the future of corporate credit unions and he thinks they just may be essential to the survival of many thousands of small credit unions.

He's probably right.

But Jay has more to say.  He talks about Vizo's push into offering cooperative backoffice technology solutions, at affordable rates, to hundreds of small credit unions.  He's attacking the hegemony of for profit vendors and that just may be a very cool thing.

Murray also has profound thoughts about the importance of cooperatives cooperating with other cooperatives, for mutual benefit. That means looking for ways to work with, say, rural electric cooperatives, food cooperatives, and just about every other kind of cooperative. What cooperatives are you working with?

This is a good podcast with plenty of insights into what tomorrow might look like for small credit unions and it may be more cheerful than you think.  Are small credit unions dead men walking? Murray says no way and he tells why he is optimistic

The CU2.0 podcast. About credit unions for tomorrow.

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

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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Can your cybersecurity keep hackers at bay?

Can cybersecurity be used as a marketing tool by a credit union?

Can a banker in fact become a credit union executive?

For answers, listen to this podcast with Daniel Ford, CIO at Jovia, a $3+ billion credit union on Long Island that you probably know as NEFCU.  The rebranding occurred a month ago.

Ford joined NEFCU via First Source Bank in South Bend (IN), where he was  the chief information officer, responsible for infrastructure, cybersecurity, and application development.  We asked him bluntly: can a banker in fact fit into a credit union's philosophy?  You can guess his answer but give it a full listen. He makes points to remember.

Podcasts in this series that explore bankers and credit unions include Jim Blaine, Bucky Sebastian, Gary Oakland, and Marc Schaefer. 

Ford also talks, at length, about what a CIO needs to do to stay on top of cybersecurity and also how to work with vendors.

As for using cybersecurity as a marketing tool, don't be too quick to say no way. Ford offers a tactic that just might work. Of course you want to hear that.

Listen to the Ford podcast here.

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

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 a war for talent. That's the flat out statement of John Pembroke, CEO of CUES, the organization that probably knows the most about senior level and board level recruitment at credit unions.

The good news: Pembroke in this podcast offers up plentiful tips to help credit unions win the talent war.

The bad news: the war is real and many credit unions just aren't winning, in the war for talent, in efforts to diversify the board, in efforts to field a board that is suited to leading an organization that increasingly is tech centric.

That's why you must listen to this podcast.

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

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.

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

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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Talk to Cathie Mahon and it's a fast ride into what mission makes a credit union special, distinctive and in her mind the answer is clear: serving the underserved and usually that means economically disadvantaged.

She has tantalizing insights too. For instance: she tells why the business model of community development credit unions may in fact be primed for greater success than the model followed by most credit unions.

She also tells how the NCUA handcuffs newly chartered credit unions and this may set some up for failure.

And she has advice on designing a mobile banking app that betters serves the economically disadvantaged.

Listen up, it's a good podcast that just may persuade some struggling conventional credit unions to investigate tweaking their business model and to embrace more community development outreach.

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

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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One site to rule them all.

This is the banking version of the Tolkien quest for the one ring that rules them all.

Call this open banking and remember that phrase. It's about to get much buzzier and louder over the next year as open banking transforms how US financial institutions interact.

Scott Anderson, brand evangelist at Diebold Nixdorf, sat down at the company's DN Intersect event to tell us why open banking - a big issue in Europe - is heading your way.  

Imagine one site where your member sees everything financial. Inside the credit union and outside.  Imagine a site where the consumer can decide what to use to pay for this purchase in this moment.

How cool is that?

It's also potentially frightening to financial institutions.  The institution ceases to be a walled garden and becomes instead an open transit point. Won't consumers flee?

Why should they? If their needs are getting served.

In many ways Anderson is optimistic about the impacts of open banking - which definitely is coming our way - on smaller FIs such as credit unions.  

One hitch however. How do credit unions get enough data to play meaningfully in this universe?  Anderson sees credit unions working in alliances with fintechs - CUSOs perhaps - to create an even playing field with big banks when it comes to open banking.

Just maybe it's the biggest FIs that have the most to lose in an open banking universe.

Think on that and think about how to win your institution's share.

This podcast is one of a group of four recorded on site at the Diebold Nixdorf DN Intersect conference in Las Vegas, September 2019.

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

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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Will your superior teller experiences guarantee your future?

Believe that and - probably - you won't want to hear this podcast on the rise of the digital first member.  That member may occasionally step into a branch but usually they are unhappy. They would rather interact online.

And their numbers are growing.

Smart institutions know this.  A Chase - in its heart - is now a technology company.  Are you?

In this podcast, Jeff Bender - vice president, digital solutions at Diebold Nixdorf - tells about the future of banking as he sees it. And he sees a lot of digital.

Word of advice: bet now on cardless ATM access. That, says Bender, is the next must offer.

Bender also warns about offering a generic, off the peg digital experience. Do all your competitors offer the same mobile banking app as you? Think again if that's true.  "Find ways to personalize, to differentiate," says Bender.

And keep thinking digitally. It is the future and it is now.

Listen to Bender here.

This podcast Bender mentions Partners FCU and its digital journey. For my take on Partners FCU, read this.

This podcast is one of a group of four recorded on site at the Diebold Nixdorf DN Intersect conference in Las Vegas, September 2019.

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

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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You have a successful product that puts small dollar loans in the hands of consumers who may have tattered credit but they need the money and you want to save them from predatory lenders who may charge interest upwards of 100% APR.  

Your product usually involves loan rates of 24 to 36% APR.

Much better for the consumer.

And you have 11 other credit unions offering your loans.

That's the story of QCash, a subsidiary of WSECU in Washington State. And now QCash's CEO Ben Morales is launching a new tool that just may blow up QCash's market.

And that's ok.

The new QCash tool is a financial wellness product that - in its simplest understanding - is designed to heal struggling consumers by offering access to liquidity but also financial counseling and teaching that turns that consumer into a person who deserves an 8% loan. Not a 36% loan.

How cool is that.

This is an upbeat podcast about how credit unions can generally help members in an era where more of us struggle to pay our bills.

An underlying QCash belief is that the path is in the data and it's just a matter of understanding the consumer and his/her data. In that data the way to financial wellness lies.

Related podcasts include Trudy Soupcoup, a board member at WSECU; and Bill Bynum, CEO at Hope.

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

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