The CU2.0 Podcast

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You want to make new account opening easy and fraudsters want to exploit that loophole to rob your credit union.

That is the gist of today's podcast with Hakan Nordfjell, head of digital banking at Gemalto.  He tells about fraudster tricks and also the way financial institutions are fighting back.

He also warns that all your personal information is on the dark web and ready for fraudsters to exploit.  PII - personally identifiable information - just isn't enough to open new accounts securely today. You need more weapons.  Nordfjell tells what.

This is information you need to know to protect your institution in what could be called the New Account Opening Wars.

Who's winning?

Listen up.

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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Just say no more to overdraft fees.

And make this decision good for your members and also good for your credit union.

You may even grab a few customers away from Chase and the other money center banks.

That's the promise of fintech startup Grain Technology.

In this podcast Grain co-founder and COO Carl Memnon tells about the company's proprietary algorithm that lets it devise strategies for making fast loans to users who are about to trigger an overdraft charge and to also help those users find easy ways to start saving.

The latter is the why behind the company's name - users will see their assets and their credit score grow "grain by grain," said Memnon.

Memnon also talks about being in the Arizona fintech sandbox and the benefits for a small startup in playing in this sandbox.

Grain is actively seeking to align with credit unions that want to offer its overdraft protection service to members. In the podcast Memnon tells about the benefits to credit unions but a big plus is having cool technology that in effect let's the member know they will see no more overdraft fees.

Listen up, you'll find plenty of interest in this podcast.

BTW, the sirens you'll hear are ambient noise in New York where Memnon was during the call.  If you've spent any time in New York you won't even hear the siren. I couldn't scrub it out so decided just to enjoy the New York moments.

Like what you are hearing in this podcast? Find out how you can help sponsor the 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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Call this podcast Up In Smoke, Credit Union Style.

The more formal moniker: Cannabis and Credit Unions: The Opportunities and Risks, Part 1.

That’s right. There is also a Part 2 because there just is so much to report about cannabis and financial institutions.

In Part 1, you will hear from a couple lawyers, a cannabis lobbyist, a pair of credit union consultants, and more.

Why the hubbub about a little weed? For one, a commonly tossed around market size estimate is $50 billion in the US and much of that is unbanked cash.

For two, there are big differences between state laws regarding cannabis and federal.  

In two thirds of the states cannabis is legal - either for medical uses or, in some cases such as California and Colorado, for any use. That’s right. Recreational use is legal in some states.

And yet marijuana remains illegal in federal law.

There’s the sticking point.

Pragmatically speaking, few oppose medical use of marijuana. But many still oppose recreational use of it.

So what happens if the federal government comes in and arrests a bunch of credit union employees for drug trafficking?

Don’t say it can’t happen because it could.

Is it probable?

Right now credit union executives are wrestling with exactly such questions.

Answers don’t come easily.

Know this however: around 110 credit unions now have marijuana related businesses as members.

The core argument for doing this is that it’s good for the community.  It takes cash off the streets and it also helps small, local businesses stabilize.

The only downside is that marijuana remains illegal in federal law.

Uggh.

There’s the dilemma. A credit union can do a lot of good by plunging into the marijuana business. But it also may be risking all.

Thus this podcast series.  There may be no knottier problem for credit unions than marijuana.

There is information to know and that’s what we are delivering.  In a two part series.

In Part 1, you will hear a range of viewpoints.  Listen to the end so you hear all the perspectives. It's a 45 minute podcast but the content is rich

In Part 2 you will hear in some depth from the Connecticut Credit Union League, which is helping its members serve marijuana businesses, and also Safe Harbor, started by credit union veteran Sundie Seefried to help financial institutions serve the needs of marijuana businesses.

And then what will you decide to do? Listen up to make smart choices.

Listen to Part 1, the must hear podcast on cannabis and credit unions. 

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.

Hear the full podcast here.

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Say congratulations to Joe Bergeron - he's in his 40th year of service to Vermont credit unions and he presently serves as CEO of the Association of Vermont Credit Unions where he has a close up view of the issues and ideas that rock his state's 19 credit unions, which vary in size from a $1billion+ institution to tiny ones.

In this podcast Bergeron also talks about the relationship between the state leagues and CUNA, state government and the federal, and how small credit unions sometimes matter way beyond their size.

For a topical hook he also talks about CUNA's GAC and what Vermont credit unions get from that confab.

It's a wide ranging talk with an eye always planted on the future.

Listen to this 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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Cornerstone Advisors' Ron Shevlin's report on "What's Going On in Banking 2019. Is the Party Over?" is out and he's in the CU2.0 Podcast to share some of his findings.

Read the report here.  It's free.

To compile the report Shevlin surveyed some 300+ senior executives in financial institutions - around 120 in credit unions - and they spill their views of their tomorrows.

Has the Trump bump become the Trump slump, asked Shevlin.

A lot of the report focused on technology and what financial execs see as musts.

Some 63% of credit union executives describe their digital banking as future ready - which prompted this reporter to choke and then ask, are they doing marijuana related banking and smoking too many samples?

Listen to the podcast to hear Shevlin's views.

As always, Shevlin is an independent, sometimes quirky viewer of financial services. That's why his viewpoint matters.

Listen up and learn. Here's the 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.