Podcast

Now it has become time to fear the unknown unknown.

That is a mantra of Amanda Cohen, the director of governance, risk and compliance products at Resolver, a developer of risk and security management software.

Consider this podcast an extension of the themes and realities brought up in last week’s podcast with OGO’s Tim Daugherty on BCP, Business Continuity Planning.

In this show with Cohen we are edging further into the wilderness of risk and pondering the risks that are out there but we just don’t know them yet.

What hooey?

Indeed, just as talk of a pandemic was hooey in, say, December 2019. And talk of a war in middle Europe surely was ridiculous in February 2022.

And let’s not even mention Hurricane Sandy, the Great Resignation and how about all those teller jobs you just can’t seem to fill.

There are so many risks to contemplate nowadays and what Cohen presents is a disciplined perspective on how to come to grips with the risks you face whether you know them or not.

Listen up.

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

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

The pandemic. The Great Resignation. Oregon wild fires. Tornados in Kansas.  Face facts: it is tough to know how to deal with the next disaster that comes on your scene because who knows what that will be?

This century – from Katrina to the war in Ukraine – has been a wild ride filled with the unpredictable.  It has become essential for every c-suiter to live by the Boy Scout motto, Be Prepared.

But that isn’t easy when there’s no knowing what you need to be prepared for.

This is where Tim Daugherty enters because in this podcast he tells what a credit union needs in a business continuity plan – and he also muses about the maybe 25% that do not have a realistic plan in place.

Joining him is Shane Butcher. a CU 2.0 Podcast veteran and director of CISO Services at OGO, who offers insight into where data and hackers figure into BCP.

Listen up.

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

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

by Robert McGarvey

Just six months ago, BNPL (Buy Now Pay Later) seemed to be on every lip in credit union c-suites as executives eyed the rosy reports of robust lending at fintechs such as Klarna and Affirm but then came May and Klarna laid off 10% of its workforce amid a souring of the global economy and soaring worries about inflation, certainly in the U.S. where a gallon of gasoline now is around $5, up from about $4.35 just a month ago.

Add in the fact that the CFPB has opened an inquiry into BNPL and formally requested buckets of information from leading BNPL players and, suddenly, that screech you hear are the brakes being applied to BNPL at many, many financial institutions, credit unions definitely among them.

Dark clouds surround BNPL.

Continued at CUInsight

 If you are a credit union executive you should be staying up at night chewing on this question: how do we survive in an age of relentless technology innovation and an increasing consumer acceptance of trusting their financial services to a fintech.

Tossin’ and turnin’.

Guy Messick, a retired lawyer who now serves as CEO of NACUSO Business Services, is a man you want to hear.

NACUSO Business Services is a recent offshoot from NACUSO, the trade group for CUSOs and the credit unions that own and use them, and this offshoot has a specific focus which is to help credit unions and CUSOs hook up, especially CUSOs with a fintech focus.

Messick believes that CUSOs are a tool that potentially give credit unions an enormous marketplace advantage.

But he also knows that the two need a place to meet and mingle and get to know each other and each other’s needs and wants. Thus the rise of NACUSO Business Services.

Its offering include a listing marketplace where many fintechs just might want to be featured.

This just might be a way to get better sleep at night. 

Listen up.

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

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

Subtitle this podcast: what a fintech needs to know and do to succeed when working with credit unions.

Just maybe knowing how to do that is the special sauce that has powered Digital Onboarding – not that many years out of the DCU Fintech Innovation Center – to having 80+ customers in financial services, mainly credit unions.

And in this podcast Ted Brown, CEO of Digital Onboarding, tells where he got the idea for a company that provides tools that help credit unions turn members into raving fans who use many of the institution’s tools, from direct deposit to automatic card payments.

By the way, the more such tools a member uses the stickier the relationship.

Oh…the idea that led to Digital Onboarding’s core business mission came out of talks with DCU execs who shared pain points and wishes and, click, the light bulb went off in Brown’s head and the company’s business plan took shape.

Brown is candid in this podcast. 

But so also is Deborah Colby, chief marketing officer at One Nevada Credit Union who is in the show as a one person truth squad. Spoiler alert: she is a raving fan of Brown and Digital Onboarding. If you are hoping for Shark Tank snark, you won’t find it here.  

What you will find is Colby’s perceptive take on what a fintech needs to know to really click with a credit union.  Heads up, fintech execs, if you don’t catch that bit you have missed gold.

Credit union execs, listen and you will hear good ways to assess if you are in fact getting what you need from your fintechs.

The format of this show departs from our pattern. Here you will hear an intro, then we cut to a one on one with Ted Brown where Colby puts in a cameo at the end, then we go to Colby on her own telling how One Nevada works with Digital Onboarding.

Listen up.

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

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              

 How much do you make? Is it enough?

A question for credit union boards: Are you paying your staff, especially c-suiters, enough to stay competitive in your marketplace?

We are in an era of intense competition for talent. You know how hard it has become to recruit to fill teller openings.

But do you know that a talent war is upending olden credit union beliefs about senior talent and compensation?

It is. And this will help decide what credit unions are left standing 10 years from now.

Telling us what is really going on in credit union executive compensation is Kirk Kordeleski, a onetime Bethpage CU CEO who now consults with credit unions about compensation especially SERP.  

If you think that has to do with search exchange results pages you definitely need to hear this show.

That’s Supplemental Executive Retirement Plans and they are emerging as a key tool in senior executive recruitment and retention at credit unions.

Kordeleski, by the way, is a past CU 2.0 Podcast guest – episode 46 in Season 1.        

Kordeleski did this show from a quarantine hotel in Amsterdam  after failing the Covid test required for passengers entering the US.  He is in a remarkably good mood and that may be a clue that this is indeed a guy who can help you untangle your institution’s antiquated comp practices.

Listen up.

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

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  

 What happens when you throw a bunch of ex-Googlers into an office in San Mateo California?

Enter Upstart, a new breed lending company that helps financial institutions – credit unions very much included – make more, better unsecured loans and also do auto refinancing.

Upstart comes at lending with a focus on artificial intelligence, machine learning, and doing a lot of data crunching.  Using Upstart’s analytics an institution approves a higher percentage of loans – but also enjoys a lower default rate. 

How can that be? According to Jeff Keltner, who heads business development at Upstart and is himself an ex Googler, lots of models plain look at the wrong data when making credit decisions.

Upstart has a page full of dazzling stats about how its models perform versus traditional lending models.  Check it out.

20+ years ago I interviewed the Google founders for MIT’s Technology Review magazine. Here’s that story. 

Listen up.

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

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

 Tell me: do you have a VP of digital assets?

Didn’t think so.

What exactly would such a position do?

Good question.

That’s why you want to pay close attention to this podcast with Joe Keller whose title – drumroll please – is vice president of digital assets at Visions, a $6 billion credit union in upstate New York.

Right, Endicott, New York. Not Cambridge Mass or San Jose Ca. 

Endicott. Which is pretty near Binghamton if that helps place it.

Keller, whose background involved big banks, consulting firms, and startups, might have seemed an unlikely credit union hire.

Keller was brought in by Visions CEO Ty Muse.

You’ll hear Keller’s first reaction to the suggestion – then discover what persuaded him that in fact this was exactly the job he wanted and why getting this right at a credit union genuinely matters.

Incidentally this show is about way more than Bitcoin.  Lots more.  We are deep into an embrace of digital assets and the institutions that get that now will have a head start.

Keller tells how he plans to help Visions get its head start.

And he also tells what he thinks a credit union’s first steps into digital assets should look like.

Listen up.

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

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

 How good a manager are you?

Be honest now.  Do you have a systematic way of measuring how effectively you are leading? Or is it all seat of the pants guesswork and, well, we have to be doing okay because the lights are still on?

Let’s be honest. A lot of credit unions are going out of business in the next decade. A lot.

Right now there is a flood of fintechs into the credit union orbit and many come with promises and promise – but a lot of them won’t be open in five years.

Ineffective management and leadership will figure into many of these demises.

Enter Julie Markee. She is a professional implementer – you haven’t heard that title before, have you – with EOS, a company that teaches what it calls an entrepreneurial operating system (this EOS).

In this podcast Markee – who has worked with a number of companies in the credit union orbit – offers up a fast view of EOS’ thinking and processes,

Case in point: are your executive meetings a productive use of time – or do you leave the room thinking why the heck am I spending so much time on this? EOS has a fast approach to meetings that will up effectiveness. You want to hear that.

Do you have the right people in the right seats? That’s a core EOS principle and when it’s not in place that organization will struggle to succeed. Find out how to get the right people in the right seats in this show.

Here’s a promised link to a lot of EOS tools: https://www.eosworldwide.com/eos-tools 

Here’s a link to how to run a Level 10 meeting.

This is a content rich show. Think about what she says. Think and learn.

Listen up.

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

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

 Seth Brickman’s career includes the US Navy (remember Top Gun? That was his motivator). Then he landed at Microsoft, he co-founded a startup Nicolette which builds tools to help parents make informed decisions about their baby’s health, then he was at Amazon where he earned a patent  involving Alexa and the content delivered to its screen.

Now he is at QCash, a CUSO created by Washington State Employees Credit Union (hear CU 2.0 Podcast #56 with past QCash CEO Ben Morales).

Why QCash? In the podcast Brickman tells why but the short version is that he had reached a point in his life where he wanted to do a lot of good and he joined QCash because it seemed to him to be the vehicle that could make that happen.

Listen to this section of the podcast multiple times. Take notes. You want to get highly talented techies into your organization. Brickman tells how.

At QCash, his dreams are big. The CUSO presently serves 50 credit unions. His goal is to double that number by year end.

Partly it’s that Brickman has tweaked QCash’s product messaging.  It no longer refers to itself as an alternative to payday lending. Now it’s about helping members through what QCash calls life events.

Don’t think QCash is abandoning the people it was created to help. It isn’t. The QCash focus remains making loans – oftentimes to individuals who might not qualify for traditional lending products – to help members deal with life events, from a blown car transmission to false teeth.

What’s exciting about QCash is that its loans do not involve a traditional application. It connects to the core and that gives it ample insight into this member who wants a loan.  

Brickman also is expanding the QCash toolbox – for instance there now is an emergency response loan that will let a participating credit initiate lending to community members after a natural disaster – an earthquake, fire, even Covid-19 – literally within minutes of the event. How cool is that? The credit union can legitimately call itself a financial first responder.

What could be more in the credit union spirit than that?

Listen up.

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

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