Call this the credit union Hamlet moment: To be or not to be, that is the 2021 question around the future of branches.
Suddenly, amid the pandemic, with many branches closed, many others open fewer hours, some credit unions requiring appointments for branch visits, and most credit unions reporting a surge in member use of digital banking tools, a question is getting asked that few expected. “Some credit unions are asking if they need branches,” said Doug Brown, a senior vice president and GM of Digital Banking at NCR.
Ask Kirk Drake, an Oregon based serial entrepreneur, what has fueled his successes and Drake comes back with one word that you probably hadn’t expected: masterminds.
Just what is a mastermind? It’s an idea that traces back at least 100 years but it just may be most needed right now, in a tumultuous economy that is filled with unexpected hazards — but equally unexpected opportunities.
Reality check: I did not in fact eat with Chris Bianco, the legendary Beard award winning Phoenix chef, but I did eat Sunday night at his restaurant Tratto in downtown Phoenix.
Am I insane? Arguably so. But I think we did this cautiously, thoughtfully, and safely. So that is the story I am telling.
The stakes are high. Life or death in fact. On that same day Arizona added 11795 new Covid-19 cases, with 3677 hospitalizations, and hospital beds are just about stuffed to capacity. We are in a bad space and it will only worsen over the next two or three months.
I’m also aware that many places – New York included – have again shut indoor dining. There is no denying the risks are real, especially indoors.
So why did the wife and I decide to go out to eat Sunday? It was a birthday celebration, we honestly have not been to a table cloth restaurant in 9 months (and just two casual joints in that time span), and we both had immense curiosity about what Bianco is doing at Tratto, his fine dining establishment (he mainly is known for pizza).
The question came into focus because a few months ago Bianco moved Tratto from an upscale midtown location to a down at its heels location on Van Buren in downtown Phoenix where the eatery is surrounded by used car lots (“Your job is your credit report!”). It’s not a dangerous location, just bleak.
But the restaurant Bianco has created is gorgeous. Big, sprawling, a lovely setting for socially distanced dining.
There’s also – and this sold us on eating there – a big patio. No indoor dining for us.
We also got a 5:10p dining time, when our best guess was that the place would still be empty.
Even so, we did not go there without much thought. And we decided to walk there – 3.7 miles distant from our home – because that just seemed safer than Uber or the lightrail (and we knew we’d have a couple tipples so driving was crossed off the options list).
The walk was in lovely 60 degree weather, few on the streets, no need to wear a mask because we saw pretty much no one.
At the restaurant, the staffer at the reservations desk quickly takes the temperatures of diners. We passed that muster and were shown to our table.
Out in the big patio there was only one other two top with diners.
(Inside, in the huge restaurant, I believe three two tops were occupied. There was ample space for social distancing.)
Mask wearing on the patio was observed, except when eating or drinking.
What if there had been many more diners and mask scofflaws reigned? The feet that had taken us there would just as surely take us home and so they would have.
But that wasn’t necessary. Not with few diners and mask wearing.
This is about a restaurant meal so, yes, there was food. Lots of it.
To start a negroni. I do not know what Bianco’s mixologist uses – it’s not the standard recipe (gin, Campari, sweet vermouth) but it is damn good. So good I had two waiting for the food to come to table and I do not usually drink cocktails.
I’m sure Bianco would accommodate a traditionalist who insisted on the regular negroni recipe. But don’t. Go with this alternative. It’s a more sophisticated drink.
The Tratto negroni sets the tone. What’s served is familiar but, well, different.
For starters, we had “Little Gem Lettuce in Roasted Shallot Vinaigrette with Shave four-year Parmigiano Reggiano” and “Blue Sky Farms Fennel & Radicchio in Crow’s Dairy Quark with Persimmon, Pomegranate, AZ Pistachios & Honey.”
Bianco likes local products, but isn’t slavish about it, and he likes to mix unlikely ingredients (persimmon, pomegranate, pistachio). The salads are fresh, familiar but also exotic. No tomato, you notice, but how hackneyed is that combo?
Servings are plentiful for sharing.
Followed by tagliatelle with braised short rib ragu. Thick, lovely ribbons of what I believe is housemade pasta. The short rib is a condimento, the pasta is not drowned in the ragu, it is sparingly sauced to let the noodles star. Lovely shaved parm on top.
Followed by “Roasted Blue Sky Farms Carrots with Grilled Spring Onion, Honey, Dill Salsa Verde, Quark, Crispy Garlic, Chili Oil” and a second dish of “Poached Blue Sky Farms Cabbage with Aioli & Bread Crumbs.”
The cabbage is charred, the carrots are poached to a natural sweetness. Get the dishes together. It’s a perfect vegetable plate when paired.
What for dessert? Nothing. We were full and it was time to hit the road before more diners trickled in. And we had a walk in front of us.
Are we still healthy and Covid free? So far and I doubt that will change. If it does, you will hear about it. Promised.
But here’s the takeaway. Restaurant dining may still be safe when you pick the right venue – with an outdoor option! – and the right, slow time slot. Wear a mask except when eating and drinking.
None of this is rocket science. But it just may keep us safe while we still enjoy a well chosen restaurant outing.
The pace of change at credit unions is quickening. That’s the central message from Doug Brown, senior vice president and GM of Digital Banking at NCR.
In a wide ranging conversation, Brown explores five key trends:
* Channels quickly collapsed in 2020 as digital and physical experiences merged; this is only expected to accelerate next year. Experiences were ‘de-channeled’ as physical and digital experiences converged.
Banks and credit unions are now operating in a more dynamic, distributed model, causing de-channeling to occur at a rate much faster than initially expected, in some cases three or more years ahead.
* Branch strategy will shift to accommodate the evolution of self-service. Branches will remain relevant, but they must adapt to become part of the larger ecosystem. There will be a continued evolution of self-service, one that includes leveraging technology to provide touchless alternatives and increased automation to enable continued access to cash.
*The ATM will remain a critical touchpoint and utilize expanded functionality. ATMs are not going away. They are just getting smarter, more capable, and more fully digital.
* An increased focus on end-to-end delivery and management. Consumer behaviors will be dynamic into 2021 and beyond. Being able to quickly modify digital experiences and business structures to accommodate customer needs and provide a consistent user experience regardless of channel will be a competitive imperative moving forward. This is all part of the profound shift toward digital first banking.
* Small business earns bigger focus. The pandemic disproportionately impacted small businesses and gig economy workers; they faced a drastic liquidity crisis. Small and micro businesses have experienced a heightened need for financial advice and guidance. This year, we saw many community and large regional banks step up and help businesses through PPP loans, even when the national institutions elected not to. This has caused the smaller and mid-tier institutions to win market share and gain new business accounts, a significant opportunity.
Listen up, Brown in this podcast offers a vivid picture of an existing credit union experience that blends digital with legacy banking.
In this podcast, mention is made of the new digital bank, Lili. Story here.
A related podcast is with Octavio Marquez, a senior VP ar Diebold Nixdorf. Listen here.
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
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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
We’re back. After a hiatus we have resumed recording The Cooperators Podcast…drum roll…presenting the current podcast with Adam Trott, executive director of the Valley Alliance of Worker Cooperatives which aims to stimulate formation of new worker co-ops in western Massachusetts and southern Vermont.
VAWC also helps existing worker co-ops perform more successfully.
VAWC members include Collective Copies, a copy and print shop, Green Mountain Spinnery, which makes yarns, Oxbow Design Build, which offers design and construction services, and Pedal People which is a human powered trash and recycling service in Northampton Mass.
Trott acknowledges that his geography is a fertile breeding ground for worker cooperatives: “They have been in this area since the 1970s.” So knowledge of them is high.
In this podcast Trott talks about the obstacles to starting a worker co-op, the benefits they bring to their community as well as to the worker owners, and why some worker co-ops succeed and others fail.
Consider this talk a primer on how to get this done – and know that in the current economic downturn interest is high in this alternative form of ownership.Listen in to hear the past, present and possible future of worker co-ops.
Call me a travel optimist. Last Saturday, after thinking on the matter for a few days, I renewed TSA Precheck despite having not been on a plane in six months. But I wanted to see how the process worked – smooth? bumpy? – and I also have started a new project that may require cross-country flights and for that I wanted to know I had Precheck in hand.
Besides, I had no money to lose. Amex Plat will pick up the cost.
Know this: it took just a couple minutes to fill in the forms online and within four hours I had a notification that it was being renewed. No need for an appearance in person.
None of my identifying facts had changed in four and one-half years: same address, same name, same cellphone number, even the same credit card. So there was nothing to trigger curiosity about me. But, still, I have to say: the process is smooth.
Covid-19 makes PreCheck more useful, too, according to reporting in the Washington Post: “What we have seen is that wait times in general are in the neighborhood of five minutes or less, and PreCheck can go even quicker,” Lisa Farbstein, a spokeswoman for the Transportation Security Administration, told Wapo.
Additionally, with PreCheck, you don’t have to touch and remove a bunch of things such as your shoes, a light jacket, and most electronics (which can go through the inspection tucked inside your bag).
That makes PreCheck a terrific buy at the price I pay.
Now, why do I think I will be flying more soon? Of course it’s not just the project I mentioned, it’s my own readiness to consider air travel mainly because the vaccines that are speeding down the pike are plenty to raise confidence.
According to a New York Times widget that predicts when a person will get the vaccine – it asks age, residence, pre-existing conditions – 118 million of my fellow Americans are ahead of me but a good guess is that I will be vaccinated by mid year. I will probably get it then, too, because there will be plenty of arms injected before mine and that will raise my confidence in the drugs.
Besides, I may already have some degree of immunity because I had the disease last March, which was corroborated by a June antibody test. I am not banking on that immunity but the probability that I have some lets me stay relaxed with 118 million in front of me. Others may need it sooner, let them have it.
Then, too, as s many as one-third of us are saying nothing doing, they say they will refuse the vaccine. I imagine that number will dip as (and if) we see vaccinations are proceeding with few significant side-effects. But the line may move even faster than some think if there are plenty of anti-vaxxers.
Remember, too, that in 1955, as the US speeded to inoculate the nation’s children against polio, there was the so-called Cutter Incident, named after the lab that produced bad doses, which resulted in some 250 cases of polio. That is, the vaccine caused the very disease it was intended to prevent,
Yes, that number of cases was small but it was large for those who were crippled and their images haunted many leading edge Baby Boomers. The images persist today.
My other concern is that the vaccines in the final stages of approval require multiple doses, delivered at rather specific time intervals, and the drugs also require extremely cold storage. We shall see how good we as a people are at remembering to go for the follow up shot and we shall also see how good pharmacies, physicians’ offices, and hospitals are at cold storage. A lot of moving parts are involved in delivering something that looks like a national immunity.
We will get all that sorted. I cannot say by when. But we will.
And we will be flying again. Probably not as much as before – I believe the predictions that business travel will be down by one-third for some years to come – but we will fly again.
Are you ready? You know I am. The Precheck renewal proves it.
A dirty secret inside credit unions is that many frontline workers – and very possibly most senior staff – just do not use their institution’s digital banking tools. Why bother when you work in a branch? Just walk up to a teller and, whoosh, task handled.
And then along comes a pandemic that closes many branches, and makes many members and employees leery of setting foot in the open ones, and suddenly there is a stampede to adopt digital. A couple problems however. A lot of the institution’s staff cannot adequately explain how to use the tools because of their own lack of familiarity and a lot of the members who are newly adopting digital are starting at ground zero and genuinely need help.
Enter John Findlay’s Digital Academy, a SaaS (software as a service) tool that aims to solve both problems for credit unions.
Better still: right now there is a 90 day free trial because, says Findlay, the company wanted to do its part in helping financial institutions and their members and customers meet the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic.
What Digital Academy gives financial institutions is an automated way to create an instructional walkthrough that can be used by members and employees alike. How easy is it to create this? Often an institution can create a walkthrough for, say, Mobile Remote Deposit Capture in perhaps a half hour, says Findlay.
How can it be that easy? Remember, it’s automated. Basically the credit union grabs perhaps a half dozen screen shots. How simple is that?
The cost? Findlay says the company’s tool kit is available for a fee correlated to asset size. An institution in the $100 million range might pay around $15,000 annually. An institution with $1 billion in assets might pay $100,000 annually.
He stresses that significant staff technical expertise is not required to create an instructional walkthrough. The aim of the tools is to democratize the creation of learning tools.
You wish you already had it? Remember that 90 day free trial…and, says Findlay, so far every institution that has taken the trial has chosen to sign on as a customer.
Hear the podcast to find out why Findlay developed the Digital Academy tools and more details about exactly how easy they are to use.
In the podcast there is mention of a CUBroadcast show – here’s the link.
There’s also mention of a podcast about the CU2.0 Mastermind group – link here.
Get your FREE ticket to the December 9th CU2.0 Fintech Mastermind Presents Showcase Day 2020. This is the first of its kind event where CU 2.0 has brought together the industries’ top leaders form well known Credit Unions and paired them up with top Fintech experts in one place! Our subject matter expert will help you and your organization tackle the top issues we face today with unique master classes, tailored for folks just like you.
Read up to learn more about Mastermind groups here in this CU2.0 blog post.
Hear the first CU2.0 Mastermind podcast here. In this episode Kirk Drake and Dr. Patty Ann Tublin, who facilitates the CU2.0 Mastermind groups, talk about why and how Mastermind groups work and who will benefit from them.
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
Just do it: decide that this year’s December festivities – Christmas or Hanukkah or Kwanzaa or whatever you wish to celebrate with gatherings of family and friends – is a no go in 2020, a kind of unawares suicide mission.
The CDC is not mincing words in its advice. “The best thing for Americans to do during the holiday season is to stay at home and not travel,” said Dr. Henry Walke, who is in charge of day to day management of the response to the pandemic.
That could not be plainer. Stay home.
But my additional advice is this: cancel big family 2020 holiday get togethers but make firm – and glorious – plans for a huge December 2021 celebration.
2020 is a bust. But 2021 is a different, cheerier reality.
Still, we have to start with this blunt truth: this December offers no basis for partying in groups.
We missed that message in November and now we are paying the price.
Some 9.4 million of us passed through TSA airport screening over the 10 days of Thanksgiving season. Yes, that volume is way down from 2019 when a record 2.9 million of us were screened on the Sunday after Thanksgiving and just 1.17 million were screened on that day this year.
But our travel numbers were way too high for a nation fighting a losing battle with a pandemic.
So now the virus surges. As experts knew it would.
As the Mississippi Free Press headline trumpeted: “After Big Thanksgiving Dinners, Plan Small Christmas Funerals, Health Experts Warn.”
White House coronavirus coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx told CBS, “We know people may have made mistakes … over the Thanksgiving time period. If your family traveled, you have to assume that you are exposed and you became infected and you really need to get tested in the next week.”
Right now, 13.8 million of us are known to have had the disease. 271,000 of us have died with more than 2500 new deaths daily. The death total likely will be near 350,000 by the end of December.
We are in a killing season. In Arizona, hospitals admit they are scrambling to try to cope with surging Covid-19 cases. “The number one limiting factor is staffing right now,” Ann-Marie Alameddin, president and CEO of the Arizona Hospital and Healthcare Association, told the Arizona Republic. “It’s a much tighter supply because the whole country is in need of the same skill set.”
In New York, the state is implementing “emergency” hospital measures to try to keep pace with Covid-19 cases.
In California the alert is out that ICUs may soon be “overwhelmed.”
In Los Angeles, Mayor Eric Garcetti has declared “it’s time to cancel everything.”
What we don’t need is a surge in cases triggered by December holiday festivities.
And we also don’t need a wave of cases triggered by so-called Covid fatigue where some of us seemingly have tired of masks and social distancing.
And yet, where I live in central Phoenix, ever more people seem determined to exercise an erroneously claimed “right” not to wear a mask.
As Helena Rosenblatt, a history professor at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, wrote in a Washington Post piece, “Do individuals have a constitutional right not to wear masks? They do not.
“Are such mandates undermining American democratic government? They are not.”
And similarly there are those who insist they have a Constitutional right to celebrate their holidays as they wish.
But I have every right to steer clear of them and I will exercise my right.
It’s not just the United States that is grappling with this problem. Across Europe, the alarms are ringing that bustling family holiday gatherings will represent a risk not just to the immediate attendees but to their communities. This is a highly infectious disease.
In Belgium, the prime minister even invokes a stark and graphic metaphor. Leave empty chairs around the dining table this year or risk having permanently empty chairs in years to come.
That is a gruesome image. But it also is relevant because the pandemic has regained velocity in much of the US and in parts of Europe.
That is why we are in for sedate, subdued, low key holiday festivities. There is no other sanity in our present moment.
But think of the bright side – 2021 is coming and with it a vaccine that may be “widely available” by mid year and will probably be in every arm in the US that wants it by Q4.
Which puts us squarely in the holiday season.
Tell me that you are planning a holiday 2020 blowout and I will tell you it is a terrible idea.
But tell me you are planning a 2021 celebration that may be your life’s best and I will ask for an invite.
That’s a celebration we will all deserve because we will have been through so much getting there and when we do get there, a year from now, it’s time to pop the good champagne and yell a merry cheers. I know I will.
A few months ago the answer looked like a definite maybe but now, says Octavio Marquez, Senior Vice President and Managing Director, Global Banking, Diebold Nixdorf, ATM traffic is up across much of the US and oftentimes it is higher than pre-pandemic levels had been.
What’s happening, says Marquez, is that financial institutions – credit unions very much included – are rethinking their branch networks and in that process many are also rethinking the role of the ATM. That new look at ATMs is accelerated by the reality that many of us are seeking to minimize person to person interactions. And financial institutions are also beginning to look at the ATM as not just a piece of machinery but as a useful player in digital banking.
Along the way, Marquez talks about new uses for ATMs. They no longer are just about spitting out money and taking deposits. On many we can now pay utility bills. Some can also perform KYC chores for a credit union. Some can print out and distribute a new debit card.
Clearly it’s no longer simply your father’s two note machine.
The podcast opens with a brief discussion of a new partnership of Truliant Credit Union and Diebold Nixdorf where DN All Connect Services are now available to Truliant members. Said the press release, “The comprehensive service will increase branch and ATM channel efficiency, offer enhanced digital integration and provide members with modern and convenient self-service banking options.”
Rik Kielbasa, chief digital officer at Truliant, said: “Our expanded partnership with Diebold Nixdorf will help us anticipate future market needs and develop even stronger connections with our members. User expectations around ATM services are constantly evolving, and enhanced functionality allows us to exceed these expectations and increase service levels. Implementing DN Allconnect Managed Services offers opportunities to continuously optimize the member experience so we never miss a moment with them.”
In the same press release, Marquez said, “Together, we’re on a mission to amplify Truliant’s membership through a truly consumer-centric, highly-available ATM experience.”
Listen up.
Get your FREE ticket to the December 9th CU2.0 Fintech Mastermind Presents Showcase Day 2020. This is the first of its kind event where CU 2.0 has brought together the industries’ top leaders form well known Credit Unions and paired them up with top Fintech experts in one place! Our subject matter expert will help you and your organization tackle the top issues we face today with unique master classes, tailored for folks just like you.
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
Ask Larry Nichols, CEO of Member Driven Technologies, a Michigan based CUSO, what’s in the future for credit unions and he has a one word answer: Digital.
Actually, that oversimplifies the answer because in this podcast Nichols and I talk for about 40 minutes about what’s next and he in fact ticks off four basic themes:
* Digital banking – by which he means many, many things besides mobile and online banking. E-signatures for instance. Also digital account opening. Digital is the future of banking.
* The evolution of the branch
* The new need for business continuity planning
* The need to find new ways credit unions can support their communities in this time of need.
Along the way, Nichols evangelizes for cloud based core systems, the central MDT focus. Around 106 credit unions are MDT core customers and, Nichols says, this is a way to have the latest technologies – but to leave the hefty lifting to professionals.
He’s probably right. Many credit unions would benefit from turning their cores over to a third party to manage in the cloud.
There are explanations about why that is so in this podcast.
The podcast starts with the question: How many member owners are there for your CUSO? The answer will surprise you.
A technical matter: after the podcast was recorded, Nichols emailed to say he had misremembered the date when MDT first offered mobile banking. That wrong date has been erased and, in my voice, you will hear the right date, 2008. Larry’s voice did not inexplicably change. It’s my voice.
Also for the record, the Apple iPhone was introduced in 2007.
Get your FREE ticket to the December 9th CU2.0 Fintech Mastermind Presents Showcase Day 2020. This is the first of its kind event where CU 2.0 has brought together the industries’ top leaders form well known Credit Unions and paired them up with top Fintech experts in one place! Our subject matter expert will help you and your organization tackle the top issues we face today with unique master classes, tailored for folks just like you.
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
