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The United States is awash in medical debt. How much is there? Hard to say but Kaiser Family Foundation has an estimate of $220 billion and, yes, that’s billion with a b.
Enter CFPB, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau which believes there is a lot of double billing, inflated charges and downright illegal medical debt collection tactics.
CFPB is looking at banning reporting of medical debt to credit bureaus which the agency says unjustly lowers the credit scores of some 15 million Americans.
Which is why we brought Jeff Grobaski back on the show. CEO of Fort Collins CO based Epic River, a lending as a service provider that helps medical practitioners and hospitals place their unpaid debts at credit unions which pay no fees for the paper and, even better, the credit union assumes little risk.
Nada.
Grobaski was on the show a year ago but the question now is how do the CFPB proposals impact what Epic River is doing?
The other question is why are hospitals and doctors happily turning that paper over to Epic River. Grobaski explains in the show. It really is a win-win-win, for the patient with debts, for the medical provider with bad paper on his books, and for the credit union that can turn that loan into performing paper and in the process acquire a new member.
This sounds too good to be true? Listen to Grobaski - he gives the nuts and bolts in the show.
Grobaski, incidentally, is a finalist in this year’s credit union luminaries sweepstakes. As the pub said, “Under Grobaski's leadership, Epic River has been able to connect credit unions with local health care providers to improve patients' ability to pay through low- or no-interest loans. Epic River's program accelerates patient payment, minimizes collection expenses and enhances cash flow for participating health care providers.”
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What magic pill can help keep hundreds, indeed thousands of credit unions from vanishing over the next decade?
Vim Anand, CEO of Member Support Services, says his CUSO can create operational efficiency and cost savings through economies of scale and standardization. The focus is on backoffice technologies and, says Anand, MSS’s tools deliver 20+ % cost savings.
But don’t take his word for all of this. Also on the show is John Bissell, CEO of $1.6 billion Greylock Federal Credit Union in Pittsfield MA. Bissell is a new MSS member-owner and he explains that the credit union took this step because he sees this as a way to stay independent and local and both of those are crucial to Bissell who believes they are a big part of the credit union special sauce.
Greylock, by the way, is the biggest credit union in MSS - the two other member owners are >$400 million apiece - and MSS is actively seeking new member owners because Anand’s goal is $8 to $10 billion in total assets.
And the payoff, says Anand, will be helping more credit unions stay independent.
As for why Bissell is set on keeping Greylock independent understand that he grew up in a Greylock family. His dad logged 30 years at GE which was the SEG that powered the birth of the credit union.
Listen to the show to hear Bissell’s story of how an Amherst College grad with an English degree migrated to Seattle but after 10 years he felt the call to return to western Mass, as locals call the region.
Do you want more credit unions to stay independent? Listen up.
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What’s the credit union mission?
Really?
At Inclusiv CEO Cathie Mahon believes that mission is serving the underserved.
That won her a place as a very early guest on the podcast.
Indeed hers was episode 15.
She’s still working on making that mission reality at Inclusiv.
And this still is a show that explores topics that really matter.
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Bet you don’t know what the word “hapax” means.
Listen to this podcast with Kevin Green, COO of Hapax, an Ai based tool that is built around the files and date inside your credit union. As Hapax explains, “Our Enterprise Model learns your institution's unique practices, policies, and challenges to facilitate knowledge-sharing among your team. It provides a repository of specific data that team members can reference, spurring professional growth, streamlining training, and delivering results tailored to your institution so you can successfully navigate the industry’s rapidly changing landscape.”
Best of all, Hapax essentially pays for itself through reduced employee time spent sifting through credit union policies and procedures.
The big name AI tools - think Chat GPT - are broad gauge while Hapax is very precisely focused and - critically - it’s built around the credit union’s own data.
Importantly, too, each Hapax deployment is in effect a private data lake. Data is not shared with other institutions.
Sound good?
It will sound even better when you listen to the end of the show and find out who the CEO/founder is.
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]
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Just about every credit union wants - indeed needs - new members and that’s exactly what Union Credit focuses on by providing embedded finance tools to deliver a steady stream of new members to participating credit unions.
And get this: credit unions sign month to month deals with Union Credit. So it has to perform to keep credit unions. And a credit union can tell Union Credit how many new, approved and funded loans it wants to get this month.
On the show today is CRO and co-founder Barry Kirby and you know him because he was SVP at CuneNexus which in 2020 was bought by CUNA Mutual. The basic CuneXus idea was to provide tools that let a credit union show members loans and credit cards they already were pre-approved for.
Union Credit, which has TruStage, formerly CUNA Mutual, as a key investor is taking the kernel of that idea and helping credit unions extend pre approved loans to current non members who - and this is key - can easily be memberized. How does Union Credit work that magic? Kirby gives the details in this show.
How many credit unions have in effect created an obstacle course for prospective new members to complete before they are accepted as a member and that also means before they are offered a loan? And how many of those prospects drop out before they complete the obstacle course?
Union Credit offers a better, easier path, both for the prospective member and the credit union.
Listen up.
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The title I put on the podcast with Pete Crear was “A distinguished credit union life.”
Indeed it is. He was the first to win the lifetime achievement award from the African American Credit Union Coalition - and when they gave him the award in 2003 they decided to name it after him.
It’s an honor to have had him on the show and so it also is to proclaim this our Great Hits #17
This is episode 136 from February 2021
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The bad news is that after spending maybe a few hundred dollars to acquire a new member there’s a 50-50 chance that within a year that member will go dormant, assuming he/she actually ever showed any activity in the credit union at all.
That warning comes from Har Rai Khalsa, CEO of Miami based Swaystack and, earlier in his career, he co-founded MK Decision, a digital account opening platform acquired in 2021 by Alkami.
What happened along Khalsa’s journey is that he realized that good as digital account opening is - indeed it’s a must for a 21st century credit union - there also needs to be a systematic digital cultivation of that new member where the aim is to get him/her to fund their new account, set up bill pay, and in other ways integrate the account into their lives.
All that latter is what Swaystack has been created to accomplish and it has gamified the process, taking several leads from Chime which, says Khalsa, is simply extremely good at prompting a new account holder to put that account to use.
The key message here: opening an account is the beginning of the relationship not its culmination.
Listen up.
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On one side is an army of highly skilled criminals, all now equipped with the latest AI tools. On the other side are credit unions and other financial institutions and, face reality, credit unions have to up their game, now, to stay competitive in an AI war.
On the show is Ravi Sandepudi, CEO of Effectiv, a San Francisco based fraud prevention company with deep skills in AI. Ravi for instance worked at Google when much of the pioneering work in AI was getting done in those labs.
Here is how sophisticated - and patient - today’s fraudsters are. They will open an account built around a synthetic identity - the person never existed - and often they will seek to do the account opening at a credit union because many credit unions have more flexible ID requirements than do banks.
The kicker is that account will be perfectly legal and normal for a couple years - until it’s time to awaken it.
Ravi also talks about the need for continuous monitoring of an account. Authentication is no longer a one and done proposition.
These are exciting times for AI fraud detection and prevention and this show gives you a front row seat at the arena.
Listen up.
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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
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What’s involved in implementing a digital member onboarding solution?
Probably that's a question you’ve pondered because digital onboarding is a new must have in credit union land.
But how do you get there?
On the show today is Todd Gunderson, CEO of Credit Union 1, a $1.75 billion Illinois-based institution. Gunderson walks us through the steps the institution took in implementing digital onboarding, the potholes along the way and the workarounds. The payoff has been more and better onboarding of new members who increasingly demand a digital process that is easy to use. Gunderson has delivered on that.
Also on the show is Philip Paul, CEO of Cotribute, the California based fintech that worked with Gunderson and CU1 to implement digital onboarding. Cotribute says of itself that it’s “the preferred digital customer acquisition solution for fast onboarding, increased conversions, and expanding wallet share.”
Listen to the show - and hear Gunderson’s high praise - and you’ll believe that claim.
Incidentally, because of his relentless candor, Gunderson now ranks as the most frank credit union CEO that’s been on the show. When he goes through the implementation process it's a warts and all story. He also tosses out candid observations about common CU failings.
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]
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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
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Ex nihil nihil fit. Out of nothing nothing comes.
That's a building block of Western thought - and then there is Prizeout, an innovative ad tech firm that maybe proves that nihil proposition is wrong.
You've heard Prizeout before. Perhaps 18 months ago, CEO David Metz was on the show with Darlene Johnson of Suncoast Credit Union.
Metz is back, this time with TJ Wyman, chief digital officer at Coastal Credit Union. Wyman is here to tell why his credit union just climbed aboard and Metz is here to tell about Prizeout's explosive growth and also to detail how the offering has morphed into a cashback tool
Metz and Wyman highlight the program’s unique value proposition of providing rewards to debit card users, who often do not have access to traditional credit card rewards programs. They also emphasize the program’s potential to help credit unions better compete with larger banks by offering an attractive cash benefit to their members.
Listen up.
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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
Have you heard about Deep Dive? It's Google's foray into AI driven podcasting and. as an experiment, we fed this podcast into it. What Deep Dive does is create its own podcast - the voices are machines - and here's a link to a 9 minute AI discussion of this show. -
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This show was recorded on October 1.
The first guest you hear is Greg Mitchell, CEO of First Tech Federal Credit Union, and you know what had happened on September 30.
Just the day before this show First Tech and DCU had announced a merger of giants.
And yet here was Mitchell on a podcast with Splash Financial CEO Steven Muszynski.
Right there that tells you a lot about both Mitchell and Splash Financial.
You might wonder why I didn’t ask Mitchell about the merger. Simple: he had agreed to do this show a month ago and that was predicated on him talking about First Tech and how it benefits from its partnership with Splash Financial.
He had not agreed to lift the kimono about this huge credit union merger.
About two thirds into the show I told him to beat it, not because I didn’t value his commentary but because I knew he had a lot of balls in the air that day and I didn’t want to take up more of his time than necessary.
But keep listening because Muszynski muses on why the company is in Cleveland - Cleveland! - and what his exit strategy is. His insights on building a successful fintech startup are gold for any who want to do similar.
Listen up.
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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
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Buckle up, the ride just got a lot bumpier.
The news exploded in credit union land on September 30: First Tech, the 12th largest credit union in the country with assets over $16 billion, is merging with Digital Credit Union, the 18th largest with assets over $12 billion. The resulting crosscountry credit union will have assets of $28.7 billion, making it the nation’s seventh biggest credit union serving nearly 2 million members in 50 states.
Of course that’s pending NCUA approval but there’s no indication that would be withheld.
Is this a one off marriage - or is it the start of a new trend where ever bigger mergers help giant credit unions better compete with the money center banks and the huge fintechs where scale matters, great technology is table stakes, and the gloves are off in the fight.
On the show to shed light on what just happened and what the next moves will be is Peter Duffy, a past podcast guest and an adviser to many large credit unions.
Let’s cut to the chase. Duffy in the show says there’s nothing surprising about the First Tech and DCU merger and he predicts we will see more couplings of giant credit unions, probably soon.
What’s fueling this? Duffy offers his perspectives.
Listen up.
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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
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Talking about money. Talking about pay. At credit unions.
Now do I have your attention?
On the Money Talks show today is regular guest Kirk Kordeleski who has brought along J P O’Connor, a credit union compensation analyst, who has joined PARC Street because key to architecting the right SERP retirement package for a c-suiter is pegging t to the right salary.
Not all credit unions are paying c-suiters appropriately, not when market rates are the bedrock, and, no, there are few if any cases of credit union execs who are significantly overpaid but there are plenty of cases where they are underpaid.
Says who? Says J P O’Connor who has the data - the market research - to back up his views on salaries.
What makes a compensation market appropriate? In the show O’Connor gives details about exactly this.
Are you underpaid? Overpaid? Listen up.
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News flash: Every credit union does not have to use NCUA’s National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund.
Repeat: does not.
Alas, federally chartered credit unions have no choice but to use NCUA's insurance product. But state chartered institutions do have a choice.
Meet Theresa Mason, CEO of American Share Insurance which provides primary share insurance to around 100 state chartered credit unions in 10 states and it also provides excess share insurance to cover accounts up to $5 million and that’s a product NCUA doesn’t offer.
American Share Insurance’s Excess Share insurance subsidiary also is the insurer for the Military Banking Facilities aka Community Bank that now are operated by Navy Federal. NCUA said it couldn’t insure this because the National Credit Union Act prohibits coverage of non credit union assets.
The MBF operates 60 MBFs and 272 ATMs at DoD facilities overseas. In the show Mason relates how her company scrambled to put together the needed coverage - it’s a good story of innovation on the fly.
Mason, in the show, talks about plans to expand American Share Insurance’s footprint into more states.
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]
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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
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Can a credit union serve more than one employer group? You know what today's answer is of course. But to know the history you need to talk with Marc Schafer, the now retired CEO of Truliant, a Winston Salem credit union.
In the mid 1990s Truliant was sued by a bankers group that claimed it was illegal for a credit union to serve more than one SEG. The bankers won.
The story did not end there.
Credit unions mounted a huge legislative push and the result was passage into law of HR 1151 which made it lawful to serve multiple SEGs.
Schafer had a front row seat throughout the battles.
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The Fed just cut its interest rate by half a point and Happy Money CEO Matt Potere is on the show to tell what a credit union needs to do to optimize its performance in an environment of lower interest rates - and those cuts will impact everything from home mortgages to car loans to the personal loans that are Happy Money’s mainstay.
The show starts on a different topic however. The question is why did you join Happy Money - Potere is just three weeks on the job when this show was recorded.
His answer is rich, detailed.
And at bottom he simply is very confident that more credit unions will want to become Happy Money customers because Happy Money delivers a new member, with good credit, who typically wants to refinance credit card debt at a better rate and Happy Money’s credit unions can deliver on that promise.
Happy Money credit union partners include First Tech, Alliant, Teachers Federal Credit Union and more. But Happy Money definitely wants more credit unions.
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]
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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
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The press release headline grabbed my attention: “SELCO Community Credit Union Awards $200,000 Grant to SquareOne Villages for the Development of the Rosa Village Co-Op in Eugene.”
SELCO has been on the show before, with Olivia Sorensen,Senior Community Development Specialist for SELCO, talking about SELCO Steps Up, where the credit union thoughtfully seeks to do good in its communities while addressing societal challenges.
In this latest case, SELCO - a $2.7 billion credit union based in Oregon - reached out to SquareOne Villages, which builds affordable housing and got involved with its Rosa Village project which will include 52 units. The units will house the presently unhoused as well as those who struggle to pay market rate rents.
Ingenious on the part of SELCO is that its $200,000 grant was funded to the tune of $150,000 by a grant from the Federal Home Loan Bank of Des Moines which had a 3X match program.
On the show are Sorensen who explains why SELCO is behind this as well as Amanda Dellinger, SquareOne’s Community Relations Director.
Mentioned on the show is a recent US Supreme Court decision involving the homeless and housing. There’s a 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]
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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
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James Robert Lay is back with a new book, Banking on Change, and a message that will rock credit union executives out of complacency: “The Age of Artificial Intelligence spares no one from its transformative power.”
This podcast is a fast paced, 40 minute romp through the changes that are transforming banking as we’ve known it into something that looks entirely different.
Consider the words: checking account. Or even more obscure: sharedraft account. What this is, really, is a spending account, says Lay in the show, and that’s because we use it to spend our money.
What we don’t do, at least we do a lot less of it, is write checks.
Many consumers now live check-free lives.
Ponder the magnitude of just that change.
To survive through the changes in banking executives need a different, new mindset. In the show, Lay talks about that mindset and about how to get there.
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]
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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
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Tom Shen is a fintech success story. He was EVP at Digital Insight when Intuit bought it for truckloads of cash. He went on to found Malauzai, a truly innovative mobile banking app. Finastra bought it in 2018.
Nowadays Shen is on the board of a number of early stage fintechs, he’s an investor, and he genuinely understands what it takes for a fintech to succeed in the unique world of credit unions. He tells how here.
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The show starts by asking Eric Foster, CEO of Woop Insurance, why the heck he named the company Woop, and it gets livelier from there.
Hard to believe a podcast about insurance could be anything other than humdrum.
Believe.
Insurance is going through massive changes as many insurers are dramatically raising rates and/or pulling out of entire markets. Consumers accordingly are scrambling to stay insured at affordable rates.
That’s where Woop comes in. It feasts on analytics and its aim is to help consumers make better, smarter choices about the insurance coverage they carry.
Foster on LinkedIn describes himself as an “Unapologetic Insurance Nerd.”
But this podcast - while offering specifics about why credit unions would want to work with Woop - is surprisingly nerd free.
It’s informative but smart and lively.
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]
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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
- Visa fler
