Avsnitt
-
Send us a text
About 4.7 million homes sold in the US in 2024.
Does that sound like a dead market?
On the show today is James White of Total Expert which provides tools to help credit unions more efficiently close mortgages. What Total Expert offers is a powerful CRM for loan officers that automates much of the process.
Also on the show is Zakary Short, vice president of mortgage production at Utah Community Credit Union, with assets over $3 billion.
Short’s team are satisfied users of the Total Expert tools and he tells why.
The message of this episode is plain: although some institutions have walked away from the mortgage business, others - like UCCU - are prospering because they know homes are still selling and people need mortgages.
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]
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
-
Send us a text
This is the weather report from GAC, last week’s credit union confab in Washington DC. On the show to report on key developments is Sarah Snell Cooke, former editor in chief and publisher of Credit Union Times and now a consultant to credit unions' business partners.
The big question at GAC was: is this really the end of the credit union federal tax exemption?
Also on the agenda was what’s the impact of staff reduction - a la DOGE - on NCUA? Can the regulator adequately perform with significantly reduced staff?
Which leads to the big question: will NCUA be merged into another agency?
As for that last point: Cooke’s firmly held opinion is that if NCUA is merged into another agency this will spell the end of credit unions as we know them. That’s a gloomy prognosis but Cooke explains on the show why she believes it.
On the show too she predicts that that demolition of NCUA won’t happen.
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]
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
-
Saknas det avsnitt?
-
Send us a text
Can a $350 million credit union play in the big leagues? Don’t tell Christine Blake, CEO of $350 million Cardinal Credit Union in Ohio, that she can’t. Because she is.
A few years ago Cardinal signed on as the official credit union of the Cleveland Browns, one of the historic football teams dating back to 1946. Yes, the Browns have had a few rough years recently but this is a team with real history.
And an enthusiastic fan base in Cleveland, said Blake.
On the show she tells how she made the agreement with the Browns and what it means for the credit union.
She also tells about Cardinal’s Lil Brownies card which helps children learn about finances.
But she’s on the show with big news about an innovative Professional Sports Team Credit Union Executive Summit where credit unions with relationships with pro sports teams will come together for three days of meetings in San Francisco, March 19-21 Among the presenters along with Cardinal are ENT - the official credit union of the Denver Broncos - and Northwest Financial Federal Credit Union which has a relationship with the Washington Commanders.
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]
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
-
Send us a text
Cliff Rosenthal literally wrote the book on CDFIs, community development financial institutions. Hear his story in this podcast that dates back to 2019, episode 37 in the vaults.
Rosenthal was on the show last year - episode 311 - talking about a new book he co-authored with Michael McCray entitled Community Capital. It’s part Rosenthal autobiography, part the sgtory of the death - the murder? - of an African AMerican credit union. Hard hitting stuff.
But the story starts here, in episode 37 and it now is our Greatest Hit #24
Listen up
-
Send us a text
Here’s the money question for you to ponder: : should you close that branch on Third Street and open a new branch in a neighboring town? Keep in mind that the ballpark cost of opening a new branch is $2.5 million. As for costs in a branch closure there always are some and there also may be remember losses. How to do the math?
Meet Steven Reider, president of Bancography - that’s the company that won best in show at Finovate fall 2024 for its Bancography Plan software tool that helps a credit union alanalyze branch closings and openings and also possible mergers.
Decisions that had been made based upon gut instinct now can be supported with analytical data.
How hard is Bancography Plan to use? It’s so easy, said Reider, even a CEO can use it.
As I tell Reider in the early moments of the show I’d never heard of such a tool before combing upon a Bancgraphy press release. But I knew when I read it I had to geet this guy on the show.
Oh…the costs are surprisingly affordable.
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]
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
-
Send us a text
Call this your must listen podcastg before GAC.
Because in this show you will be hearing explicit advice about your CAC 2025 to do.
Here's what is at stake: the credit union tax exmption on the future of NCUA.
Will credit unions lose their federal tax exemption? Will NCUA be shuffled into a couple desks in the basement of the Treasury Department?
Issues of monumental importance to the credit union movement are actively under discussion in Washington DC and longtime credit union lobbyist John McKechnie is on the showto report on the latest rumblings on Capitol Hill.
The big takeaway from this show: these issues very much are on the table in today's Washington DC
On the date of this recording - February 18 - McKechnie expressed optimism about credit unions retaining their tax exemption.
But he also stressed that what will be needed to win this fight is a concerted action by many, many credit union people to get the message across that to keep doing the valuable work credit unions do they need to keep that tax free status.
That means put on your shoes and get busy walking the Hill.
And be ready to walk it not just during GAC but in the weeks and months afterwards because, stresses McKechnie, relationships with members and staffers on the Hill are forged via repeat contacts.
Listen up -
Send us a text
If I told you I have a podcast where a credit union executive tells you about high rates on CDs, free checking, and super cheap new car loans, how quickly would you turn the dial and give a listen to Joe Rogan?
Right, you know the answer.
So I will tell you what I really have is a fascinating podcast with Josh Rodriguez at West Community Credit Union in Missouri, an institution approaching a half billion in assets.
That’s because Rodriguez is doing things I’ve never heard about at credit unions.
But keep in mind on LinkedIn he identifies himself as Innovator/CU Professional/Storyteller.
I met Rodriguez at the CU 2.0 Live event in Arizona in June and when he told me he is a storyteller I knew I had to get him on this show. I had never before encountered a credit union executive who said he/she is a storyteller.
And you know…stories are the most powerful form of communication.
In this show, Rodriguez talks about why stories are so potent, he also talks about a creative content package he has developed to help West Community’s employees better know the execs in the c-suite…and maybe also do some thinking about their own career development.
And then he drops the bomb that West Community has planned a series of podcasts where members will tell their stories about their relationship with the credit union. You have to hear how Rodriguez describes this project - and hear, too, the passionate excitement in his voice as he opens his playbook.
Here's the website for these shows http://bankingonyoupodcast.com/
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]
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
-
Send us a text
Keith Leggett is a name that used to provoke cursing by usually mild mannered credit union executives - and so here he is again in a CU 2.0 Golden Oldies podcast.
Leggett has retired from the American Bankers Association, where he was chief economist, and he also has put -30- on his Credit Union Watch blog but this show from the archives is well worth a listen in 2025 because it focuses on credit union - bank mergers and also on credit union tax exemption. Two issues that are even bigger headlines now.
In the show we discuss Maine Harvest, an innovative credit union idea that alas merged with Five County Credit Union in 2022.
Listen up.
-
Send us a text
Could this really be the end?
For going on 20 years I have heard screams - usually emanating from one trade group - that the credit union tax exemption was in peril. I thought that was a terrific membership renewal hook but didn’t seen any likelihood of passage.
This year is different. This year the threat is real. On the show is Jason Stverak,, chief advocacy officer at DCUC, the Defense Credit Union Council, whose membership includes the nation’s biggest credit unions but also smaller ones too. All primarily serve military, active duty and retirees.
DCUC has not been the association with a long history of yelling about tax exemption.
But Stverak says that indeed the threat is real.
He also explains what the impacts on DCUC credit unions would be were the tax exemption to go away. And the impacts would be sizable and harmful, both to credit union members and the communities in which DCUC members operate.
In a recent show, onetime Bethpage CEO Kirk Kodeeski warned that if credit unions lost the ax exemption their business model would be shattered.
On this show we hear exactly what that would mean for defense related credit unions.
It’s ugly.
By the way, how much money do you think would be saved were the tax exemption to go away?
Three billion dollars.
That is chump change in today’s Washington DC.
Hear how DCUC is fighting back in this show.
By the way, four years ago DCUC CEO Tony Hernandez (US Air Force retired) was on the show. Hear his episode here.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]
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
-
Send us a text
Here’s the question: Is the First Tech - DCU merger of behemoths a sign of mergers to come or it is an outlier, a one-off deal that arose because of unique circumstances and histories??
Kirk Kordeleski, onetime CEO at Bethpage, itself a member of the behemoth club, and now a SERP expert with PARC Street Partners, and he comes with strong opinions abut credit union mergers.
But there’s more on the show including Kordeleski’s musing about the longevity of the credit union tax exemption - and how important it is to the credit union business model.
Kordeleski also ponders the probable future of NCUA in an era of slashing federal spending and federal employee body counts.
Just about all the credit union hot buttons get pressed in this show..
And Kordeleski also addresses this question: if you are the CEO of a $10 billion credit union that just now merges with a $5 billion credit union should you ping the board the next day and ask for a 50% pay hike.
Place your bets now:
Is this RIP for NCUA?
Is it say goodnight to the tax exemption?
Are mergers the best way for a credit union to grow?
Or is interna; growth the shrewder option?
And should that CEO ask for the 50% pay boost?
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]
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
-
Send us a text
Live from Munich Germany on today’s podcast is Dr. Marlene Wolfgruber, AI Strategy Lead at global automation company ABBYY and, between her advanced education at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, a school Google’s AI tool Gemini says is one of Germany’s best and a leading university in global rankings., and her work for ABBY, a global technology company specializing in intelligent document processing (IDP), process mining, and linguistic software., she brings two decades of AI knowledge to the show.
She brings a captivating message to the show: . What’s especially caught our eye is this: “Financial institutions will leverage AI-powered hyper-personalization to deliver finely tuned financial products and advisory services, dynamically adjusting to individual customer needs, preferences, and financial behaviors in real time. “
As I read that it is saying that while today meaningful personal banking services are reserved for the highest economic strata, AI will usher in a new day with all of us will be able to get genuinely personalized advice and suggestions that will come not via a human but a machine.
And the AI advice just may be very, very good.
Along the way Wolfgruber tells how close we are to that day of real personalization and what has to happen to get there.
She also offers fascinating insights into the journey that has brought AI to where it is today - and also why suddenly ;y large language models such as ChatGPT are on every lip, certainly every lip in credit union c-suites.
Oh, and while Dr. Wolfgruber has the credentials that certify her as a propellerhead, she talks in a way that I can understand and that means you can too.
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]
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
-
Send us a text
If I say a temp worker, probably you think of a fill in receptionist and that’s true as far as it goes. But talk with O2 Consulting Group and it’s a plunge into a whole new world - especially impacting smaller credit unions, ones under perhaps $500 million in assets. Where exactly does that CU find the talent to, say, implement an AI program? Just maybe a fractional e CTO - shared by two or more CUs - or a temporary exec is exactly the cure.
Enter Bonnie Ortiz, CEO of O2 and longtime COO at the Partnership Credit Union, She’s worked inside at credit unions - she knows the terrain - but now she also has assembled a team of seasoned credit union talents who are available for fractional and temporary roles at credit unions, to help solve anything from tech issues to compliance matters.
It’s a fact: credit union operations have become increasingly complex. The day of the shoebox credit union is long gone. Real talent is needed but that talent may be too costly for a smaller CU. The O2 solution is a potential lifesaver.
Also on the show is David Martinez, CIO at $500 million Arlington Federal Credit Union, a credit union that has used O2 talent many times. Martinez is a happy customer.
He’s also a past guest on this show. There a link in the show notes and the topic is about how mid sized CUs can survive, indeed thrive.
Keep listening to this episode and Ortiz offers keen insights into the nuts and bolts of a credit union merger. She’s looking at the issue with a COO’s eyes: how exactly will this merger work? The concerns she raises are keen. . Any CU considering a merger - and who isn’t? - needs to give this a close attention.
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]
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
-
Send us a text
Here’s the bad news: AI today is more of a promise than a working reality at most credit unions, says Al;ex JImenzez, a consultant with Backbase, which focus on helping FIs achieve more and better consumer engagement.
But then Jimenez has plenty of very good news for credit unions - and, he insists, their size gives them exceptional advantages when competing with far less nimble mega banks. Do not think smallness is a liability. It just may be a winning advantage.
Along the way Jimenez talks about genuine use cases where AI is in fact bringing real results to credit unions.
And he insists that the AI tool kit in credit unions is going to get much bigger and better, sooner rather than later. It’s a space to keep watching because very real results are coming.
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]
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
-
Send us a text
When Bert Hash, Jr. took over as CEO of MECU in 1996 it was a $400 million institution with one branch that served municipal employees of Baltimore. In this podcast he tells about the institution he took charge of. It had exactly zero ATMs. It did not dispense cash to members - if a member wanted a withdrawal, they were issued a check and most went across the street to a bank to cash it.
Hash, who came to MECU after a long career with banks, knew there had to be changes. Within his first six months he put cash in the branch, installed the first ATM, brought in computers and prepared the institution for the battles ahead of it.
When he retired in 2014, MECU had assets of $1.3 billion, a membership of 106,000, and it had grown from one branch to 11.
I knew I had to talk with him even before I heard that story and that was because retired SECU North Carolina CEO Jim Blaine and Renee Sattiewhite of AACUC enthusiastically seconded the motion.
When I initially asked Bert, he momentary hesitated - did he belong in the company this podcast features? Of course I knew he did. But he is a decent, modest man and you will hear that personality throughout this podcast.
In one section he tells of taking a call from an irate member who believed MECU had made a mistake with his account. Bert agreed with him but still the man went on and after 30 minutes, the man was still threatening to move his account to a bank. Bert told him he was sure he would find at least one thing different at a bank. What, asked the man. "You won't have a half hour conversation with the bank CEO trying to convince you to stay," said Bert.
His is a credit union life and it is made all the special because, as an African American, he faced challenges in his career path and in his leadership of MECU. He tells his story in this podcast which is an especially personal document.
At the end, you will hear a podcast paste on where a recording of a call Bert made to me is. That's because as he reflected overnight about what he had said when asked if he witnessed racism in financial services, he decided he had more to say. His perspective is thoughtful, nuanced, realistic. (Sound quality is different. But the recording is audible.)
He offers a brief summary of the 100+ year of African American credit unions, tells why he think them important in reaching out to the underserved, and offers a stirring perspective on the real credit union mission.
Along the way, you will hear mention of many past CU2.0 podcasts - Jim Blaine, Bucky Sebastian, Gary Oakland, Renee Sattiewhite, Bill Bynum, Cathie Mahon, and Marc Schaefer.
This podcast is recorded in Phoenix - thus the first remarks from Bert.
-
Send us a text
Beware the shiny tech objects.
On the show today is Tennessee Credit Union League's CRO David Griffiths who says a huge problem many of the league’s credit unions wrestle with is fragmented technology adoption - how do the many tech pieces work together? Or more bluntly: can they work together at all?
Old cores are a real problem for many Tennessee credit unions. So is the cost of middleware.
Griffiths tells about solutions that are working in his state, with both big credit unions and also the many credit unions with assets under $500 million in his state.
He specifically discusses solutions the league is spearheading - it’s good stuff that helps demonstrate there remains a place for credit union leagues, at least the ones that cann talk tech.
Also on the show is Saahil Kamath, head of AI at Eltropy - which has been busy adding to its tool kit for credit unions and insurinng the tools work together. Note that he had indicated he was under the weather and probably would only listen. But he winds up talking at some length and he offers thoughtful insights into what is really working as credit unions seek to get their tech tools talking with each other ,
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]
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
-
Send us a text
Thank you for joining our podcast with Doug Brown of Candescent.
That’s no mistake. I have talked with Doug many times but always before he has worn an NCR hat where he was president of digital banking. Here’s one show, another , and one more. . Looking in my archive I find interview notes with him dating back a dozen years when he was at FIS.
But now, to quote the bard James Brown, poppa’s got a brand new bag.
Not exactly. What has happened is that NCR Voyix has bunded its digital portfolio and sold it for $2.4 billion (plus possible additional considerations) to Veritas Capital, a private equity firm,
Know this: Candescent comes on the market with a hefty dowry, to wit: “he largest independent platform of its kind in the United States and will continue to serve more than 1,300 financial institutions and over 29 million registered users.,” to quote the announcement release.
This is the first significant interview Brown has given since the acquisition but, as he says in the show, they’ve been busy at Candescent developing everything from a marketing plan to aa payroll system.
Also know: I am personally an end user of Candescent tools, namely the DI momobile bike banking platform at Affinity Federal Credit Union in New Jersey. You too might be a Candescent end user - the market presence is immense.
In the show Btown outlines Candescent’s plans and why they believe they have the winning formula.
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]
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
-
Send us a text
Steve Winninger is the man to talk with about credit union boards and governance.
A longtime credit union CEO - 20 years at Lake Trust - now a $1.6 billion institution based in Michigan - plus he also served as CEO at IBM Lexington and since retiring from Lake Trust he has put in stints as CEO at four credit unions (only one of which merged out of existence).
But Steve is a rare CEO. He loves talking about the role of the board and - done right - a board should be crucial in a credit union's prosperity.
But many CEOs grumble about board meddling. In other credit unions - mainly larger ones - it's the board that grumbles that they are ignored.
Sigh.
Hear Winninger's views on that dichotomy in this podcast.
In this podcast Winninger spells out the four steps a good board must take. Must. No exceptions.
We also talk about whether boards are ready and able to help in the immensely difficult decisions that loom as credit unions wrestle with the economic fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Like what you are hearing? Find out how you can help sponsor this podcast here. Very affordable sponsorship packages are available. Email [email protected]
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 a text
Yet another show about AI but this conversation with Chris Cox, COO at Apiture, a North Carolina based digital banking company, covers the gamut from small, practical AI powered steps a credit union can take now to truly big ideas that just might revolutionize how we bank. Such as?
Cox tosses out this idea: what if a digital banking app could become like Chat GPT. that is, the user logs in, sees a bar for asking a question, and the resulting session is highly tailored to this consumer’s concern today? How cool would that be?
Another Cox idea: using AI to suggest next steps to members, maybe everything from “Isn’t your rent overdue?” to “Your car is now seven years old. Time to trade it in?”
Along the way Cox says that a hurdle many credit unions face in implementing AI is that a lot of their data is in formats that AI finds difficult to digest. He offers tips on cleaning up that data to make it a valuable depository of information about members and prospective members.
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]
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
-
Send us a text
Call this show all you never wanted to know about the fraudemic that credit unions today are fighting - but you have to know about it because knowledge is a key to beating the armies ff criminals who are besieging FIs across America.
Who are they? What weapons do they have? On the show is Rene Perez, a financial crime expert who works with Jack Henry, who tells us what the fraudsters are doing.
But he also is very upbeat that the tide is turning against the criminals as more FIs share more information about fraud and Perez is optimistic that there will be more sharing and more wins for credit unions in their daily battles with cyber criminals.
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]
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
-
Send us a text
Can credit unions help eradicate racism in America?
Renee Sattiewhite says so in this 2020 podcast that is our greatest hit #20.
But ask her if there is racism in US financial institutions and the answer is yes.
Renee Sattiewhite is CEO of the African American Credit Union Coalition and in this show she expresses optimism that the US can rid itself of its racist demons.
The time for change is here, she believes.
Sattiewhite is keenly interested in job opportunities in credit unions for people of color and she has numbers: there were in 2020 15 African American CEOs of credit unions, including 6 at billion dollar institutions.
Could there be more? "I look at this and see a glass half full," said Sattiewhite, who added that credit union can do more, better in hiring minority professionals, promoting them, and - this is key - recruiting minority board members.
Sattiewhite also offers a shout out to Jim Blaine, a past podcast guest for his support of AACUC.
Like what you are hearing? Find out how you can help sponsor this podcast here. Very affordable sponsorship packages are available. Email [email protected]
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
- Visa fler
