The CU2.0 Podcast

Robert McGarvey
  • 5.0 (10)
  • Non-Profit
  • Updated Biweekly

This podcast explores contemporary, critical thinking and issues impacting the nation's credit unions. What do they need to be doing to not just survive but prosper? 

  1. 5d ago

    CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 421 Ibby Dickson on Lobbying Today's Congress

    Send us Fan Mail What does a credit union lobbyist do?  On the show to answer that question is Ibby Dickson, manager of federal advocacy at the League of Credit Unions, a multi-state league representing credit unions in Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Virginia and there’s a merger in the works with the League of Maryland and the District of Columbia. Can credit unions get their message across in today’s Washington DC?  Spoiler alert but Dickson emphatically believes many on the Hill are indeed receptive to credit union messaging. A case in point is how the League communicates its messages around the housing affordability crisis, a topic Dickson explored in a recent CUInsight article. 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

  2. Sep 2

    CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 420 Casap's AI Agents Tame Fraud at Chartway Credit Union

    Send us Fan Mail Casap was the best of show winner at Finovate fall 2025 and its business is this: building AI Agents for Disputes ‍and Fraud resolution and it now has 50+ clients that it won with attention grabbing claims: Resolve claims in minutes, not weeks. Earn lasting loyalty. Cut fraud losses. This is a universe undergoing immense change, mainly due to the rise of so-called first party fraud which has surged globally. This is in contradistinction to third party fraud and that of course is when a third party has hijacked another’s credit card or debit card and made fraudulent purchases. First party fraud is when the cardholder denies the legitimacy of a charge he or she in fact actually made. What? You go out on a date.  It’s a bad date.  With a bad meal that you put on your credit card and when you see that charge pop up on your statement you call the issuer and say, wasn’t me. And card issuers are struggling to contain and minimize this first party fraud. Which is where Casap enters. On the show are Shanthi Shanmugam, CEO of Casap, and Rob Keatts, EVP of Chartway  Credit Union in Virginia, a $3.1 billion institution. The show opens with only Rob on the line and we take advantage of that to ask him to tell the whole truth about the pain point that prompted Chartway to bring Casap on board and how it was working with a startup - and understand Chartway was Casap’s second customer! Of course Shanthi joins a few minutes later and she’ll tell you what you need to know about containing credit card and debit card fraud - and how agentic AI, Casap’s forte, makes the process work more smoothly. Filene seconds that motion, as noted in this press release headline: Chartway Credit Union Saved an Estimated $875K in One Year, Testing a Fraud Dispute Automation Fintech. Shanthi by the way is a return guest.  She stars in Episode 359 and Casap has taken huge strides in the year since.  Its client count is now 50+ and she has enormous ambition for what she believes the AI agents Casap is building can accomplish. 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

  3. Aug 26

    CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 419 AI Working Miracles in Arise Financial's Backoffice Operations

    Send us Fan Mail There are times when credit union discussions about AI and how it’s transforming their operations detour into a reprise of the classic Wendy’s commercial: Where’s the beef? That is: where are the measurable benefits arising from AI use? And then into my email box pops an email from Christian Klacko, CEO of Kintera AI, who says his tools can be integrated into a credit union’s backoffice operations in 10 days and that the results come quickly. What results?  In a case study Kintera clicks off results attained by an anonymous $3.5 billion credit union: A 90% reduction in file review time - from 20 minutes to twoBig savings result for credit unions: $250,000 in the first year at the anonymous credit union There are still more plusses ticked off by Klacko in the show. Skeptical?  Also on the show is Kris VanBeek, now CEO at Massachusetts based Rockland Federal Credit Union, soon to be renamed Arise Financial as of August 1.  Rockland has been using Kintera tools for some months and VanBeek sings the praises of these AI tools - and he also talks about the reactions of employees as they put AI into action. Understand it’s considered rude to ask a credit union exec if his institution is the anonymous one and of course I didn’t ask. For the record, Arise Financial (nee Rockland Federal Credit Union) is a $3.7 billion institution. Longtime listeners will recall that VanBeek is a past guest.  He was in episode 172 in 2021 talking about Bank Dora, an innovative neo bank created by USAlliance, where VanBeek was CEO, and three other institutions.   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

  4. Aug 19

    CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 418 Equipifi's Lo Smith on Why BNPL Just Keeps Growing

    Send us Fan Mail I will admit it, when I first heard about BNPL - buy now pay later - I snorted that layaway had died years ago. I was wrong. BNPL has become a huge marketplace.  Federal Reserve data pegs it at around $160 billion in consumer credit products. And the scary bit for credit unions is that fintechs own over 90% of that market and they aren’t sharing with FIs. Enter Equipifi which has as its mission empowering credit unions and community banks to offer BNPL to their members and customers. Equipifi founder Bryce Deeney was on the show five years ago and again three years ago to discuss the market. That market keeps growing and more credit unions are recognizing that BNPL just may appeal to a cohort of their membership -- and it may also attract new members. Flashforward and on the show now is Lo Smith, a past podcast guest when she worked at a different company. Now she is VP, Head of Revenue at Equipifi and she is here to update us on the state of BNPL today. 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

  5. Aug 17

    CU 2.0 Podcast Tursio Tells How to Get the Info You Need Out of Your Core - Fast and Easy

    Send us Fan Mail Corning Credit Union knew the answers it wanted were in the data on its Symitar core - the problem was getting the answers expeditiously so the information could be put to use when it was wanted. That wasn’t happening. Literally weeks could pass before the wanted information was in hand. Couldn’t it be faster?  Corning Credit Union got in touch with startup Tursio.   In this show Tursio co-founder and CEO Alekh Jindal tells about the solution his company crafted that lets natural language prompts get the information out of the core that employees need and it all happens quickly.  Note: there’s no need to submit a ticket, no need to know code, no need to wait weeks.   How does it work? Jindal explains. Along the way he also tells the story of the company’s birth and he reveals what happens in a founder’s mind that leads to a company’s creation. 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

  6. Aug 12

    CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 417 Saris AI and Grow Financial FCU Tell Why You Need to Know About Agentic AI

    Send us Fan Mail Agentic AI is coming to credit unions and Saris AI is helping lead the charge. What is Agentic AI? Agentic AI acts as an agent that autonomously executes multi-step workflows.  That is, Agentic AI does.  It doesn’t tell you what to do.  It does it for you. Saris AI says it can automate 70% of tedious, complex back office tasks.  It delivers a 300% productivity increase. And 9.8x cost reduction. A core focus is lending, but Saris AI also helps with other areas of credit union operations that would benefit from automation. And that’s lots of places. Does that sound like a revolution? On the show are Danial Jameel, Saris CEO and a co-founder, and Chase Clelland, SVP of People and AI at Grow Financial FCU, a $3.8 billion institution headquartered in Florida. Note that Clelland talks at length not only about the benefits of this agentic AI but how to prep employees in working with it.  And Grow’s policy is no staff reductions due to AI implementations.  It’s a good story about how to improve employee acceptance of these new tools that indeed represent an unfolding workplace revolution. As for exactly what’s involved in the revolution - the technology - Jameel is the man to tell what this means for credit unions. Know this: Clelland is adamant that the credit unions that are embracing AI will soon be in a much better place than those that don’t. 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

  7. Aug 5

    CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 416 Constant AI's Catherine York Powers on Why You Need to Offer Skip a Pay

    Send us Fan Mail Call this a case of two scenarios. Here’s the background: a member calls and requests to skip a payment on a loan balance.  The loan term will simply extend by a month, interest continues to be collected, and there’s a fee - usually between $15 and $60 - for setting up the skipped payment. In scenario 1 the customer service rep fields the call, talks with the member, checks to see if the member’s request complies with the institution's guidelines, and also checks to see if there are issues that disqualify this member from skipping a payment.  If all’s a go, the rep takes the request to a manager, and the request then circulates up the ladder until it lands on the CEO’s desk for final approval.  That’s for, say, a $200 loan skip. In scenario 2, an agentic AI bot talks with the member, swiftly computes the eligibility, and if it’s a go, the request is approved. Which scenario do you like? Know that in many credit unions scenario 1 prevails and don’t even attempt to calculate the cost of approving that skip a pay request because, often, it costs more than the amount skipped. Many institutions lose money every time they approve a skip a pay request. Of course enabling skip a pay is a genuine credit union action. This is helping the members who really need it. Very few banks offer skip a pay because of the costs and the hassle. But more credit unions now are offering and one reason why - in addition to the affordability issues confronting many households - is that Maine based fintech Constant AI has rolled out an agent that already is at work in dozens of credit unions including $8.5 billion Michigan State University Federal Credit Union.  And institutions as small as $100 million in assets also deploy it. On the show is Constant AI CEO and founder Catherine York Powers, a native Mainer who, when Powers finally could, moved her company to her home state and that is why Constant AI is based 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 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

  8. Jul 29

    CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 415 O2 Consulting Group's Bonnie Ortiz on Really Putting AI to Work in Your Credit Union

    Send us Fan Mail The headline on the CUInsight story grabbed my attention: AI for credit unions: Making “people-first” work even better. The author, Bonnie Ortiz, has also been a CU 2.0 Podcast guest before so I wanted to get her back on. Ortiz is the founder of 02 Consulting Group and, earlier in her career, she was the long serving COO at The Partnership Credit Union. She’s a level headed expert on matters credit union and, in today’s AI froth, a voice that’s rooted in credit union realities is refreshing. In her CUInsight piece, she lays out three steps for implementing and getting results from AI initiatives in credit unions. Her counsel is practical, realistic and, let’s be honest, too many credit unions think they are getting started in AI but many are at best dabbling and can point to scant actual results. Ortiz talks in detail in the show about the three steps.  Take notes.  You are going to want to heed her counsel. 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

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About

This podcast explores contemporary, critical thinking and issues impacting the nation's credit unions. What do they need to be doing to not just survive but prosper? 

Information

  • Creator
    Robert McGarvey
  • Years Active
    2019 - 2026
  • Episodes
    526
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 The CU2.0 Podcast
  • Show Website
    The CU2.0 Podcast

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