The CU2.0 Podcast Robert McGarvey

The credit union share of auto loans fell sharply in 2023, down almost 5% from 2022 numbers tracked by Experian.  


Does this augur a grim future for credit unions when it comes to financing cars? Or was it a blip on the screen?


On the show is Will Ely, a solutions architect at Earnix, where he consults with clients seeking more effective auto lending strategies.


According to Ely, data is king of this mountain.  In particular he points to pricing analytics as the key to unlocking more and better loans.


We also discuss why some credit unions have pulled away from indirect auto lending and, surprise, why super prime borrowers aren't always the best for a credit union.


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

Welcome to the CU 2.0 Podcast Greatest Hits show.
There are over 300 shows in the library and yet a reality in the podcast business is that few of us ever even look at more than maybe the half dozen most recent shows. That’s why we are going to resurface some of the best and most popular shows as Greatest Hits.


This is show #6 Matthew Butler on Charitable Donation Accounts and, no, I hadn’t heard of it either until I talked with Butler.


I like it when people bring me something I hadn’t heard of it so I put him on the show.


Now I’m resurfacing it as Greatest Hit #7.


Here’s why: a CDA allows a credit union to make investments in otherwise impermissible vehicles where the kicker is that 51% of returns have to be distributed as charitable donations (that presently means a 501 C 3).  But the credit union can retain the remaining 49% for its own uses.


Why isn’t your credit union doing this? Probably because you had never heard of it either.


And now you have.


Listen up.

The answers you need are in the data. Of course you know that. But do you know - really know - how to mine the data you have, and you have a lot, and drill down to the information you need today?


On the show is  Anurag Mukherjee, the Head of the Analytics practice for Credit Unions & Community Banks at EXL, a large global analytics and digital solutions consulting firm headquartered in New York.


What sold me on doing this show was when I poked around the EXL website and landed on a case study where EXL worked with DCU, the big Massachusetts based credit union, to transform how the institution managed and used its data.  Here’s the concluding sentence of the case study: “Within six months, the IT team migrated 30 months of data consisting of over 5.8 billion documents into Amazon Redshift for analysis. The data is refreshed each night, enabling the business teams to access up-to-date information on which to base decisions. In addition, each sales executive has a self-service dashboard delivering them the insights they need to better support their clients.”


For many years I have looked upon DCU as a genuine tech leader among credit unions and if DCU was turning to EXL for help in organizing its data I had to know more about the company.


In this show we hear about the work EXL did for DCU but also about what all credit unions need to do to prosper in an ever more competitive environment. We also hear about a chronic credit union problem - data from many different tech vendors often is siloed and unavailable to use in other systems from other vendors.


Throughout this is an upbeat, optimistic show where the credit union future is depicted as bright - if the institutions digitize and keep digitizing to let them compete against everything from Chase to Chime.


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

Imagine this: you and your spouse go to Appleby’s for a Valentine’s Day dinner. You pay the check with your credit union debit card and, shazam, you get 10% cashback.


An impossible story?


Not according to Joel Richard,  chief experience officer at Interra Credit Union in Indiana.  


That cashback came to him because he was using a card linked to Cashback+ which delivers cashback to members who use their debit card at participating merchants and the merchant list is an all star collection including WalMart, BestBuy, Target, Amazon and as you will hear in the show the Cashback+ system is very open to including offers from a credit union’s business members.


If you are thinking this is deja vu again you’re right.  A few months ago we did a short newsflash episode with David Metz, CEO of Prizeout the company behind Cashback+.  


What’s different about this show is that Interra’s Richard is here singing Cashback+’s praises.


Also on the show is Matt Denham, a Prizeout co-founder, who tells how the product has morphed and is now at an increasing number of credit unions.


Face this fact: credit card rewards are probably going to shrink as Mastercard and Visa fees do.  Cashout+ rides entirely different rails. This is about customer acquisition strategies deployed by sophisticated merchants.


Probably, too, many of your members are fretting about balancing their household budget. Cashback can be a very sweet plus for many American households.


And if you wonder who Andrea is, click 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 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

Can you pick out the bad apple?


There are lots of retirement vehicles aimed at credit union c-suite executives but the fact is they aren’t created equal. Some simply are better than others.


Back on the show today is Kirk Kordeleski, onetime CEO at Bethpage Federal Credit Union and now a leading expert on credit union SERPs (supplemental executive retirement plan), and he offers tips on what to look for in a steady SERP…and keep in mind it has to hold up usually for several decades after an executive retires.


Along the way Kordeleski tells what credit union board members need to know and do to properly review and select SERPs for their executives.  


And we also talk about how credit unions can compete against - and beat! - money center banks. Sure, they have the scale but credit unions have an edge they can use to win this David v Goliath battle.  Kordeleski relates how he did it at Bethpage.

Your mother dies or maybe it’s your spouse and you’re a named beneficiary in the will so surely it’s a matter of presenting a few papers and some ID at the relative’s credit union and then you’ll walk out with a check.


Dream  on.


When Saeid Kian’s father died from pancreatic cancer - meaning there had been time to get his financial papers in order - Saeid assumed it would be straightforward to gain access to his dad’s accounts.  He assumed incorrectly.


Months went by as he dealt with lumbering, inefficient systems at multiple financial institutions.  


These were months of frustration, aggravation and worse.


Flashforward to now and Saeid is co-founder of Ribbon,  a San Francisco fintech that aims to help credit unions produce a better experience for heirs seeking to collect inherited assets.


Understood what’s in it for the FI to make this service smoother: Literally billions of dollars are pouring out of traditional FIs today as a generational wealth transfer of unprecedented magnitude unfolds and the heirs, in the majority of cases, are taking their inheritances to other institutions.


Part of the reason they are is that many are fuming with the clumsy, lengthy process that most credit unions have in handling estate transfers.


Ribbon makes it better, faster.  It just may stop the money leak and help credit unions hold onto some of this cash.


This is a good show about a service I hadn’t heard of - you haven’t either. And when you hear it you just may want to tie up with Ribbon pronto.


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