The CU2.0 Podcast
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?
Episodes
I am not going to explain to you in any detail what TrustGrid does and that is because in the show Joe Gleinsner, a co-founder of the Austin TX company, does a much better job of explaining than I could.
But here’s the fact: TrustGrid’s tools - which enable secure connections of fintech apps with banking systems - are on the job at a couple thousand US credit unions, says Gleinser.
Why haven’t you heard of i...
Now for a feel good show.
Lee Silber has put together a book, The Credit Union Way, that he says is inspired by the Chicken Soup for the Soul series and right away that tells you this is a feel good book.
How did it come together? On the show Silber tells how he put together the stories - each of which relates a special credit union moment.
In the episode Silber reads a chapter from the book - entitled Fr...
AI - is it real or a mirage?
What is certain is that today AI is on the lips on just about everyone in credit union land.
What also is real is a recent MIT finding that 95% of large companies with AI initiatives are getting zilch out of them.
Ouch.
That does not have to be the reality for credit unions.
On the show today is Kirk Drake, CEO of CU 2.0, author of FINANCIAL, a 2020 book that envisions ...
In a year about 500 members of First City Credit Union in Pasadena die. It’s a credit union with 57,000 members.
And what happened after the member’s death?
On the show is Saeid Kian, CEO and co-founder of Ribbon, a fintech that has developed a tool kit to help credit unions speed up the process of settling a member’s estate and also - this is huge - helping the credit union retain some of those assets on its...
This is a CU 2.0 Podcast first.
Never before, in almost 500 episodes, have we done this.
On the show is Crystal Zarse, a member of Interra Credit Union, a $1.7 billion Indiana based institution, and she is here to tell about her experience using the Prizeout Cashback+ debit card which rewards users with cashback often around 10% of purchase price, sometimes much more.
Focus on that. Here’s a member who ha...
Call this a week of different kinds of shows.
Today we are doing something we have never done before.
The guest - the only guest - is Lisa Weinstein, VP of Member Relations at Virginia Credit Union and a 33 year veteran of the credit union industry.
There is no Eltropy employee also on the show.
Weinstein is here to talk about Eltropy’s Collections 2.0, an AI powered tool kit designed to combat delin...
When will you retire?
What years of your life should be the ones where you work the longest, hardest hours?
On the show today is Derek Coburn, author of Let's Retire Retirement: How to Enjoy Life to the Fullest—Now and Later, a book that very probably will rock your mind because it challenges key beliefs that most of us share about retirement.
For instance: at what age will you retire?
Probably...
You probably have forgotten about the role of credit unions in the country’s marijuana business - estimated to be north of $40 billion. I know I had. It’s been years since we did a show on this topic.
But on the show today is Kevin Hart, CEO of Green Check Verified, a business that provides tools to financial institutions that serve the country’s many marijuana businesses.
As Hart says in the show, narijuana ...
What exactly does a credit union’s chief strategy officer do?
On the show today is Bill Snider, the Chief Strategy & Innovation Officer at Clearview Federal Credit Union, a credit union with around $2 billion in assets that serves 10 counties around Pittsburgh.
Longtime listeners will recall that I have expressed skepticism about strategies at many credit unions, also their commitment to innovation.
...
Could shared services be the cure that puts a halt to the epidemic of mergers among credit unions?
Could shared services help credit unions increase their efficiencies and dramatically lower their costs so that they can better compete against big banks and fintechs?
On the show today are Vin Anand, CEO of Member Support Services (MSS), and an evangelist for shared support services at credit unions.
To spre...
What’s in your credit union’s name?
Shakespeare told us a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.
But credit union leaders are busy renaming their institutions, often for solid, fundamental reasons.
How to do this right is the topic of this Greatest Hits #28 where Phil Davis from branding company Tungsten tells the how to of smart renaming.
Listen up.
About 55% of outstanding US home mortgages have interest rates below 4% and a byproduct is that those homeowners are deeply reluctant to move because it would usually mean taking out a new mortgage at 6% or more.
Enter Takara which says it has a way to resolve what it calls the mortgage lock in effect.
On the show is Takara CEO Jonathan Arad who says the solution is to use a Danish-style mortgage payoff model ...
Suddenly youth banking is back in the conversation and that’s because this time there is real optimism that it’s a product that’s emerging at the right time. Case in point of the optimism is a recent Finovate article headlined “Why Youth Banking Is Set to Surge In 2025.”
Better news is that this market isn’t solely for the big banks and fintechs. Now on the scene is Incent with its youth digital banking tools ...
Talking about credit/debit card disputes and chargebacks.
Probably you don’t want to. For good reason. One estimate is that there were $62.5 billion in chargebacks in 2023.
And at most credit unions every chargeback or dispute involves a lot of staff time. It’s an expensive matter and it is often profoundly irritating to members - at least some of whom decide to change FIs as a result.
More worrisome is...
Risk.
For years I have said that to a credit union senior executive the foulest four letter word is risk.
It’s a risk averse industry and that’s a paradox because a credit union makes money by taking risks.
Then too we are now in a universe of unprecedented risk: there are wars, threats of a recession, threats of uncontrolled inflation, and of course there now is so much competition - neo banks, non banks ...
Want to know the secret about how to better target a new member acquisition campaign?
Of course you do.
Just about every credit union in the country is scrambling to gain new members - but could the campaigns be more efficient and effective?
In many, many cases the answer is a loud yes.
Enter Vertices Which is blending data and AI to give credit unions tool to enable more precise targeting strategie...
Are you ready to grapple with the new NCUA requirement that every credit union have an up to date succession plan that covers both senior executives and board members?
The good news: you’re not required to have a written plan until January 1, 2026.
The bad news: if you don’t have a plan by then, or if your plan falls far short of NCUA’s expectations, the credit union can be written up by an examiner.
On th...
Some 4.18 million Americans will turn 65 in 2025 and many of them will have to make difficult and crucial decisions about their Medicare coverage.
Credit unions can play a crucial role in this process and in this episode from May 2023 Rock Carter tells exactly how credit unions can get involved.
And if you think Medicare has to be easy, well, get ready to hear the complexities.
Listen up.
25% cashback on an Amazon purchase. 35% back at Kroger.
Now do I have your attention?
And this is cashback on a debit card. You thought debit card cashback vanished a decade ago? It had.
But now it just may be coming back.
On the show are David Metz, CEO of Prizeout, an innovator in adtech, and he is here to talk about a new product, CashBack+ Pay.
Also on the show is Amy Sink, CEO of Interra C...
Buckle up, there may be turbulence on this ride.
On the show today is Elizabeth Eurgubian , now a lobbyist in Washington DC but who just a few months ago served as NCUA Director of the Office of External Affairs and Communications and Policy Advisor to Chairman Harper. That’s an important position at NCUA - it’s a political appointment.
Before that she was deputy chief advocacy officer at CUNA and before tha...
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