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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.

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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.

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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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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.

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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

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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.

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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

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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.

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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

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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.

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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

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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.

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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