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?
CU 2.0 Poscast Episode 368 Kirk Drake on AI and LAUNCH
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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...
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 367 First City CU Implements Ribbon's Automated Inheritance Processing Tools
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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 thos...
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 366 Hear a Credit Union Member Tell How Her Credit Union Makes Her Life Better
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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 has taken time out...
CU 2.0 Podcast A CU Exec Talks about Eltropy's Collections 2.0
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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 a...
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 365 Derek Coburn on Let's Retire Retirement
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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...
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 364 Wright-Patt CU and Marijuana Related Businesses, Up in Smoke 2025
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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...
CU 2,0 Podcast Episode 363 Clearview FCU's Bill Snider on Strategy and Innovation
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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.
Snider is here to show that in...
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 362 Shared Services Are The Credit Union Lifeline
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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 spread this word Anand...
CU 2.0 Podcast Greatest Hits #28 Tungsten's Phil Davis on Smart Credit Union Renaming
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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.
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 361 Takara on How to Solve the Mortgage Lock In Effect and Originate More Mortgages
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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 to...
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 360 Youth Banking'sTime Is Here: Incent and Pioneer FCU Tell Why
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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 and it’s launch...
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 359 Casap's Shanthi Shanmugam on Automating Chargeback/Dispute Processing
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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 that in...
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 358 SRA Watchtower's Ed Vincent on Smarter Risk Management
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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 - ne...
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 357 Supercharging New Member Acquisition with AI: Education Credit Union
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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 un...
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 356 The New NCUA Requirement for a Succession Plan
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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.
CU 2.0 Podcast Greatest Hits #27 Rock Carter on Credit Unions and Medicare
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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.
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CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 355 Prizeout Is Putting New Life in Debit Card Cashback at Credit Unions
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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...
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 354 Lobbyist Elizabeth Ergubian on NCUA's Future, Quo Vadis
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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 that she was a...
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 353 Mike Robins on the NCUA Tech Audit- How to Pass
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Today’s topic: How to Pass the NCUA Tech Audit (Without Losing Your Mind)
The guest is Mike Robins, COO at Dynamic Edge, a company that’s helped many credit unions - particularly ones with assets between $25 million and $400 million - successfully navigate the NCUA Tech Audit which occurs “periodically,” according to the agency.
Hear what’s involved in the audit, how to pass it and - crucially - how to prepare for it.
Rob...
CU 2.0 Podcast Quantum Governance's Paul Dionne on a Board's Fiduciary Responsibility When Merging
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On today’s show is Paul Dionne, chief strategy officer at Quantum Governance, L3C.
What’s an L3C? Good question: It’s a low profit limited liability company and, in the case of Quantum Governance, that means it “help[s] nonprofits, credit unions, associations and foundations realize the full potential of their missions.”
The company’s work with credit unions revolves around governance - especially issues involving the board and organ...
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 352 Jim Blaine Asks: Is this the twilight of the golden age of credit unions?
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Is this the twilight of the golden age of credit unions? On the show to discuss exactly that question is Jim Blaine, the now retired longtime CEO of SECU, the second biggest credit union in the country. Blaine may be retired but he still has opinions about credit unions, as evidenced in his blog, SECU - Just Asking!
In this podcast Blaine also digs deep into the question: what exactly is a credit union? We also talk about democracy in credit unions and o...
CU 2.0 Podcast Journalist Frank Diekmann on the Credit Union Future
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No one has a richer background in credit union journalism than Frank Diekmann. Over the past 35 years he has been co-founder and editor at Credit Union Times, publisher at Credit Union Journal, co-founder at CUToday, and now he is the founder of The CU Daily, a new publication that is the liveliest credit union pub in my opinion.
Nobody has written more published words a...
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 351 Jack Henry's Lee Wetherington on What Credit Union CEOs Think Really Matters -- and What in fact Really Matters
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This show started out as an exploration of Jack Henry’s 7th annual Strategy Benchmark Survey where CEOs of credit unions and banks reveal what really matters to them. It’s a data trich survey, there’s a link in the show notes and I say that because the talk with Lee Wetherington – Senior Director of Corporate Strategy at Jack Henry quickly veered into what’s happening in Washington DC and how changes - especially at CFPB - may impact credit unions.
CU 2.0 Podcast Peter Duffy on Mergers in 2025, Buckle Up
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Peter Duffy’s message is plain: The pace of mergers will get fatter and it will involve credit unions of all sizes, from the small to the mega institutions. First Tech and DCU may seem an outlier but now there is ENT and Wings and the pace will keep up, says Duffy who now has joined SRM.
Will the chaos and uncertainty in Washington DC slow the merger pace? Duffy thinks not, indeed the pace may quicken.
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 350 UFCU CEO Michael Crowl - Inside the CEO MInd #2
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This show is a proof to me that my insistence on doing podcasts without written questions in hand or a script is the right way.
I agreed to this show - a talk with Michael Crowl, ceo of $4 billion Austin Texas based UFCU - because I’d heard he had been developing an interesting strategic plan.
At many credit unions there are strategic plans but often they aren’t interesting and often, too, nobody pays...
EpisodCU 2.0 Podcast Greatest Hits #26 Kirk Kordesleski on Five Generations of CU CEOs
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Welcome to CU 2.0 Podcast Greatest Hits #26 and on the podcast is
Kirk Kordeleski, onetime CEO at Bethpage Federal Credit Union, and one of the industry’s most perceptive thinkers. In this show - from November 2022 -- Kordeleski muses on what he calls the five generations of credit union CEOS and he also offers tips on surviving a recession, advice that very well may be timely.
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 349 Parlay Financial's Alex McLeod on Winning at Small Business Lending
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Credit unions, most of them, want more small business loans on their books but few credit unions know how to speedily and profitably process small business loan applications and consequently most are lagging when it comes to booking business.
Meet Alex McLeod, a serial startup entrepreneur who now is tackling thee small business loan market with AI powered software that her company, Parlay Financial, is now selling to credit unions.
Her key message: succeeding i...
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 348 Inside the Mind of Hanscom CEO Peter Rice - from Tax Exemption to Walking the Camino
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On the show today is Peter Rice, CEO of Hanscom Federal Credit Union, a $1.9 billion institution headquartered in Boston that took flight in 1951 at Hanscom Air Force Base.
Rice is a repeat guest. His first appearance came in 2021 when he was Chief Banking Officer at Workers Bank. That episode has been reposted as Greatest Hit #25.
On this show Rice’s mind roams across the many issues credit unions are now wrestli...
CU 2.0 Podcast Greatest Hits #25 Peter Rice on Thinking about Banking out of the box
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Welcome to the cU 2.0 Podcast Greatest Hits #25. This show dates back to August 2021 and it aired as episode 162. The guest: Peter Rice, now CEO of Hanscom Federal Credit Union, and then he was Chief Banking Officer at Workers Credit Union. He came on the show to talk about a new, dazzling branch concept.
You’ll hear how Rice’s mind works in the show.
And a few days after the posting of this Great Hit a new episode with Ri...
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 347 MDT's Pete Major on AI, Security, Tools for Business Members + More
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I’d expected this to be an AI free show but, let’s face it, that just isn’t likely in 2025 but the good news is that in the show Pete Major, vice president of fintech services at CUSO MDT, offers concrete AI use cases at work in MDT and he also, importantly, offers cautions about security and the leading AI tools.
In a rush to stay abreast of the fast moving AI universe are some credit unions...
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 346 Seth Brickman on NACUSO, Small Business Lending and Ranqx
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Quick now, what is NACUSO?
Of course that’s the National Association of Credit Union Service Organizations - and CUSOs just may be the credit union secret power.
On the show today is Seth Brickman, former CEO of QCash and now president of Ranqx, a powerful tool that can gather the necessary financial info from a wouldbe borrower, analyze and issue a verd...
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 345 Renee Sattiewhite of AACUC on DEI, NCUA, and Change
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Hopeful.
Determined.
In a conversation with Renee Sattiewhite, the CEO of the African American Credit Union Coalition, she came across as both hopeful and determined. And she believes there still is work to be done and she definitely is not giving up.
Definitely she knows the landscape in today’s Washington DC is dramatically different but she does not see that as a call...
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 344 White Clay's Mac Thompson on Why Your Member Relations Aren't As Good As You Think
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On today’s show, Mac Thompson, ceo and founder of White Clay - a company focused on helping financial institution use data to build better, more profitable member and customer relationships, and he comes bearing a bitter pill for CU execs to swallow.
According to a recent Harris Poll sponsored by White Clay, “Roughly two-thirds of FI users (68%) do not feel truly known by their primary financial institution, with almost a third (31%) feeling like just another account numbe...
CU 2.0 Podcast The Future of WOCCU, Quo Vadis
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What’s next for WOCCU?
Is there a next?
The trigger for the question is a notification from the U.S. State Department that paused all funding for USAID programs for 90 days. There’s no promise that funding would resume after 90 days.
Caught in this are three major WOCCU projects - in Ukraine, Ecuador and Peru, and sub-Saharan Africa.
That backg...
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 343 Total Expert and Utah Community Credit Union on Mortgages Today
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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 m...
CU 2.0 Podcast the Post GAC Recap with Sarah Snell Cooke: Is This the End for NCUA?
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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 st...
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 342 the Credit Union - Pro Spoorts Conndection
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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.
CU 2.0 Podcast Greatest Hits #24 Cliff Rosenthal on CDFIs
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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.
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 341 Steven Reider of Bancography on How to Really Analyze Branch Closings, Openings and Mergers
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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...
CU 2.0 Podcast Credit Union Lobbyist John McKechnie on the CU Tax Exemption + More
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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...
