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Posted on by Amy McCaughey

CU 2.0 Fintech Friday: Hound Software

It’s CU 2.0 Fintech Friday! Today, Chris Otey sits down with Hound Software to discuss all things credit union, fintech, and digital innovation.

CU2.0 credit union fintech partnership innovation

Hound Software accomplishes workflow automation for credit unions. They partner with credit unions, for whom they collect, integrate, and analyze member data. From there, they initiate and direct an automated workflow to guide members through relevant services.

Hound Software focuses on customer satisfaction and experience. Through data collection and analysis, they strengthen relationships between credit unions and their members. Hound Software helps credit unions stay in front of their members so they stay engaged and satisfied.

Hound Software’s primary roles are in customer retention, revenue management, and upselling. Hound Software helps credit unions create multiple-stage processes and workflows on the fly. Hound Software also integrates with communications, analytics, and machine learning systems to keep your credit union smart and well-connected.

If this sounds like an intriguing credit union–fintech partnership, check out the video and Hound Software snapshot below!

Credit Union Fintech Snapshot: Hound Software

Top 3 Problems Solved

  1. Customer retention
  2. Revenue management
  3. Upselling

Hound Software Founder: Manrique Feoli

Hound Software Market Strategy

Credit unions, financial institutions, commercial businesses.

Credit Union Fintech: Hound Software in the News

Hound Software debuts in Florida

Interested in seeing more fintech entrepreneurship? Check out the CU 2.0 fintech infographic, Death by 1,000 Cuts. You can see firsthand the impact fintechs have had on the credit union industry, as well as how fintech innovation can improve your income statement, balance sheet, interest margin, services, and more.

Credit Union 2.0 believes fully in the power of credit union and fintech partnerships. With the shared goal to redefine multifaceted financial services models look like to members, more credit unions are looking to partner with forward-leaning fintechs.

If you want to learn more about credit union–fintech partnerships, click here.

Posted on by Amy McCaughey

CU 2.0 Fintech Friday: PayByCar

It’s CU 2.0 Fintech Friday! Today, Chris Otey sits down with Pay By Car to discuss all things credit union, fintech, and digital innovation.

CU2.0 credit union fintech partnership, credit union fintech innovation

PayByCar is a payment system that streamlines purchases made in and from cars. Instead of going through the often-clunky process of handing a debit or credit card back and forth between driver and cashier.

In-vehicle purchases exceed $200bn yearly. From toll roads to car washes, drive-through coffee stands to fast food restaurants, paying on the go accounts for a significant portion of daily purchases. If you can imagine paying at the pump with an E-Z Pass, then you’re on the right track to understanding PayByCar.

PayByCar allows people to forego the usual card- or phone-based transaction. PayByCar transponders reduce in-vehicle transaction times by eliminating the need of a middleman.

Credit unions who wish to partner with PayByCar can offer their members a simple, easy payment system for in-vehicle transactions. In-vehicle payment systems are a growing technology with increasing demand. Giving members an in-vehicle payment option can reduce their transactional friction and increase their appreciation for their credit union’s services.

If this sounds like an intriguing credit union–fintech partnership, check out the video and PayByCar snapshot below!

Credit Union Fintech Snapshot: PayByCar

Top 3 Problems Solved

  1. In-vehicle payments
  2. In-vehicle transaction times
  3. Drive-through sales

PayByCar Founder: Kevin Condon

PayByCar Market Strategy

Credit Unions and individual drivers.

Credit Union Fintech: PayByCar in the News

PayByCar simplifies in-vehicle payments

PayByCar partners with E-Z Pass

Interested in seeing more fintech entrepreneurship? Check out the CU 2.0 fintech infographic, Death by 1,000 Cuts. You can see firsthand the impact fintechs have had on the credit union industry, as well as how fintech innovation can improve your income statement, balance sheet, interest margin, services, and more.

Credit Union 2.0 believes fully in the power of credit union and fintech partnerships. With the shared goal to redefine multifaceted financial services models look like to members, more credit unions are looking to partner with forward-leaning fintechs.

If you want to learn more about credit union–fintech partnerships, click here.

Posted on by Amy McCaughey

CU 2.0 Podcast: Series 18 – Al Pascual on Biometrics

It’s the Credit Union podcast! CU 2.0 is excited to bring you the eighteenth in a series of podcasts from Robert McGarvey. Welcome to the CU 2.0 Podcast, regular interviews with credit union leaders, thinkers, movers, shakers and more.

**Pop Quiz**

How long have passwords been around?

How many credit union members want never to use one again?

What are the three must-have biometrics modalities?

When will biometrics effectively supplant passwords in financial services?

Flashback time: when did Apple introduce Touch ID, a tool that thrust biometrics into everyday use for tens of millions of consumers?

Consider the above your pop quiz. How did you score?

Al Pascual, a researcher with Javelin, who recently co-authored a report on biometrics and financial services, knows the answers to these questions and he tells all in this CU 2.0 podcast.

It moves fast, you’ll want to hear it.

A sliver of good/bad news: it’s the biggest financial institutions that are carrying the weight of persuading regulators about the efficacy of biometrics and that just may be a blessing for smaller institutions – credit unions included – who can follow behind.

Click the photo below to listen now!

credit union biometrics, credit union security

Check out other podcasts in the series here!

Posted on by Amy McCaughey

CU 2.0 Podcast: Series 17 – Victor Corro on Hispanics and Credit Unions

It’s the Credit Union podcast! CU 2.0 is excited to bring you the seventeenth in a series of podcasts from Robert McGarvey. Welcome to the CU 2.0 Podcast, regular interviews with credit union leaders, thinkers, movers, shakers and more.

Ask Victor Corro, of Coopera, the Hispanic focused consulting firm for credit unions, on why Hispanics matter to credit unions and he gets impassioned.  Hispanics need credit unions, he says, just as credit unions need Hispanics.  He tells in detail exactly why that is so in this edition of the CU 2.0 podcast.

Note: the audio quality has imperfections in parts of this podcast.  We live in a world of imperfect telephony. But the audio is understandable. So give a hard listen and you will be rewarded.

Corro also tells exactly what a credit union needs to do to really pursue the Hispanic demographic.  It’s a multi-step process and he spells it out.

And he explains why many Hispanics are cellphone first consumers – and savvy credit unions need to truly get that if they hope to prosper in their pursuit of Hispanics.

Just remember: you need each other. And that makes this a perfect scenario for doing credit union good.

Click the photo below to listen now!

credit union hispanic demographic coopera

Check out other podcasts in the series here!

Posted on by Amy McCaughey

CU 2.0 Fintech Friday: Reggora

It’s CU 2.0 Fintech Friday! Today, Chris Otey sits down with Reggora to discuss all things credit union, fintech, and digital innovation.

fintech reggora, credit union fintechs

Reggora is an appraisal management platform. They speed through the property appraisal process in a fraction of the time that it usually takes.

One of the keys to Reggora’s platform is they automate a good deal of the appraisal process. Usually, a lender or loan officer will try to find an appraiser who specializes in the type of property being appraised. Then, it takes more time for the appraiser to meet the lender on their schedule.

Reggora addresses the long wait times for appraisals by using an Uber-like algorithm to match lenders and qualified appraisers. Reggora uses a database of thousands of appraisers. Their algorithm finds the most qualified appraiser nearby who fits with the lender’s schedule.

Overall, Reggora is able to accomplish in only a few days what usually takes a couple weeks to finish. Credit unions can use Reggora to help them streamline their mortgage experience.

If this sounds like an intriguing credit union–fintech partnership, check out the video and Reggora snapshot below!

Credit Union Fintech Snapshot: Reggora

Top 3 Problems Solved

  1. Appraisal speed
  2. Mortgage experience
  3. Finding qualified appraisers

Reggora Founder: Brian Zitin

Reggora Market Strategy

Credit Unions and other mortgage lenders

Credit Union Fintech: Reggora in the News

Reggora helps both lenders and appraisers

Reggora enters the real estate technology arena

Interested in seeing more fintech entrepreneurship? Check out the CU 2.0 fintech infographic, Death by 1,000 Cuts. You can see firsthand the impact fintechs have had on the credit union industry, as well as how fintech innovation can improve your income statement, balance sheet, interest margin, services, and more.

Credit Union 2.0 believes fully in the power of credit union and fintech partnerships. With the shared goal to redefine multifaceted financial services models look like to members, more credit unions are looking to partner with forward-leaning fintechs.

If you want to learn more about credit union–fintech partnerships, click here.

Posted on by Amy McCaughey

CU 2.0 Podcast: Series 16 – New Year’s Resolutions with Robert McGarvey

It’s the Credit Union podcast! CU 2.0 is excited to bring you the sixteenth in a series of podcasts from Robert McGarvey. Welcome to the CU 2.0 Podcast, regular interviews with credit union leaders, thinkers, movers, shakers and more.

Make some New Year’s Resolutions. That’s advice for you in this podcast, brought to you by CU2.0, all about re-imagining and reinvigorating today’s credit unions for tomorrow’s victories.
First, feast on New Year’s Resolutions. About 40% of us make them, according to research by the Marist Institute.  Many of us, in fact, get what we resolve to do.  Reported the researchers: “Do Americans keep their New Year’s resolutions? Among those who say they made a resolution for 2017, 68% said they kept at least part of their promise. Similar proportions of men (69%) and women (66%) remained true to their word for at least part of 2017. More men (75%) compared with women (62%) said they kept their New Year’s resolution last year.”
What this podcast is about is getting you to make a resolution involving your credit union.
Here’s how this is going to work. I’ll start out by enumerating some possible resolutions for you – and this is a situation where cribbing a buddy’s test answer is a-ok. Of course, you can always create your own. Either way, this is a perfect time to think anew about how to make your credit union better.

What resolutions do I suggest?

  1. Embrace artificial intelligence.  There’s Erica at B of A.  There’s Alexa at Amazon. There’s Siri at Apple (well, Siri is a kind of also ran – but she will get smarter and better). AI is a trend to ride. An easy starting point is debuting an Alexa skill for your credit union. Many credit unions are doing this. It’s cheap. Hear more about credit unions and AI in two podcasts: Coalesce and Posh.
  2. Accept that today technology makes or breaks credit unions. But know you don’t have to be a follower; you can be a leader. That’s the message of the DCU Fintech Innovation Lab, featured in an earlier podcast.
  3. Accept that mobile is your biggest, most important branch. Spend money to upgrade it. Make it different from other credit unions. Make it your own. Hear a lot of cool insights about mobile and how to go special in the podcast with Tanan Miles of Ent.
  4. Think digitally. Accept that analog banking is fading away. Don’t fight tomorrow. Very good insights into this are in our podcast with CU2.0 founder Kirk Drake. Amy Downs at Allegiance also talks about this in her podcast.
  5. Fire up your board of directors. You’ll hear a lot on this in the podcasts with Chris Otey and Trudy Soupcoup.
  6. Go local.  You can’t compete on the national stage with national banks.  No can do, But you can compete and win in your local community. What can you do to make life better for your neighbors? Know that and know that you are building a credit union that matters. Bill Bynum of Hope and Scott Budde at Maine Harvest offer powerful perspectives on going local to win.
  7. Embrace Hispanic members. One in 6 of us are Hispanic. What’s your credit union doing to cultivate that membership? Find out how to succeed with this demographic in a podcast that will post soon, with Coopera CEO Victor Corro.
  8. Know your mission. What is the credit union movement to you? It always has been about working cooperatively to better serve the underserved, everyday people.  What are you doing to hit that goal? Inclusiv’s Cathie Mahon has much to say about this in her podcast.

 

Click the photo below to listen now!

corporate credit union digital transformation

Check out other podcasts in the series here!

Posted on by Amy McCaughey

CU 2.0 Podcast: Series 15 – Cathie Mahon CEO of Inclusiv, the association of community development CUs

It’s the Credit Union podcast! CU 2.0 is excited to bring you the fifteenth in a series of credit union podcasts from Robert McGarvey. Welcome to the CU 2.0 Podcast, regular interviews with credit union leaders, thinkers, movers, shakers and more.

Talk to Cathie Mahon and it’s a fast ride into what mission makes a credit union special, distinctive and in her mind, the answer is clear: serving the underserved and usually that means economically disadvantaged.

She has tantalizing insights too. For instance: she tells why the business model of community development credit unions may, in fact, be primed for greater success than the model followed by most credit unions.

She also tells how the NCUA handcuffs newly chartered credit unions and this may set some up for failure.

And she has advice on designing a mobile banking app that betters serves the economically disadvantaged.

Listen up, it’s a good podcast that just may persuade some struggling conventional credit unions to investigate tweaking their business model and to embrace more community development outreach.

Click the photo below to listen now!

credit union podcast, credit union members, credit union mobile banking

Check out other podcasts in the series here!

Posted on by Amy McCaughey

CU 2.0 Fintech Friday: Posh Technologies

It’s CU 2.0 Fintech Friday! Today, Chris Otey sits down with Posh Technologies to discuss all things credit union, fintech, and digital innovation.

CU2.0 credit union fintech partnership

Posh Technologies is the brainchild of several MIT computer science students. Over the last couple of years, they’ve focused ongoing from an app-development company to working with conversational AI. Posh’s conversational AI assists with site navigation, automated customer service, and lead generation.

Posh Technologies’ smart chatbots help credit unions and financial technology companies streamline customer service and user experience. Instead of trying to navigate difficult websites, Posh’s intelligent chatbot can help users quickly find what they’re looking for.

Posh’s conversational AI also helps with lead generation to drive sales and increase member growth at credit unions. By determining which services a user is interested in, Posh’s AI bot can help credit union marketing teams determine how to entice and convert prospective members by offering valuable, relevant services.

Finally, Posh Technologies helps with internal support as well. In addition to helping members with the same problems, credit union staff who forget passwords, get locked out of their accounts, or checking on PTO statuses can check with Posh’s bot to help them resolve their issues.

If this sounds like an intriguing credit union–fintech partnership, check out the video and Posh Technologies snapshot below!

Credit Union Fintech Snapshot: Posh Technologies

Top 3 Problems Solved

  1. Conversational AI
  2. Credit union member growth through lead generation
  3. Automated customer service

Posh Technologies Founder: Karan Kashyap

Posh Technologies Market Strategy

Credit unions and financial institutions.

Credit Union Fintech: Posh Technologies in the News

How Posh got its start

Conversational interfaces make financial operations easier

Interested in seeing more fintech entrepreneurship? Check out the CU 2.0 fintech infographic, Death by 1,000 Cuts. You can see firsthand the impact fintechs have had on the credit union industry, as well as how fintech innovation can improve your income statement, balance sheet, interest margin, services, and more.

Credit Union 2.0 believes fully in the power of credit union and fintech partnerships. With the shared goal to redefine multifaceted financial services models look like to members, more credit unions are looking to partner with forward-leaning fintechs.

If you want to learn more about credit union–fintech partnerships, click here.

Posted on by Amy McCaughey

CU 2.0 Fintech Friday: Finnest

It’s CU 2.0 Fintech Friday! Today, Chris Otey sits down with Finnest to discuss all things credit union, fintech, and digital innovation.

Finnest is an education-based fintech company. Finnest helps parents teach their kids about earning, saving, investing, charitable giving, and responsible spending. They provide a prepaid debit card to children aged 8-17 and it supports healthy financial habits through a linked app.

CU 2.0 credit union fintech partnership

Credit unions can use Finnest as an additional service to provide for their members. It reaches into the next generation of consumers and prepares them for their first checking account. Finnest also readies minors for sensible financial engagement as they become adults.

Credit unions who offer Finnest’s services can help younger generations develop good financial habits. Parents can transfer money to their kids’ accounts for allowance, chores, and so on. Kids can build budget plans to support their savings goals. Parents can monitor their kids’ progress and get a picture of their account activity. Parents can also lock Finnest debit cards, set spending limits, and educate kids about investing.

If this sounds like an intriguing credit union–fintech partnership, check out the video and Finnest snapshot below!

Credit Union Fintech Snapshot: Finnest

Top 3 Problems Solved

  1. Youth finance
  2. Youth financial education
  3. Responsible financial engagement

Finnest Founder: Richard McDonald and Clemens Grave

Finnest Market Strategy

Credit unions and individual users.

Credit Union Fintech: Finnest in the News

Interview with Clemens Grave about Finnest

Another interview, but this one is different (we promise)

Interested in seeing more fintech entrepreneurship? Check out the CU 2.0 fintech infographic, Death by 1,000 Cuts. You can see firsthand the impact fintechs have had on the credit union industry, as well as how fintech innovation can improve your income statement, balance sheet, interest margin, services, and more.

Credit Union 2.0 believes fully in the power of credit union and fintech partnerships. With the shared goal to redefine multifaceted financial services models look like to members, more credit unions are looking to partner with forward-leaning fintechs.

If you want to learn more about credit union–fintech partnerships, click here.

Check out other fintechs in the series here!

Posted on by Amy McCaughey

CU 2.0 Podcast: Series 14 – AI for Credit Unions Part 2

It’s the Credit Union podcast! CU 2.0 is excited to bring you the fourteenth in a series of podcasts from Robert McGarvey. Welcome to the CU 2.0 Podcast, regular interviews with credit union leaders, thinkers, movers, shakers and more. Today’s topic is talking about the real credit union mission. Today’s subject is AI for credit unions.

Welcome to AI, Part 2 in the CU 2.0 Podcast series.  Last week our podcast explored email and AI through the eyes of Coalesce, a DCU Fintech Innovation Lab company. This week, in Part 2, we explore voice and AI through Posh Development, another DCU Fintech Innovation Lab company – a podcast about the Fintech Lab can be found here.

Either way, great stuff is happening that you need to know about to stay current.

Bank of America is pushing its AI bot Erica hard. But just maybe you can fight back with your own voice bot. That’s part of the Posh promise.

This is a podcast you can’t miss. AI definitely is the future. It’s up to you to understand and control it.

Click the photo below to listen now!

ai for credit unions, artificial intelligence fintech

Check out other podcasts in the series here!