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
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 426 Vericast Tells How to Supercharge Acquisition of New Account Holders
Send us Fan MailThink it’s hard to convince new members to open an account at your credit union?Think again.Do what the big FIs - Chase, Wells Fargo, Citibank - routinely do: offer cash incentives for joining the institution.How much? $400 to $500 are numbers often seen and sometimes the bounty climbs to as much as $1000.Are credit unions in this too? Indeed they are, and on the show is Fred Cade
CU 2.0 Pocast Episode 425 CuCollaborate's Ben Hering on Birthing New Credit Unions
Send us Fan MailYear in, year out maybe 150 credit unions go out of business, mainly as a result of mergers, but a few voluntarily close and NCUA sometimes shuts a few doors.Year in, year out new credit unions spring to life. Two or three every year. Do the math,. It’s grim. It’s not a pleasant look into credit union futures.Now listen to Ben Hering, formerly director of engagement at the Min
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 424 Peter Duffy On Credit Union Merger Trends: Buckle Up!
Send us Fan MailIn the first half of 2026 credit union mergers were down, admits Peter Duffy, a mergers expert now with Strategic Resource Management - but don’t expect that to be a permanent downturn.Mergers will pick up and there will continue to be big credits merging with big credit unions.Duffy, who has guested on the show multiple times before, is one of the leading experts on the subject of
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 423 Meet Goodbuy the Innovative CUSO That Links Small Businesses to CU Members
Send us Fan MailWe need more business members!That could count as a credit union chant of the last decade but a reality is that many credit unions have simply not achieved their goals in terms of enrolling more business members.Enter Goodbuy, which describes itself as “the game changing solution for credit unions, accelerating new SMB account openings.”Now know this: Boise based Goodbuy in June re
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 422 Overdrawn: The Continuing Fallout From Death of IBEW Local Union 712 Federal Credit Union
Send us Fan MailYou know the sad story of IBEW Local Union 712 Federal Credit Union in Beaver PA in 2020. In an institution with assets of $7.7 million the CE) managed to run up $2,1 million in credit card debt. And in May 2020 NCUA conserved the credit union. RIP.Except now Andy Janning, a longtime credit union expert, is on the case with a new podcast OVERDRAWN that focuses on the human costs,
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 421 Ibby Dickson on Lobbying Today's Congress
Send us Fan MailWhat does a credit union lobbyist do? On the show to answer that question is Ibby Dickson, manager of federal advocacy at the League of Credit Unions, a multi-state league representing credit unions in Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Virginia and there’s a merger in the works with the League of Maryland and the District of Columbia.Can credit unions get their message across in today’s
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 420 Casap's AI Agents Tame Fraud at Chartway Credit Union
Send us Fan MailCasap was the best of show winner at Finovate fall 2025 and its business is this: building AI Agents for Disputes and Fraud resolution and it now has 50+ clients that it won with attention grabbing claims: Resolve claims in minutes, not weeks. Earn lasting loyalty. Cut fraud losses.This is a universe undergoing immense change, mainly due to the rise of so-called first party fraud
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 419 AI Working Miracles in Arise Financial's Backoffice Operations
Send us Fan MailThere are times when credit union discussions about AI and how it’s transforming their operations detour into a reprise of the classic Wendy’s commercial: Where’s the beef?That is: where are the measurable benefits arising from AI use?And then into my email box pops an email from Christian Klacko, CEO of Kintera AI, who says his tools can be integrated into a credit union’s backoff
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 418 Equipifi's Lo Smith on Why BNPL Just Keeps Growing
Send us Fan MailI will admit it, when I first heard about BNPL - buy now pay later - I snorted that layaway had died years ago.I was wrong.BNPL has become a huge marketplace. Federal Reserve data pegs it at around $160 billion in consumer credit products. And the scary bit for credit unions is that fintechs own over 90% of that market and they aren’t sharing with FIs.Enter Equipifi which has as i
CU 2.0 Podcast Tursio Tells How to Get the Info You Need Out of Your Core - Fast and Easy
Send us Fan MailCorning Credit Union knew the answers it wanted were in the data on its Symitar core - the problem was getting the answers expeditiously so the information could be put to use when it was wanted.That wasn’t happening. Literally weeks could pass before the wanted information was in hand.Couldn’t it be faster? Corning Credit Union got in touch with startup Tursio. In this show Turs
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 417 Saris AI and Grow Financial FCU Tell Why You Need to Know About Agentic AI
Send us Fan MailAgentic AI is coming to credit unions and Saris AI is helping lead the charge.What is Agentic AI? Agentic AI acts as an agent that autonomously executes multi-step workflows. That is, Agentic AI does. It doesn’t tell you what to do. It does it for you.Saris AI says it can automate 70% of tedious, complex back office tasks. It delivers a 300% productivity increase. And 9.8x cost
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 416 Constant AI's Catherine York Powers on Why You Need to Offer Skip a Pay
Send us Fan MailCall this a case of two scenarios. Here’s the background: a member calls and requests to skip a payment on a loan balance. The loan term will simply extend by a month, interest continues to be collected, and there’s a fee - usually between $15 and $60 - for setting up the skipped payment.In scenario 1 the customer service rep fields the call, talks with the member, checks to see i
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 415 O2 Consulting Group's Bonnie Ortiz on Really Putting AI to Work in Your Credit Union
Send us Fan MailThe headline on the CUInsight story grabbed my attention: AI for credit unions: Making “people-first” work even better.The author, Bonnie Ortiz, has also been a CU 2.0 Podcast guest before so I wanted to get her back on.Ortiz is the founder of 02 Consulting Group and, earlier in her career, she was the long serving COO at The Partnership Credit Union.She’s a level headed expert on
CU 2.0 Podcast Kirk Drake's New CUSO Bringing AI to Credit Unions
Send us Fan MailWhat do we do next?That’s a question heard in most credit union executive suites and boardrooms and what it is focused on is AI.Artificial intelligence suddenly has become the tech that matters among credit unions but there’s just one problem: few actually have concrete ideas about how and where to use AI.Enter Kirk Drake, CEO of the digital consultancy CU 2.0, author of the 2020 b
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 414 Student Choice CUSO Introduces Employer Choice Small Dollar Loans for Employees
Send us Fan MailThe Student Choice CUSO, built around student loans, is expanding and now has introduced a program that will enable credit unions to issue small dollar, emergency loans to members with no credit check.These are not payday loans. Interest rates are capped at 18% per NCUA policies.How can this be? On the show is Scott Patterson, ceo of Student Choice, and the episode starts with a
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 413 Making Video Magic with Storyfi, the New CUSO of the Year
Send us Fan MailMeet Storyfi - the NACUSO New CUSO of the Year for 2026. When I saw the press release I had to get Nick Olexa, CEO of Storyfi, a Michigan based CUSO owned by six Michigan credit unions.What Storyfi is doing is important - it’s harnessing video to help credit unions tell their stories and it’s working within credit union budgets.That matters because, nowadays, video is the globe’s
CU 2.0 Podcast Newsflash: Is Now the Time for the Safe Banking Act to Become Law
Send us Fan MailIs the country finally ready for a safe banking act that in effect legalizes cannabis businesses at the federal level?In recent years multiple bills doing essentially that were passed by the House of Representatives only to be buried in a Senate committee that never reported it out for a floor vote.There’s a new House bill in play and this time may be the charm, says Terry Mendez,
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 412 Jack Henry and SELCO on Fraud Trends You Need to Know Today
Send us Fan MailTitle this show everything you need to know about fraud today but have been afraid to ask.Start with this: Fraud is big and getting bigger.That is the worrisome message delivered by Rene Perez, a fraud expert with Jack Henry, and seconded by Stephanie Ziegler, director of financial investigations at SELCO, a $2.8 billion credit union headquartered in Oregon.Perez is on the show to
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 411 Travis Credit Union CEO Kevin Miller on Why Bankers Make Good CU CEOs
Send us Fan MailCan a banker successfully transition into a senior role in a credit union? Can a credit union deploy a financial wellness initiative that also works as a competitive edge in marketing?Kevin Miller, CEO of $5.7 billion Travis Credit Union in Northern California, is on the show today and he is guilty of that banking background but he has logged 4+ years as Travis CEO.And he also str
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 410 The Credit Union of the Future Meets AI - BoxD CEO Nenuca Syquia Explains
Send us Fan MailTwo threads run through this show: the human impacts of AI and the credit union of the future.Ultimately the threads are connected. If a credit union is its people, what is it when AI does an increasing amount of the work in a credit union?On the show to explore these ideas is Nenuca Syquia, CEO of BoxD, “Better Organizations by Design,” a Silicon Valley consultancy.Herself a long
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 409 Instant Payments Have Come to Smaller Credit Unions
Send us Fan MailWhen will instant payments come to smaller credit unions?Perhaps the better question is: Will instant payments ever come to smaller credit unions?On the show are Bob West, CEO of CUSO CU*South, which serves some 360 credit unions (in 42 states, not just the south), and Keith Riddle of Payfinia, which has launched an instant payment platform that integrated with CU*South’s technolo
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 408 Raisin's Alastair Wood Brings High Yield Savings Accounts to Credit Unions
Send us Fan MailHow does a lawyer - by education and employment history - become a top executive at fintechs? Good question. But here’s another one: how can a fintech help credit unions win members for savings accounts paying in the vicinity of 4% APR?On the show is Alastair Wood, CEO of Raisin, a fintech that helps credit unions market innovative products - high yield savings included - to attr
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode Joshua Evans on AI and Credit Unions: Are You Losing Your Human Touch?
Send us Fan MailCan a credit union be a credit union without human employees?Are credit unions, in the age of AI, at risk of losing the humanity that distinguishes them?In this provocative episode, keynote speaker Joshua Evans, who bills himself as an expert on the workplace of the future, talks about how AI is transforming credit unions, how parts of this are to the good, but, he insists, credit
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 406 Summit CU's James Grenon on Careful vs Courage
Send us Fan MailCareful or courageous?Which are you?James Grenon, vice president of administration at Summit Credit Union, a mid-sized institution in North Carolina, raised exactly that question in a recent CUInight story entitled: “Careful or courageous: The leadership choice that shapes culture.”Regular listeners know I have a bugaboo about what I see as the unhealthy risk aversion of many CU ex
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 407 Hanscom FCU CEO Peter Rice on His New Book About Walking the Camino and Leadership
Send us Fan MailCome join Peter Rice, CEO of $2.3 billion Hanscom Federal Credit Union, on a walk. A Long walk. 70+ miles. On the Camino de Santiago in Spain and Portugal.Rice did that walk three times for his book Break or Become: How Hard Roads Make Good Leaders.What’s the book about? In an hour long podcast Rice explains and, listen up, it’s about the death of a spouse, raising two young boy
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 405 Cary Strange on PayOnward's Plan to Revolutionize Payments
Send us Fan MailCan bill pay be revived at credit unions?You may remember, perhaps a generation ago, when bill pay was revered by financial institutions because it was viewed as creating stickier members who, having inputted a dozen or two bill pay recipients, were reluctant to change FIs because of the work involved.Bill pay lost a lot of its stick when various fintechs rolled out widgets that co
CU 2.0 Podcast John Crews Nominated to Head the NCUA Board: The Story Inside the Beltway
Send us Fan MailThe NCUA looks to be getting a new board chair: John Crews, a longtime Washington DC hand and currently Deputy Assistant Secretary at the Treasury Department. Prior jobs include Policy Director of the Senate Banking Committee and Policy Advisor to House majority leader Steve Scalise. He’s a guy who knows his way around inside the Beltway.There’s an urgency to his nomination becau
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 404 Mark Brantley the CUEvangelist Spreading the Good Word
Send us Fan MailHow could I not talk with the CUEvangelist who sees his calling as “Spreading the Good News About CUs!”My interest in the CUEvangelist was triggered by a provocative piece titled “Black history is credit union history” that was posted at CUInsight and then I saw the author, Mark Brantley, dubbed himself the CUEvangelist. Brantley has the chops to warrant that moniker. He’s Asst. D
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 403 ELGA Credit Union and Vertice AI Explain How to Make Smarter, Targeted Loan Offers
Send us Fan MailWouldn’t you like to make more - and more profitable - auto loans? Just about every credit union would say a loud yes and that is why this episode is a must listen. On the show is Zach Eychaner, the VP of Digital Experience at ELGA Credit Union, a $1.5 billion institution based in Michigan. Also on the show is Mitch Rutledge, CEO of Vertice AI, a Georgia based company that says i
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 402 Amanda Wick on Stablecoin and the New World Financial Order
Send us Fan MailAmanda Wick is a name to know when talking about things crypto. A onetime US government prosecutor, Wick specialized in crypto currencies and money laundering. Later she went on to found the Association for Women In Cryptocurrency and now she is a principal in Incite where she provides expert advice on crypto related matters. Wick’s current focus: stablecoin. In the show Wick t
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 401 One Washington Financial and ALM Company Delfi
Send us Fan MailAsset liability management - ALM as it’s known - can be fun, good for a credit union’s balance sheet and, dare we say it, sexy.On the show is Daniel Ahn, CEO of Delfi, a company that - and I quote from the website - “combines deep public and private sector experience with cutting-edge AI expertise—bringing best-in-class technology to banks, credit unions, and other financial instit
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 400 Is Remynt the New, Kinder - and Effective! - Debt Collection Tool
Send us Fan MailDo you want to talk about bad debts and collections and…what’s that, you’d rather discuss athlete’s foot and gyms?Listen up: on the show today is Gwyneth Borden, founder and CEO of Remynt, a debt collection CUSO - funded by One Washington Financial, the investment arm of Washington State Employees Credit Union and a recent guest on the show along with Starlight, an innovative fint
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 399 First Source CU and Appli On Calculators That Are Magic and Boost Loan Originations
Send us Fan MailIt’s time to talk about something really, truly exciting in credit union land.How about online/mobile calculators?Calculators!Yes, I hear those derive laughs but listen up: on this show you will hear from Tim Pranger at Appli, who has developed calculators that users genuinely like and use. Katie Ullman, vice president of marketing and community at First Source Credit Union in Uti
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode Episode 398 Jack Henry's Lee Wetherington on Gen Z, AI and More
Send us Fan MailWhat do you know about Gen Z?That just may be the critical question confronting credit unions today and that’s because, age 13 to 29, Gen Z is increasingly the focus of fintechs, neo banks and non banks who all want to grab these consumers.How can credit unions win in this battle?On the show is Lee Wetherington, senior director of corporate strategy at Jack Henry, and lately he has
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 397 Union Credit's Dave Buerger on Consumer Confidence - and How to Strengthen It
Send us Fan MailThe CUInsight headline caught my eye: “Why credit unions must step up as financial stabilizers to rebuild consumer confidence.” The piece was authored by Dave Buerger, CEO of Union Credit and, before that, he was CEO of CuneXus, where he was a co-founder.At Union Credit the mission is delivering 1-click, perpetual loans to credit union members. 70+ credit unions are Union Credit
CU 2.0 Podcast InTouch Credit Union Adopts Eltropy's Agentic AI - CEO Kent Lugrand Tells Why
Send us Fan MailAgentic AI. Google’s Gemini explains what this means: “Agentic AI represents a shift from AI that simply 'talks' to AI that 'does.' While previous iterations of AI were primarily reactive—answering questions or generating text when prompted—Agentic AI systems are proactive. They can reason, plan, and execute multi-step tasks autonomously to achieve a specific go
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 396 First Entertainment CU CEO Stephen Owen on the Birth of CineFi
Send us Fan MailAnd First Entertainment Credit Union Begat CineFi.Say what?First Entertainment is the big show business credit union. Based in Hollywood, it has assets of around $2.1 billion and serves around 90,000 members, many of them who work in Hollywood, doing everything from acting to the skilled crafts (such as set building) that create Hollywood’s magic.On the show is Stephen Owen, CEO o
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 395 Curql and Stablecore On Why Now Is the Time for CUs to Embrace Digital Assets
Send us Fan MailIn mid February, Curql, the collective of 160+ credit unions, announced its first blockchain investment into Stablecore, a company that provides digital asset infrastructure for credit unions.Literally hundreds of billions of dollars now are flowing into stablecoin, a digital currency backed by fiat currency and accordingly it has little volatility.Big banks are pouncing on stablec
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 394 CORA Loyalty's Beth McCoy on What Loyalty Means in 2026
Send us Fan MailAre you still relying on product based rewards for members?Meet the new tool on the block: relationship building.A trigger is that interchange rates are under attack and, for many financial institutions, it’s been interchange that funded the rewards programs.So what’s the new approach? On the show is Beth McCoy, CEO of CORA Loyalty, who provides a roadmap for building member relati
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 393 DeepTarget's Preetha Pulusani on Putting CU Member Data to Work
Send us Fan MailFact: credit unions have lots of data about their members. Everything from home address to their liquidity. Fact: credit unions, most of them, are woefully inept at mining this data to better serve those members and also to boost member retention and up cashflow into the credit union.Enter DeepTarget, a Huntsville AL based fintech that serves 285 clients, 85% of which are credit u
CU2.0 Podcast Prizeout's David Metz and United Financial's Sarah Vasey on Credit Card Rewards That Work
Send us Fan MailJust when I thought credit card rewards initiatives were on the chopping block, here comes David Metz and Priizeout with an innovative twist on credit card rewards and it’s one that already is winning credit union applause. Proof is that also on the show is Sarah Vasey, Chief Operating Officer at Michigan-based United Financial Credit Union, an institution with around $350 million
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 392 Lamont Black on the Credit Union of the Future - with AI and Stablecoins
Send us Fan MailDo credit unions have a future? And if so what?Meet Lamont Black, a Filene Fellow - Credit Union of the Future.Spoiler alert: Black is optimistic about the future of credit unions.A finance professor at DePaul University, Black also is a busy writer, speaker, consultant who focuses on innovative technologies including AI and Bitcoin and, nowadays, especially Stablecoin.In the show
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 391 White Clay's Mac Thompson on Human Centered Digital Strategies for Credit Unions
Send us Fan MailOnly about one third of your members feel understood by you - that’s the harsh fact that emerges from a member experience survey conducted by the Harris Poll and sponsored by White Clay, a fintech that says it helps banks and credit unions enhance customer relationships and profitability.On the show today is Mac Thompson, CEO and founder of White Clay, to tell why members feel misu
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 390 Glia's Andrea Argueta on AI and Your Credit Union
Send us Fan MailToday Andrea Argueta is director of financial institution advisory at Glia, a company that focuses on providing credit unions and banks digital customer service tools and nowadays that means AI. So this show’s focus is on the practical suite of tools Glia has working in some 400 credit unions, making Glia very probably the largest provider of AI tools to credit unions.Importantly,
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 389 Alloy's Sara Seguin on the State of Fraud in 2026
Send us Fan MailFraud is up, a lot, at credit unions, according to the Alloy 2026 State of Fraud Report, says Sara Seguin, a principal adviser at Alloy. Sara is a past CU 2.0 Podcast guest - link to that show is in the show notes. She’s on the show now to report that credit unions say they have experienced a 72% increase in fraud events, more than any other segment.Worse, a lot of fraud now invo
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 388 One Nevada's Steve O'Donnell Inside the Mind of a CEO
Send us Fan MailWhat a ride Steve O’Donnell has had at One Nevada Credit Union, a $1.5 billion institution where he started as a teller some 22 years ago and in August 2025 he was promoted to CEO.This podcast is about his journey getting into the top job - and also what he sees as some of the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead for him and One Nevada.A name you will hear often in this show
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 387 Safe Harbor's Terry Mendez on Cannabis Banking Now
Send us Fan MailSafe Harbor, the Golden CO based cannabis banking pioneer, is alive and growing and that’s the message of today’s guest Terry Mendez, the recently installed CEO.Mendez took over the seat that had been occupied by Sundie Seefried, onetime ceo of Partner Colorado Credit Union who left that post to helm Safe Harbor. Sundie, by the way, was the guest in CU 2.0 Podcast #139 which poste
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 386 Sogolytics' Melissa Krut on the Generation Barrier Between Credit Unions and Younger Potential Members
Send us Fan MailThe Credit Union Generation Barrier.On the show today is Melissa Krut, VP of Success at Sogolytics, a Herndon Virginia based firm that focuses on data driven analytics that answer questions such as how satisfied are a credit union’s employees, how satisfied are members, and more.Krut is here to discuss Sogolytics data driven approach and also to elaborate on a recent Sogolytics rep
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 385 Inside the Mind of Ascend CU's CIO Rik Reitmaier
Send us Fan MailRik Reitmaier is CIO at Tennessee based Ascend Federal Credit Union, with $4.4 billion in assets and 245,000. That puts Ascend in the nation’s top 100 credit unions. And Reitmaier is on the show to talk about the wide range of issues, worries and concerns that are on his mind.AI of course is high on that list and Reitmaier explains both Ascend’s position on AI today and why he thi
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 384 Starlight Is Now a CUSO Backed by One Washington Financial
Send us Fan MailI fancy myself something of a minor expert on Medicare and often have advised friends who are approaching 65 about their best options. Until a man I know approached me and asked for my advice. He added he was dually qualified for Medicare and Medicaid and he thought he probably qualified for food benefits, too.Huh? I had no idea what he was talking about and had to admit to him
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 383 MBFS's Mark Ritter on Member Business Lending Now
Send us Fan MailMark Ritter, CEO of Member Business Financial Services, a Pennsylvania based CUSO, estimates that about 800 US credit unions do member business lending, meaning that perhaps 3700 don’t.Many, many more could. That is spelled out in HR 1151, the law that lets credit unions serve more than one employer group. Passage of that law is detailed in CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 51 with Marc Sch
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 382 Cotribute and CPM Federal Credit Union on Digital Account Onboarding
Send us Fan MailIt’s typically the first in depth contact a non member has with a credit union and that non member, increasingly, is seeking to open a new account online.Good luck with that.The brutal fact is that digital account opening tools at most credit unions are inadequate - and an upshot is a stampede of would-be members who simply abandon the process.That’s why today’s show features Phili
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 381 West Community Credit Union's Josh Rodriguez on Getting Creative
Send us Fan MailThe conversation with West Community Credit Union’s Josh Rodriguez started in Ashland OR at the CU 2.0/ Room (39) a event in late September and in this podcast it picks up again.Fodder for the show came in the form of a questionnaire distributed to event attendees and Josh had dutifully filled his in. He agreed to discuss his answers on this show and we take as the jumping off poi
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 380 Cardinal Credit Union's Christine Blake and Nuuvia's Marcel King on Getting Youth Banking Right
Send us Fan MailFact: youth banking is the entry ramp into a credit union. Fact 2: Credit unions, most of them, will admit that youth banking is not exactly their strongest suit.Enter Cardinal Credit Union, a Mentor OH based institution with assets around $335 million, where CEO Chistine Blake saysthey are winning big in attracting youth to get credit union accounts by doing a lot of innovative t
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 379 DCUC's Jason Stverak on Why Small Credit Unions Matter, Really
Send us Fan MailGo back to when I started to report on credit unions and there were over 8000 credit unions. Now there are 4370. In 2020 there were 5099 credit unions. Just in five years the count is down by 700+.The math going forward is gloomy.That’s why I smiled when I saw Jason Stverak’s CU Insight piece on Why small credit unions matter and how we can help them thrive.Jason is chief advoc
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 378 AI vs Big Data: The Anne Legg and Saroop Bharwani Show
Send us Fan MailBig data vs. AI.Is this a war inside the walls of credit unions or can the two flourish in harmony?On the show are Anne Legg, founder and CEO of Thrive 3.0, where the mantra is leveraging data to better members’ lives, and Saroop Bharwani, co-founder and CEO of Senso, where he has been bringing AI to credit unions for several years.What you’ll hear in this episode is that indeed bi
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 377 Laura Beauparlant on Taking Charge of Your Personal Brand
Send us Fan MailYou have a brand.Know it or not, like it or not, you do.And on the show today is Laura Beauparlant, a Canada based keynote speaker and consultant who helps clients know and polish their personal brand.What’s your brand on social media? In meetings? At conferences? Others sense your brand and that means it’s important for you to buff your brand until it shows you off in your best l
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 376 JUDI.AI's Gord Baizley on Supercharging Small Business Lending
Send us Fan MailAbout 45 credit unions are customers of JUDI.AI and they are drawn by the company’s simple promise: Eliminate friction in business lending.There is money to be made serving small businesses and JUDI.AI has the formula, says Gord Baizley, the company’s CEO.A key is automating a lot of the process and that’s JUDI.AI’s business. Here’s why the company exists: “Small businesses are th
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 375 Casey Boggs on AI as the New Super Villain
Send us Fan Mail“Prepare: AI is the new CU crisis super villain.” That’s the title of a recent CUInsight story authored by Casey Boggs, founder of Reputation US, an d of course we had to get him on this podcast.Understand, I am a strong supporter of AI in general and AI in particular inside credit unions. This is a life and death matter.Yet there is a possible downside to AI and we already know
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 374 Room 39a's Blake Woods on Research That Matters, Really
Send us Fan MailExactly what is Room (39)a?There’s one at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center but today we are talking about the Room (39)a at CFCU, Community Financial Credit Union in Michigan, where past CU 2.0 Podcast guest Tansley Stearns serves as CEO and she has launched this Room (39)a as a CUSO that will offer subscriptions to its research.As for what it does, CFCU’s Room (39)a describes itself th
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 373 Tropical Financial's Marylen Yiris on the Power of Sports Sponsorships
Send us Fan MailThree years ago Tropical Financial Credit Union, a $1 billion south Florida institution, signed on as a sponsor of the Florida Panthers and magic happened because the Panthers - in the National Hockey League - won the Stanley Cup in 2024 and won again in 2025. That’s the equivalent of winning the World Series in baseball or the Super Bowl in football and, definitely, the Panthers n
CU 2.0 Podcast Kirk Kordeleski On What to Know Now About CEO Retirement Planning
Send us Fan MailBack on the show today after a hiatus is Kirk Kordeleski, onetime CEO of Bethpage Federal Credit Union and now a partner in Parc Street Partners where he focuses on credit union executive retirement plans.Kordeleski has been on the show many times but he always is welcomed back because he has deep insight into what it’s like to be a credit union CEO and also into how to compensate
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 372 Tansley Stearns and the CEO Seat
Send us Fan MailTansley Stearns had been working in a credit union for maybe five years when a big idea grabbed her: she decided she wanted to be a CEO of a credit union.For a young woman who had grown up on a farm in southern Michigan that was a very big idea.Three years ago she made it happen, when she was named CEO at Community Financial Credit Union, a Plymouth MI headquartered institution.Ho
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 371 Lobbyist Elizabeth Eurgubian on What's Up inside the Beltway
Send us Fan MailWhew, credit unions dodged the threat of loss of their tax exemption - but don’t think all is smooth sailing for credit unions in today’s turbulent Washington DC. Lots is happening that may impact credit unions, large and small.On the show is repeat guest Elizabeth Eurgubian, a lobbyist - with the Defence Credit Union Council among her clients - who also has served as NCUA Directo
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 370 Raddon Chief Economist Bill Handel on What's Coming At You
Send us Fan MailYou might know it as the dismal science, but a conversation with Bill Handel, Chief Economist of Raddon, a Fiserv company, is anything but dismal. It in fact is an enlightening romp through the complexities and confusions of today’s global economy.In the show Handel makes a prediction about the future of interest rates - and, no, don’t expect an imminent return of 4% 30 year fixed
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 369 TrustGrid and the Secure Flow of Data
Send us Fan MailI 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.
CU 2.0 Podcast Lee Silber on "The Credit Union Way" - A Feel Good Interlude
Send us Fan MailNow 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 t
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 368 Kirk Drake on AI and LAUNCH
Send us Fan MailAI - 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 tha
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 367 First City CU Implements Ribbon's Automated Inheritance Processing Tools
Send us Fan MailIn 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
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 366 Hear a Credit Union Member Tell How Her Credit Union Makes Her Life Better
Send us Fan MailThis 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.
CU 2.0 Podcast A CU Exec Talks about Eltropy's Collections 2.0
Send us Fan MailCall 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 designe
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 365 Derek Coburn on Let's Retire Retirement
Send us Fan MailWhen 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
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 364 Wright-Patt CU and Marijuana Related Businesses, Up in Smoke 2025
Send us Fan MailYou 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 s
CU 2,0 Podcast Episode 363 Clearview FCU's Bill Snider on Strategy and Innovation
Send us Fan MailWhat 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 com
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 362 Shared Services Are The Credit Union Lifeline
Send us Fan MailCould 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
CU 2.0 Podcast Greatest Hits #28 Tungsten's Phil Davis on Smart Credit Union Renaming
Send us Fan MailWhat’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
Send us Fan MailAbout 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-s
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 360 Youth Banking'sTime Is Here: Incent and Pioneer FCU Tell Why
Send us Fan MailSuddenly 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
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 359 Casap's Shanthi Shanmugam on Automating Chargeback/Dispute Processing
Send us Fan MailTalking 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 re
CU 2.0 Podcast Episode 358 SRA Watchtower's Ed Vincent on Smarter Risk Management
Send us Fan MailRisk.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 -
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