Credit Union Management

To attract and retain members, credit unions across the country are increasingly offering financial services that benefit those with fur, feathers and four legs. In fact, credit unions make up a significant part of the more than 2,000 companies and associations nationwide that offer pet health insurance at a discount from Veterinary Pet Insurance (VPI) Co to their employees/members. VPI pet health insurance plans do not require policyholders to stay within a managed network or choose a veteri...

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Ceo/Executive Team Network 2010 Sponsors

Cues Next Top Credit Union Exec Judges Are Announced

The judges for the Next Top Credit Union Exec, Powered by CUES challenge have been announced: Sean Gammon, president/CEO, Members Advantage Community Credit Union; Bradley Harvey, president/CEO, Horizons North Credit Union; Kevin Lytle, VP/marketing/public relations, WesCorp Federal Credit Union; and Michael Wark, president/CEO, Valley Credit Union. Each judge is a CUES Council officer. The judging panel is just one of the ways the finalists' presentations will be judged. Audience members wil...

Cues Partners with Geezeo to Offer Pfm Tools

Cues Skybox

With all the emphasis over the past several years regarding online banking and marketing, the author wonders if perhaps credit unions have not fully realized the opportunity to leverage their unique value proposition via the Internet. Simply put, the Internet can be leveraged well beyond the mere transaction. It's time to move beyond online banking 1.0. Personal financial management (PFM) may well be redefining online banking and what members expect from their credit unions. PFM tools aggrega...

Cues.Org

Drive for Hope 2010 Raises $36,000 for Lung Cancer Research

Genisys Cu Offers Pfm for Kids

Most parents who urge their kids to save run into the same type of behavior so many adults struggle with: Kids are more likely to spend their allowance on impulse purchases instead of saving for something worthwhile. Genisys Credit Union has taken action to address this need by partnering with FamilyMint, a hands-on budgeting tool that provides parents and grandparents with an interactive resource to teach their children about financial literacy and the importance of saving. This online money...

Giving the Green Light

Serving the underbanked has emerged as a profitable and strategic opportunity to expand membership and reach underserved communities. Some credit union boards are taking a leadership role in creating new strategies to serve underbanked members and the broader community with successful results. The directors of a large, federally chartered southeastern CU with which the author's firm has worked recognized a growing underserved population in their market. Like many CUs, this board believes in t...

Greener Offices

Heartland Cu Celebrates 75th Anniversary by Giving Local

To mark its 75th anniversary in 2011, $165 million/16,000-member Heartland Credit Union has decided to live up to its name by celebrating the local communities and connections it has formed since its inception. Heartland CU's "Go Local" initiative has been developed to raise awareness of making locally-oriented decisions, critical to developing strong communities throughout southwestern Wisconsin. Through November 29, visitors to www.heartlandcu.org/Golocal can nominate their favorite local n...

Insights

Intriguing Innovations

Editor

Lowering Rates

With mortgage interest rates as low as they are, many members are wanting to refinance existing loans. People ask whether credit union should give the member the lower rate to keep the loan or will that cause too much trouble down the road. CUES members debated this recently on the CUES Net e-mail listserve. This is extremely dangerous, cautioned Michael N. Lussier, president/CEO of $500 million/38,000-member Webster First Federal Credit Union. This not only churns your own portfolio, but wor...

Mindful Mergers

For some boards and management teams, mergers and acquisitions are a familiar process. For others, it's an adventure into unknown territory where both the rewards and the risks are formidable. For all, it is a time to proceed with caution and good "due diligence." As CUs gain this experience and expertise, merging becomes a management skill and boards usually have less direct involvement. The $725 million Aloha Pacific Federal Credit Union Honolulu, recently completed two mergers and is embar...

Motivating Employees

As a manager, the author has studied about and been involved in motivating or attempting to motivate people since the time he had hair on the top of his head. He believes that people can set up the right conditions for people to motivate themselves. Employees motivate themselves more readily when the reward benefits them personally. Most employees will be less inspired by actions that benefit the credit union as a whole and more inspired if their actions benefit themselves. As long as the rew...

Pen Air Fcu Gives Members 'Share It' Option for Local Schools

Members of Pen Air Federal Credit Union have an opportunity to provide a much-needed financial boost to local schools every time they use their debit cards, thanks to a new program. Members signing up for the Share It program can select which of five participating county school systems will receive a $.01 donation with every non-PIN purchase made with a Pen Air FCU MasterCard debit card. The credit union will also give local students a chance to put their mark on the program. Students will co...

Pet Protection

Scott Waite, the CU's SVP/chief financial officer and CEO of Patelcorp Inc, Patelco CU's insurance CUSO, is among those who have purchased the pet insurance. Waite's experience as both a pet owner and pet insurance customer is enlightening. Patelco CU offers what Waite calls a buffet of pet insurance offerings through Pet First, with premiums ranging from $16.95 to $39.95 monthly. Another Northern California CU, Redwood Credit Union offers a similar range of services through ASPCA Pet Health ...

Placing a Finger...

In 1997 -- before Y2K, before the iPod, and before most people had wireless Internet -- Purdue Employees Federal Credit Union became the first CU to use biometrics when it installed remote kiosks that members could access by scanning a fingerprint. Without entering a branch, members could open accounts and conduct transactions from a remote location that, compared to a traditional ATM, was virtually fraud-proof. Roger Grant, founder of Human Element Biometrics and owner of RG2, has been pushi...

Summit Cu Commits Random Acts of Kindness

The Collaborative Strategy

On an industry-wide basis, the net interest margin can no longer be counted upon to sustain credit unions. In many credit unions, particularly small credit unions, the operating expense ratio is greater than the net interest margin. The good news is that people have the tools to sustain credit unions if they would only use them. The widespread adoption of a collaborative model can bring scale to reduce operational costs while increasing the level of operational services and generating income ...

The Custom-Fit Workplace

The Custom-Fit Workplace: Choose When, Where, and How to Work and Boost Your Bottom Line, by Joan Blades and Nanette Fondas, is reviewed.

Updating the Cu Lending Machine

The .5% loss rate was once a common industry goal, easily achieved by most credit unions for the 15 years leading up to the financial crisis. However, since the housing and debt bubble burst, credit unions have been running at charge-off ratios two to three times their historic rate. Simply put, the framework of consumer credit has been rattled hard, and credit unions are working overtime to develop new philosophies, capabilities and supporting systems to operate in a "Credit 2.0" environment...

Wellness Programs

There is no question that health and wellness are top-of-mind for many people today, and that includes employers. MetLife's 8th Annual Employee Benefits Trends Study shows that 37% of employers now offer a wellness program, up from 27% in 2005. Among larger employers -- those with 500 or more employees -- 61% now offer a wellness program, up from 46% in 2005. For credit unions, often faced with limited resources both in terms of staff time and dollars to spend, the ability to justify the crea...