Envisant, a leading provider of data-driven solutions for the financial industry, today announced a partnership with Harness, an impact-focused financial technology company dedicated to translating credit unions’ people-first approach into a competitive advantage. This collaboration brings together Envisant's expertise with Harness' proven member engagement strategies. The partnership aims to address a critical challenge faced by credit unions: maintaining their competitive edge in a rapidly digitalizing landscape while preserving their commitment to member relationships and their community. "Credit unions have a long-standing reputation for fostering local communities and building enduring member loyalty," said Libby Calderone, President/COO at Envisant. "However, the industry's shift towards digitalization has threatened to erode these core strengths." Harness bridges this gap by equipping credit unions with the tools and insights needed to deepen member relationships in a meaningful way. Their approach leverages data-driven insights and proven digital tools to create personalized card engagement programs that are easily scalable. “A credit union’s primary advantage is its commitment to the local community,” explains Miraj Patel, CEO/Co-Founder at Harness. “By analyzing member spend data, we can collaborate with credit unions to offer personalized card-based programming that enables members to support the small businesses and causes they care about most. This not only strengthens that community advantage but positions credit unions as a powerful competitor in the digital space.” The Envisant-Harness partnership empowers credit unions to:
This strategic alliance positions Envisant and Harness as valuable partners for credit unions seeking to navigate the digital landscape while staying true to their member-focused mission.
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Cotribute, an award-winning embeddable fintech platform helping credit unions grow deposits, loans and memberships, today announced Capitol Credit Union of Texas (Capitol CU) has selected its Consumer Account Opening to improve new member onboarding and reduce fraud. Capitol CU’s previous system was cumbersome and inefficient for members. If a member was unable to complete their application, the data would be lost, and members would need to restart the process, leading to higher abandonment rates. Cotribute’s Consumer Account Opening module resolves this inefficiency, making it easy for new members to sign up in less than five minutes. The module simplifies the entire account opening process, provides easy, instant funding options, automates Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements including sophisticated fraud detection, anti-money laundering (AML), identify verification, OFAC checks and Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) requirements. “We were seeking a solution that would extend our current digital platform’s capabilities, meet our members’ evolving digital needs and add efficiencies in the account opening process for members and staff alike,” said Pierre Cardenas, CEO of Capitol CU. “Cotribute’s modules allow us to provide a frictionless, streamlined process, while providing members with a more engaging experience. We are excited to expand to other Cotribute products to further enhance member satisfaction and deepen member engagement.” Cotribute offers a library of 50+ best-in-class account opening templates designed to reduce implementation time by enabling the credit union to quickly go-to market with new financial products. These customizable modules reduce operational costs through automation and enable seamless integrations with Capitol CU’s existing applications, including its core processor, digital banking application and loan systems. Philip Paul, CEO of Cotribute, said, “Credit unions must balance providing a seamless user experience, while ensuring compliance and preventing fraud. Cotribute is proud to partner with Capitol Credit Union to streamline and automate its account opening processes.” Financial institution executives and board members are encouraged to register now for ALM First’s 2024 Financial Forum, which will be held on September 22 – 25 at The Ritz-Carlton, Dove Mountain in Marana, AZ. This annual three-day conference is the premier event for financial professionals and board members to discover insights, formulate strategies, and gain new perspectives as they prepare for the coming year. With two separate education tracks led by a variety of industry experts and numerous networking events, the 2024 ALM First Financial Forum is a must-attend event for everyone involved in managing or monitoring the balance sheet including Executives, Senior Leadership, Treasury Staff, ALCO and Board Members. “We’re proud to provide timely opportunities for financial professionals to learn about innovative strategies, network with peers, and gain insights to inform 2025 strategic planning,” said Emily Hollis, CFA, CEO of ALM First. “Now more than ever, it’s vital that depository leaders understand emerging trends, effective tools and best practices to navigate challenges successfully.” Online registration is now open, with early-bird pricing available through August 16, 2024. ALM First’s management team, well-known for their expertise in ALM, investment portfolio strategies, loan transactions, merger advisory, secondary marketing, executive benefits, enterprise risk management, and balance sheet management, will lead educational presentations and discussions along with outside experts. The staff will also offer updates on the economy and insights into current trends affecting the industry and what a financial institution needs to be successful. Attendees may earn more than 13 CPE credits. ALM First is committed to providing unbiased advice and education, and attendees can enjoy networking opportunities without pressure from external sponsors. To register or learn more about the Financial Forum, visit www.almfirst.com/forum. Leading global AI-powered automated credit underwriting platform provider, Scienaptic AI, announced today that University of Illinois Community Credit Union has chosen to implement its AI-powered credit underwriting platform. The credit union aims to streamline its credit underwriting process by utilizing Scienaptic's fair, inclusive, and regulatory-compliant AI platform. The University of Illinois Community Credit Union has been serving members of its community for over 90 years. Today, the credit unionstands as a full-service financial institution, offering a comprehensive range of financial services to meet the diverse needs of its members. With assets exceeding $590 million and a membership base surpassing 57,000, the credit union has expanded its footprint to serve both campus and community in 12 counties across Illinois. “At University of Illinois Community Credit Union, #DoMoreGood pulses through our veins. We believe in giving second chances, in showing up consistently for our members, each other, and our community when they need us most,” said Jenna Howe, VP of Lending at University of Illinois Community Credit Union. “Embracing Scienaptic's platform isn't just about innovation; it's about amplifying our ability to understand our members better, deliver personalized loan decisions, and deliver an exceptional credit experience. Scienaptic's platform will automate and streamline our decisioning, increase credit approvals, and give our underwriters a powerful tool to increase efficiency and focus on complex loan applications.” Correspondingly, Pankaj Jain, President of Scienaptic AI, stated, “It is incredibly satisfying to play a role in a member's journey towards realizing their dreams and through our partnership with the University of Illinois Community Credit Union, we will be able to deliver on this mission by enabling automated and faster loan underwriting. Our AI-powered credit underwriting platform will help increase credit access and elevate member experience while making personalized credit decisions members need.” Ranqx announced today that Seth Brickman has been named President, Ranqx and will lead all North America operations. This is a new position for Ranqx as we expand into the US credit union space. “The excitement about the Ranqx business lending platform has been overwhelming as has the realization that credit unions have an exciting future potential building relevance with community SMBs”, said Dave Lewis, CEO and Founder of Ranqx. “The ability to add incredible talent like Seth only furthers our ability to help the credit union industry live out people helping people by better supporting digital small business lending.” Seth is well known in the credit union industry as a sought-after speaker, leader, and for growing a member lending CUSO ~600% in a short period of time with a very successful exit. He is a mentor and coach to up-and-coming fintech leaders and currently serves on the Board of NACUSO and the Filene Think Tank. “Small businesses make up almost half the workforce, half of the US commercial revenue and over 60% of net new jobs.” Said Seth Brickman. “The ability to help small businesses get access to the capital they need in a fully digital way with each credit union’s own underwriting criteria in under 5 min (as opposed to 1-2 weeks) will be a game changer for communities nationwide and bring businesses back into the credit union. Any time we can drive deposits and impact communities at the same time, we are doing good things for the industry.” Ranqx offers business lenders the world’s best fully digital, compliant loan origination, decisioning and monitoring platform. Ranqx focuses on delivering the best customer application experience possible. Ranqx supports you, the lender, as you seek to digitally transition your organization with all the speed, revenue growth and cost saving benefits that it delivers as you positively impact community prosperity. America’s banks and credit unions urged the Federal Reserve to rescind its proposal to update Regulation II (Reg II) in a comment letter submitted today. The joint letter was submitted by the Bank Policy Institute, American Bankers Association, America’s Credit Unions, Consumer Bankers Association, Independent Community Bankers of America, Electronic Payments Coalition, Mid-Size Bank Coalition of America, National Bankers Association and The Clearing House Association. The associations argue the proposal would harm consumers, banks and credit unions and would violate the law by prohibiting banks from recovering the costs they incur in providing affordable, safe debit card programs and a reasonable return on that business. The proposal would benefit large retailers like Walmart and Amazon at the expense of consumers and financial institutions of all sizes. “[T]he Associations urge the Board to withdraw its proposed rule. The proposed rule would further lower the existing deficient price cap on debit card interchange fees and thereby amplify the damage already done by Regulation II as promulgated in 2011, including by driving up costs to consumers for basic deposit accounts disproportionately harming low-income and underserved consumers) and degrading the ability of banks and credit unions (including smaller, exempt issuers) to serve their communities and to invest in payment system innovation.” Retailers pay a small transaction cost, known as an interchange fee, to the card issuer (i.e., the buyer’s bank) and the acquirer (i.e., the seller’s bank) when a consumer uses their debit card to make a purchase. The Federal Reserve’s proposal would further reduce the legal limit on the interchange fee already in place under Regulation II, thus restricting the resources available to banks to cover the costs of facilitating debit card transactions, cover fraud losses and fund innovation in the payments system, including ways to reduce costs that support all consumers, such as free checking accounts. Major problems with the proposal:
To access a copy of the letter, please click here. Eltropy, the leading AI-powered conversations platform for community financial institutions (CFIs), today announced that credit unions and community banks across North America are experiencing major reductions in delinquencies after deploying Eltropy's unified text messaging service, AI-powered chatbots, secure video banking, and voice capabilities for collections outreach. The spike in delinquencies has been driven in part by the lending industry extending larger amounts of credit to more borrowers during the pandemic years, based on historically high credit scores and low debt levels at the time. As economic conditions normalized and consumers spent down surplus savings, defaults increased – especially among the new accounts opened amid that "Pandemic Paradox" period. By allowing members to easily make payments via text and engaging them through preferred digital channels, Eltropy helps CFIs establish early connections to avoid missed payments and costly delinquencies. Its AI-driven chat and voice solutions also enable empathetic, personal outreach at scale. "Reducing delinquencies is a top priority for our community bank and credit union clients in today's economic environment," said Ashish Garg, Co-founder and CEO of Eltropy. "Our unified conversations platform makes it easy to deploy timely payment reminders, digital payment flows, AI-powered conversations, and seamless handoffs to live agents when needed. For years, this multi-channel approach has been proving highly effective for increasing on-time payments and working with members to resolve delinquent accounts." "Using Eltropy texting for our Collections and Recovery departments, we're collecting way more than ever before in our history," said Lisa Weinstein, VP of Member Relationship Product Management at Virginia Credit Union. "We immediately saw results after implementing Eltropy. By sending delinquent payment reminders via text messaging with payment links, we had a record-breaking collections year in 2021, collecting $48.3 million and recovering $9.9 million in principal from charged-off loans, and we continue to see these positive results year after year." At Canvas Credit Union, meeting members on their preferred digital channels was key. "Our members would almost never pick up our collections calls – but opened up their hearts on text," said Shawn Spratte, SVP of Loss Mitigation & Communications Center. The ability to blend digital and voice made a major difference for Alliance Credit Union's collections results, according to COO Sean Chambers. "It's like clockwork – you see the text messages go out, and the payments come in,” he said. By providing purpose-built digital communications tools, Eltropy empowers community financial institutions to reduce delinquencies through more effective member engagement throughout the collections lifecycle. Registration for EMERGE 2024, Eltropy’s annual user conference, May 14-17 in Santa Clara, Calif., is closing soon. View the agenda and secure your spot at eltropy.com/emerge-2024 to experience the future of the emerging credit union industry firsthand. NCR Atleos Corporation (NYSE: NATL) (“Atleos”), a leader in expanding self-service financial access for financial institutions, retailers and consumers, today announced that $1.3 billion-asset Palmetto Citizens Federal Credit Union has selected Atleos’ Allpoint Network to deliver more convenience and choice to their members’ banking experience.
Palmetto Citizens serves more than 83,000 members in communities across South Carolina. The credit union has an existing successful partnership with Atleos for ATMs and wanted to expand the partnership to widen access for their members. By joining Atleos’ Allpoint Network, the credit union will plug into a network of over 55,000 ATMs to provide fee-free everyday banking transactions like cash withdrawals and deposits in convenient locations where members already live and shop. “More than ever, our members want and need convenient ways to access their money,” said Robert Dozier, CEO and president of Palmetto Citizens FCU. “By expanding our partnership with Atleos, we’re cost effectively providing members with a larger, more convenient surcharge-free ATM network while expanding our geographic reach and brand. We look forward to continuing our work with Atleos to add additional enhancements, such as ITMs, so we can continue to reach our members when they need us, no matter where they are.” “Atleos is uniquely positioned to help financial institutions enhance self-service capabilities and optimize their physical footprints; we are the provider of the world’s largest independent ATM network,” explained Diego Navarrete, executive vice president, Global Sales for Atleos. “Through this deepened partnership, Palmetto Citizens FCU will be well positioned to strengthen member loyalty and meet strategic growth goals.” SRM (Strategic Resource Management, Inc.), a trusted advisory firm serving financial institutions globally, announced its partnership with Filene Research Institute to sponsor their newest Center of Excellence (CoE), “The Next Generation of Member Growth.” Through this partnership, SRM aligns itself with the most trusted name in credit union research. This initiative will yield the sixth Center of Excellence supported by Filene Research Institute at universities across the U.S. It will be driven by a combination of research fellows, executives from leading credit unions, and Filene staff, and will be operational by July of this year. The Center of Excellence will identify strategies, including internal and external practices, to attract, engage, and retain Millennials and Gen Z – the next generation of credit union members. “Filene has continually informed the credit union industry on what matters for today and tomorrow, and SRM is thrilled to enter into this partnership at such a critical time,” noted Ben Mrva, CRO of SRM. “This Center of Excellence will address the challenge of attracting a new generation of credit union members while still meeting the ever-evolving needs of the current member base. SRM will add hands-on expertise to the effort as we work daily with our clients to enhance long-term strategies and transform their digital experiences and outputs for the benefit of their members.” SRM will be highly involved in the ongoing programming presented by Filene, including various councils, events, panels, and podcasts throughout the year. Filene’s work impacts and serves more than 71 million credit union members. “We’re pleased to have SRM support our new Center of Excellence with such enthusiasm. The trust they’ve built in the credit union community over the last three decades and their ability to deliver strategic advisory services, operational efficiency, and lasting results makes them the ideal partner for this endeavor,” said Christie Kimbell, EVP at Filene. “It’s thrilling to join forces with them to set credit unions apart as a premier choice for the younger generations as they evolve in their financial lives.” Members First Credit Union (M1) is excited to announce the launch of its “Bringing Joy Home- Your Donation Matched campaign,” aimed at addressing the urgent issue of affordable and attainable housing in Midland County. In partnership with the nonprofit Affordable Housing Alliance of Midland County (AHA), this campaign aims to amplify the impact of community donations by matching them dollar-for-dollar, up to $20,000. According to recent statistics, 1 in 4 renters in Midland County struggle to afford housing, often spending over 50% of their income on rent alone. 2 This financial strain forces families to make difficult budget trade-offs, impacting their ability to meet other essential needs such as food, clothing, transportation, and healthcare. Established in 1995, the Affordable Housing Alliance is a nonprofit organization that provides rental units to low-income families at a below-market rate. By serving families that include essential workers such as teachers, daycare workers, servers, and others, the organization contributes to Midland County's mission of building inclusive, thriving communities. Unlike subsidized programs, AHA relies solely on donations and grants to achieve its mission. “We are grateful for the generous support of Members First Credit Union,” shared Mara Stewart, Executive Director at AHA. “Their commitment to our cause will provide a tremendous boost to our efforts in continuing our mission to provide safe affordable housing. Together, we can make a lasting difference in the lives of individuals within our community." As a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI), Members First is committed to furthering its mission of serving the underserved, particularly in addressing basic needs and housing challenges. At the heart of this mission is the fundamental belief that everyone deserves a safe and secure place to call home. "We are thrilled for the opportunity to partner with the Affordable Housing Alliance," said Kristen Williamson, Community Relations Leader at Members First Credit Union. “Housing is a vital backbone to the success of thriving communities, in which AHA plays a pivotal role in Midland County. As Members First seeks to create an impact in the housing efforts across our state, we can’t wait to see the results of this matching gift campaign.” Members First Credit Union's Bringing Joy Home- Your Donation Matched campaign encourages community members, local businesses, and credit union members to contribute generously to New Dawn Shelter. For every dollar donated, Members First will match the donation, effectively doubling the impact of each contribution, up to $20,000. For more information about the campaign and how to contribute please visit mfcu.net/donationmatch. |
Author: Mike LawsonMarried to a most gorgeous and wonderful wife, raising 5 kiddos (including twins!), enjoy helping others tell their stories, and love surfing SoCal waves. Keep it simple. Archives
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