10 Coworkers You Want to Kick in the Keister
by Matt Monge There is no such thing as a perfect workplace. No. Such. Thing. Every organization’s got its own quirks and oddities. Just for kicks, here are some of the folks you’ll [...]
News Archives
The Real Interest Rate Risk To Credit Unions
by Henry Meier I’m feeling a little bit like Nostradamus this morning before Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke gives his semi-annual assessment of the U.S. economy to Congress today. Here’s what Nostradamus has [...]
NCUA: “The Empirical’s New Clothes”
by Jim Blaine Derivatives: Part III - "Just Plain Vanilla" Here's the key idea underlying the NCUA Board's proposal to permit large credit unions to trade in derivatives (NCUA Board Action Bulletin - 5/13/[...]
Accusations of Payday Lending at Credit Unions
by Keith Leggett The National Consumer Law Center (NCLC) and the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) wrote NCUA Chairman Debbie Matz asking NCUA to stop federal credit unions from making triple-digit payday loans. The letter [...]
BECU’s Howie Wu Shows How Mobile Deposit Provides a Benefits Bonanza for Small Businesses
by. Mike Lawson It's a mobile, mobile, mobile world out there and nobody's immune -- even small businesses. To get the inside scoop on how small businesses can benefit from one of today's coolest [...]
Do Prepaid Cards Spell the End of Cash?
by Konrad Christensen Did you know that March 1, 2013, marked “the end of cash” for the U.S. government? Starting that day, payments (such as Social Security, Supplemental Security Income, veterans’ benefits and retirement [...]
Pay to Play
Pay to play is an interesting phrase. I first saw it used to describe how certain elected officials in Illinois ran their administrations. If you wanted to play the political game and get lucrative government [...]
The Case for Standardized Systems Integration
If you find yourself spending a great deal of time and money managing the inefficient systems integration process required to connect applications to core processing systems, you’re not alone. Over the years, credit unions, [...]
Postage Rates May Rise, but Mailing Options for Credit Unions Have Never Been Better
In January 2013, the United States Postal Service (USPS) once again increased postage rates. Rates are expected to continue to rise due to the financial health of the USPS – at least for now. Many credit [...]
Baseball, Culture and Credit Unions
by Gene Blishen A few weeks ago a friend and I took a whirlwind tour of seven different Major League baseball games in seven different baseball parks. Our sojourn included Los Angeles, Kansas City, St. [...]
11 Ways to Crush Your Team’s Creativity
by Matt Monge We clamor for it, but don’t see much of it, or at least not as much as we’d like. And really, if we were pressed further, I don’t know [...]
Do Your Employees Own the Place?
by Mark Arnold A new Greek restaurant opened recently in our neighborhood. As a huge fan a gyros, my lovely wife and I decided to try it. We were one of their first customers on [...]
Simple Sayings
by Anthony Demangone While at NAFCU's Board of Directors and Supervisory Committee Conference, a speaker uttered one of those simple sayings that describes a solid business practice. "Hire hard. And then manage easy." It can [...]
When It Comes To Qualified Mortgages, Take A Deep Breath
by Henry Meier Last week, NAFCU released the results of a survey indicating that 88% of respondents will reduce or discontinue originating mortgage products that don’t conform to the CFPB’s definition of a [...]
NCUA: “The Empirical’s New Clothes”
Derivatives: Part II - Increasing Risks To The NCUSIF Well, according to the NCUA Board Action Bulletin dated May 16, 2013, the NCUA Board wasalmost breathless with excitement in its unanimous approval (... in this case [...]