20 years and 20 lessons
I am thrilled to be celebrating 20 years in business this year! When I first started my company, I had no idea the journey I would take. But in the blink of an eye, 20 [...]
News Archives
Pros and cons: Working capital loans
Working capital measures how much cash your business has on hand to cover daily operating expenses, like payroll, utility payments, supplier invoices, and more. It’s one of the major indicators of the financial health [...]
Is your AI model actionable?
It feels like everywhere you look these days, you see companies of all types leveraging advances in machine learning, natural language processing, and other forms of artificial intelligence. Through this increasingly trending technology, they provide [...]
Tax reporting proposal needs further cost-benefit study
CUNA joined several organizations Wednesday to encourage Congress to carefully assess the costs and benefits of imposing a new level of data collection to the tax reporting structure. President Joe Biden’s FY22 budget proposal [...]
NAFCU seeks CU feedback on Fed’s FedNow proposal
The Federal Reserve last week issued a proposed rule to govern funds transfers over its FedNow Service that would establish a new, comprehensive set of rules and set out legal rights and obligations of the [...]
NextGen Know-How: Beware of compare
A couple of weeks ago, I had professional business photos taken at my home. I always dread photos because I am not a natural smiler. Even when I was a kid, when I posed for [...]
‘Ask and listen’
I am a reformed banker and was doing commercial lending for a community bank in southeast Wisconsin. An old middle school friend was the financial analyst at Guardian Credit Union in Oak Creek, Wis., and [...]
4 reasons why redisclosures are essential to your CU’s operations
You could say uncertainty is the only certainty in the financial services industry. In addition to the challenges of a global pandemic, credit unions are navigating constant change – whether a rapidly evolving regulatory environment, a [...]
Recent NCUA derivatives ruling is a game-changer for many credit unions
In late May, the National Credit Union Administration board approved a final ruling on derivatives use that aims to offer some federal credit unions more flexibility to manage interest rate risk. Credit unions that are [...]
Payments are the pathway to relationship primacy
I talk to credit union CEOs almost every day. As we approach the other side of this pandemic many have accelerated their move to digital, understanding that their members’ priorities and service expectations have shifted, [...]
Ransomware returns; FinCEN innovation hours
Recently we blogged about various compliance considerations for credit unions dealing with ransomware. That blog published mere days after a major oil pipeline serving the Eastern United States was crippled by a ransomware attack, causing [...]
Bringing back the 1990s!
Remember the good old days of the 1990s? Back in the day, you could drive your Saab 900 to Bed Bath and Beyond to get some towel racks on your way to the AMC movie [...]
Three perspectives on the credit union market in 2021
As we slowly emerge from the global pandemic, credit unions (and all lenders) are evaluating their strategy, performance and member service models over the past 15 months. Many credit unions found efficiency in a more [...]
Inspire young entrepreneurs through Biz Kid$
Summertime is here. For some kids, it’s time to dust off their lemonade stand. For others, it’s a chance to make some extra cash with a summer job. It’s also an opportunity [...]
Does NCUA really need unlimited vendor authority?
On May 19, after the House Financial Services Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters prepared a draft bill for introduction a few days earlier, NCUA Chairman Harper testified at the House Financial Services Committee requesting unlimited vendor [...]